Handbook of Railroad Construction; For the use of American engineers. / Containing the necessary rules, tables, and formulæ for the location, construction, equipment, and management of railroads, as built in the United States.

by George L. Vose

The following five blanks being filled, we have all that is required:—

Number 1 is the engineer’s weekly return to the master of machinery, and gives, as seen, the times of arriving at, and departing from, each station. The fuel should always be ready at each station for delivery, in cords and half cords, or in tons and fractions, when coal or coke. It may be delivered either from a small car placed on a pair of rails at right angles to the track, or from a box hung upon a crane, which may be at once swung over and lowered into the tender; the box which is already in, being first removed. The latter method gives the most correct results, as whatever fuel is left at the station may be credited to the engine. The whole operation of wooding would not take longer than it does to describe it, and would lead to a systematic and economical method of working.

The tanks and pumps being charged to construction, we may, without material error, charge the cost of the water supply to the trains according to their mileage.

Number 2 is the wood register, showing the amount of fuel delivered to the several engines from the different stations, and should be weekly signed and returned by the station wood master to the fuel agent. The engineer’s fuel receipts (No. 1) check these reports.

Number 3 is the conductor’s mileage account, giving the exact weight left at, and taken from, each station; and, consequently, the load carried between stations, which is checked by the station master’s return.

Number 4 is the monthly account of the performance of engines, compiled from the weekly return by the superintendent of machinery, and reported to the superintendent.

Number 5 gives the annual performance of each and all of the engines upon the road, and is obtained from the monthly reports, and from those of the repair and transportation departments.

The work done by different classes of cars should be registered in like manner.

Knowing the amount of material used, and also the work done, it is easy to find the cost per mile of moving any article of transport, regard of course being had to the character of the parts of the road traversed by the several engines. An engine working a sixty feet grade should be allowed more fuel than one which works a level only.

Number 1.