The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-03-10

great steel plants. The metal goes into
the furnaces and it is poured out in
golden stream into the molds, where
the castings are formed. During the
process the materials are assayed and
tested, the steel of each part being
formed according to the work 1t has TO
do and its place in the engine. The cast
lngs are taken from Burnham to EDDY
stone, where they are forged and often
reshaped for the engine.
| l wish / could show you how they
make locomotives and other war ma
| terials at the Eddystone factory. Inside
| Its yards 60 some of our principal
| industries for the creation OF munitions
and guns for the army and navy. At
one side Of the grounds Is great lac
| tory which is making Remington
| rifles The shops were put up by the
| Baldwin Locomotive company and leased
to the makers of guns. They cover sew
| eral acres and they are turning out vast
quantities OF arms for the soldiers.
On the opposite side of the works,
nearer the river. there is plant making
shrapnel and shell which covers about
| Is acres. 1t had furnished supply OF
munitions to the allies before we entered
| the war, and it is now running at It's
! fullest capacity, making these missiles
| of death for our army.
| 1t is between these two plants Whicn
are manufacturing supplies for the army
| that the great FORCES and foundries and
erecting shops of the locomotive plant
are situated
! The FORCES and foundries ara much
| like those of other parts of the coun-
| try, but the erecting shop Is where you
see the locomotives put together. IL IS
where the parts are brought and fitted
| to shape. The cylinders are made In
one part of the works, the boilers in an
| other, and the wheels in another There
are hundreds might almost say thou
sands-of parts in a single locomotive,
and each part has to be made from
| drawings and cast and forged ana
smoothed to the right shape. After that
| it is brought to the erecting shop and
| there assembled into the engine.
| This seems an easwy process until you
realize the enormous size of a locomo-
| tive and the way in which the many
| parts have to be handled and welded
| and fitted to shape. The size OF the
| larger locomotives is enormous, and sin
gle parts weigh many tons. 1t takes the
most powerful machinery to hanole
| them, including overhead cranes so pow
| erful that one will lift up whole loco
| motive as though it were bag OF feath-
ers and move 1t back and forth through
|
| each side.
| The erecting shop is $50 feet long and
of about the same width, and about
! as high as an eight or ten-story house.
1 If you would wall a seven-acre field
OF that shape with glass and steel, and
run railroad tracks through it from one
end to the other. you might have some
| idea of the shell in which the assembling
plant is. You must FILL however, the
tracks with locomotives of various sizes
and in all stages of erection. When
passed through it yesterday there were
ITS being worked. enough locomotives,
| If put end to end to make one solid
train Of more than two miles in length.
These locomotives were in every stage
| Of construction. In some the boilers
stood upon trucks, in others on wheels.
and farther down the shop the loco
motives were completed and ready to
be backed out on the track. Every 10