If an engineer is going to take out an engine the first time after it has been in the shop for repairs, it is a good plan to examine the tank to see if the workmen have left it free from bagging, greasy waste, and other impediments, which are not conducive to the free action of pumps or injectors. Keeping the tank clean at all times saves no end of trouble through derangement to feeding-apparatus. The smoke-box door should be opened regularly, and the petticoat-pipe and cone examined. These things wear out by use, and it is better to have them renewed or repaired before they break down on the road. A cone dropping down through failure of the braces makes a troublesome accident on the road. I have known of several cabs being badly damaged by fire through the cone dropping down, and closing up the stack. Where engines have extended smoke-boxes, the nettings and deflectors must be inspected at frequent intervals.
REWARD OF THOROUGH INSPECTION.
To go over an engine in the manner indicated, requires perseverance and industry. The work will, however, bring its full reward to every man who practices the care and watchfulness entailed by regular and systematic inspection. It is the sure road to success. He who regards his work from a higher plane than that of mere labor well done, will experience satisfaction from the knowledge, that, understanding the nobility of his duties, he performed them with the vigor and intelligence worthy of his responsible calling.
CHAPTER IV.
GETTING READY FOR THE ROAD.
RAISING STEAM.
It used to be the universal custom, that, when an engine arrived from a trip, the fire was drawn, and the engine put into the round-house for ten or twelve hours before another run was undertaken. During this period of inaction, the boiler partly cooled down. When the engine was wanted again, a new fire was started in time to raise steam. The system of long runs, introduced on many roads, has changed this; and engines are now generally kept hot, unless they have to be cooled down for washing out, or repairs. When an engine comes in off a trip, the fire is cleaned from clinker and dead cinders, and the clean fire banked. It is found that this plan keeps the temperature of the boiler more uniform than is possible with the cooling-down practice, and that the fire-box sheets are not so liable to crack, or the tubes to become leaky.
Where it is still the habit to draw the fire at the end of each trip, a supply of good wood is kept on hand for raising steam. To raise steam from a cold boiler, some theorists recommend the starting of a fire mild enough to raise the temperature about twenty degrees an hour. The exigencies of railroad service prevent this slow method from being practicable, and the ordinary practice is to raise steam as promptly as possible when it is wanted.