Locomotive Engine Running and Management

by Angus Sinclair

THE ATTENTIVE EAR DETECTS DETERIORATION OF VALVES.

The deterioration of piston-packing, and the rounding of valve-seats, which produce an asthmatic exhaust, may be followed in their downward course if the engineer gets into the habit of listening to the exhaust, and marking its changes. It is very important that he should do so. The man whose ear from long practice has become sensitive to a false tone of the exhaust, needs not to make experiments, by applying steam to the engine while it stands in various positions, in order to find out where a blow comes from,—whether it is in the pistons or in the valves.