CARE OF LOCOMOTIVE RODS.
When it is found that an engineer runs his engine for months on arduous train service, and has no trouble with his rods, he may safely be credited with knowing his business, and attending to it skillfully. In regard to the keeping of the machinery in working-order, the engineer’s duties are mostly of a supervisory nature. When piston-rings get blowing, when guides need closing, or when a pump gets working badly, he reports the matter; and the work is done so that the defect is remedied. With the rods it is different. Although he does not file the brasses himself, he exerts great influence, for good or evil, in the way he manipulates the keys, and by the care he takes of the rods. Injudicious keying of rods is responsible for more accidents than the mistakes in any other one direction, with, perhaps, the exception of the current mistake of the hind brakeman, who supposes there is no use in going back to flag when his train has stopped between stations.