UNDERSTANDING THE RUNNING-GEAR.
The driving-wheels, axles, boxes, frames, with the trucks and all their attachments, are somewhat dirty articles to handle. The examination of how they are put together, and how they are hanging together, is pursued under soiling circumstances. Perhaps this is the reason these things are studied less than they ought to be. To creep under a greasy locomotive to examine wheels, axles, and truck-boxes, is not a dignified proceeding by any means; but it is a very useful one. The running-gear is the fundamental part of the machine, and its whole make-up should be thoroughly understood. The builds of trucks are so multifarious that no specified directions can be given respecting accidents happening to them. There is, therefore, the greater need for an engineer’s familiarizing himself with the make-up of his running-gear, so that, when an accident happens, he will know exactly what to do. Disraeli said: “There is nothing so likely to happen as the unexpected.” This applies very aptly to railroad engineering. Industrious accumulation of knowledge respecting every part of the machine is the proper way to defy the unexpected.