New Britain herald., 1919-01-17
BIG LOCOMOTIVES
SHIPPED OVERSEAS
rs Ton Monsters Taken Over
Ready for Immediate Use

New York, Jan. 11.-The shipment
OF American built steam LOGON olives
Weighing each rs tons and assembled
all but the smoke stack and the ten
der SO that they could move away
under their own steam within a few
hours after their arrival in France
was among the accomplishments Of
the United States Army Transport
Force under stress of war and has
since been continued.
More than four hundred of these
locomo olives were SO shipped from
New York in q few months, it was
learned here with the lifting of the
war censorship regulations, and these
were in addition to 1900 which were
shipped in sections-nine to a loco
motive packed in cases. The ships
used to transport the LOGON olives,
complete were of q special type with
three holds, each hold measuring 60
by 1O2 feet entered by matches 80
feet wide and 4 , feet long
Into each of the three holds was
placed twelve omotives-thirty-s
TO a ship. For a bed or flooring on
which they rested for the voyage,
was used more than 5000 tons of
steel rails The LOGON olives when in
position were braced with heavy
wooden beams and the space between
the boilers to the level of the top or
the steam dome packed solid with
highly com pressed baled hay.
On this hay another flooring was
laid, and on this floor was packed
the tenders-the smoke stack, with
more baled hay or other light cargo,
packed in the space where coal is to
be carried. On top Of the tenders
n eli tn no
deck level, and during the rush
days. the above deck space filed
with Grated airplanes When COM
pletely loaded with the Sc LOGON olives
and other cargo, each vessel was car
rying a dead weight of $4,000 tons in |
addition to ship machinery, bunker |
coal and crew supplies.
The loading Of the locomotives is |
an interesting sight. SteeI-railroad !
barges, carrying fourteen of the steel |
monsters are made fast alongside a |
1o0-ton capacity floating derrick ,
barge, in turn made fast to the ship. /
An ordinary sling Of steel wire is /
placed around the forward end of the !
boilers, another under the supports !
to the cab. the signal given and the !
locomotive lifted forty to fifty feet in /
the air, swung over and gently loaded |
into the ships hold. The whole oper- |
alton required but twenty minutes, !
and it was accomplished with the |
same ease and with the same lack of ,
excitement as prevailed on a steamer
at an adjoining dock which was TAX
ing on board 500-pound bales of cot
ton.
The idea of shipping locomotives
complete was conceived when army
transport officers were informed that
England was shipping them across
the channel ready to move away on
arrival.
''If England can do 1t so can Amer
lea, an officer said, and he straight
way commandment a fleet of ore car
rying vessels which were constructed
with matches large enough to permit
the handling Of such freight.
When the movement was at its
height the following time was record
ed for the movement of g, locomotive
from its builders to its base of action
behind the battle lines. Shops to New
Jersey terminals, "a hours; from rail
to barges, six hours; from terminals
to ship side, six hours; barge to ship,
20 minutes; New York to France 9
days; ship to army rail lines and
hooked to a, transport train bound for
the front, six hours: total Of less
than twelve days.
Handling of 73-ton locomotives as
if they were but one tenth of their
weight, Is only small part of the
work that has been under
way at army transport piers since the
United States Transport service at
tanned full swing.
Major Dan O'Brien, Marine Direc- |
tor. an officer who has won his rank
by more than twenty years service in
every big port of the United States,
Cuba. Mexico, the Philippines where
transport facilities Of the army were
conferred is the man who handled the
LOGON olives.