It would ensure a careful inspection, if, before any train starts, the Engine-man were required to deliver to the Superintendent of the Station a certificate that he has examined his Engine, and finds it in good working order.
Several articles should be constantly carried on the Tender, as either being frequently required in the working of the Engine, or occasionally in cases of derangement or accident. The following may be taken as a list:
One large can of oil, and one or two small oiling-cans and an oiling-tube, a box of Russian tallow, a quantity of cotton waste, hemp, and gasken, a hand-brush, keys fitted to all the principal
bolts, one large and one small monkey-wrench, rods for clearing the tubes and fire, an arrow-headed poker, a shovel, and a rake.
A number of iron or wooden plugs, an iron plug-holder, and a 7 lb. maul, two cold chisels, a hammer and a file, spare washers, and duplicates of the principal bolts, nuts, pins, cotters, &c., a quantity of thick and thin cord, and some tarred line, a fire-bucket, two long crow-bars, a spare coupling-chain, with shackle and hook complete, several wooden wedges, about 2 feet long, 4 or 5 inches wide and 3 inches thick, and, if running long journeys, two spare ball-clacks, and a screw-jack.
THE MANAGEMENT OF A LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE ON THE ROAD.
In the management of a Locomotive Engine, many unforeseen circumstances
may occur, requiring the use of that discretion which experience alone can confer, and which it would be almost impossible to comprise in the particular instructions contained in the following pages, which, however, the writer believes to contain all the leading principles of Engine-driving.
On receiving the signal to start, the Engine-man should only slightly open the regulator, and let the train run for several yards, before he opens it, by slow degrees, to the full extent. The object of thus giving a slight aperture to the regulator in starting, is to avoid any jerk to the carriages, by which passengers might be annoyed, or even the coupling-irons broken; to prevent the slipping of the driving-wheels, from their adhesion being unequal to the inertia of the train, when the full power of the Engine is suddenly used; and because fully opening the regulator
at starting generally causes the Engine to prime considerably, from the quantity of water condensed in the cylinders and steam-passages while the Engine was standing. When priming occurs at starting, the discharge-cocks of the cylinders should be opened to remove the water. On leaving the station, and frequently on the road, the Engine-man should watch the train behind him, to see that it is all right and its motion regular.