Locomotive Engine Running and Management

by Angus Sinclair

GOOD MANAGEMENT MAKES ENGINES STEAM.

No engine steams so freely but that it will get short under mismanagement. The locomotive is designed to generate steam from water kept at a nearly uniform temperature. If an engine is pulling a train which requires the evaporation of 1,500 gallons of water each hour, there will be 25 gallons pumped into the boiler every minute. When this goes on regularly, all goes well; but if the runner shuts the feed for five minutes, and then opens it to allow 50 gallons a minute to pass through the pump, the best engine going will show signs of distress. Where this fluctuating style of feeding is indulged in,—and many careless runners are habitually guilty of such practices,—no locomotive can retain the reputation of doing its work economically.