HOW AN ECCENTRIC-STRAP PUNCHED A HOLE IN A FIRE-BOX.
A representative case of neglecting a plain warning happened on an Illinois road some time ago. John Thomas was pulling a freight train up a grade, when, to use his own words, “The engine began to exhaust in the funniest way you ever heard. She would get on to three legs for an engine length or so, then she would work as square and true as she ever did, but only for a few turns, when she got to limping again.” This runner knew that something was wrong, and he determined to examine the engine at the next stopping-point. But delays in such a case are full of peril. When he got over the grade, and shut off steam, there was a tumultuous rattling of the reverse-lever, succeeded by a fearful pounding about the machinery; a tearing up of road-bed sent a shower of sand and gravel over the train; then a scream from escaping steam and water drowned all other noises, and the engine was enveloped in a cloud of blinding vapor. The forward bolt of one of the eccentric-strap rods had worked out, and allowed the end of the rod to drop on the track. Then it doubled up, and tore away the whole side of the motion; and part of a broken eccentric-strap knocked a hole in the fire-box. Here was the progress towards destruction. A small pin got lost, which permitted the nut of an important bolt to unscrew itself; then this bolt, with many a warning jar and jerk, escaped from its place in the link; and the conditions for a first-class break-down had come round.