NECESSITY FOR KEEPING BOXES AND WEDGES CLEAN.
The growing practice of close and stated inspection of locomotives to detect defects, before waiting for them to develop into breakages that cause trouble and delay to trains, will give especially good results if applied to boxes and wedges. If the wedges are taken down and examined at regular intervals, the ridges that appear so readily on the face, when oil-grooves are cut on the sides of the driving-box, can be smoothed off before they cause distortion of the surface. This is also a good time for a thorough cleaning of the pedestals and box, and the oil-holes can be examined and opened out properly. Work of this kind often prevents boxes getting hot on the road, with all the entailed delay and expense, which frequently include changing engines if the train must be pushed on. One turn of a hot box will often wear a brass more than the daily running for two years.