Fig. 36.—Cab End of a Locomotive and its Attachments.
Figure 37 ([p. 135]) is an illustration from a photograph taken in the erecting shops of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia; and Figure 38 ([p. 137]) is a view of a similar shop of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Altoona, which suggests at a glance many of the processes of construction which go on in these great works. At Altoona are immense travelling cranes resting on brick arches and spanning the shop from side to side. These are powerful enough to take hold of the largest locomotive and lift it bodily from the rails and transfer it laterally or longitudinally at will. A large consolidation engine is shown in Figure 38, swung clear of the rails, and in the act of being moved laterally. The hooks of the crane are attached to heavy iron beams, from which the locomotive is suspended by strong bars. Figure 39 ([p. 138]) is a view in the blacksmiths' shop of the Baldwin Works, showing a steam hammer and the operation of forging a locomotive frame.
It is quite natural that the engineers, or "runners," as they generally call themselves, who have the care of locomotives should take a deep interest in and acquire a sort of attachment for them. In the earlier days of railroading this was much more the case than it is now. Then each locomotive had an individuality of its own. It was rare that two engines were exactly alike. Nearly always there was some difference in their proportions, or one engine had some device in it which the other had not. Now, many locomotives are made exactly alike, or as nearly so as the most improved machinery will permit. There is nothing to distinguish the one from the other. Therefore Bony Smith can claim no superiority for his machine which Windy Brown has not the advantage of. In the old days, too, each engine had its own runner and fireman, and it seldom fell into the hands of anyone else, and those in charge of it took as much pride in keeping it bright as the character in "Pinafore" did "in polishing up the handle of the big front door." On many roads—particularly the larger ones—engines are not assigned to special men. The system of "first in first out" has been adopted; that is, the engines are sent out in the order in which they come in, and the men take whichever machine happens to fall to their lot. This naturally results in a loss of personal attachment to special engines.
Fig. 37.—View In Locomotive Erecting Shop.
Every change in the construction, alteration in the proportions, or addition to the attachments of locomotives is a subject of intense interest to the men and a topic of endless discussion at all times and places. The theories which are propounded, and the yarns which are spun while sitting around hot stoves in round-houses, or waiting for passing trains on side-tracks, would fill many books. Jack never tires of telling what his engine did when "she was going up Rattlesnake Grade," and Smoky Bill grows excited when he describes how Ninety-six turned her wheels in making up forty-nine minutes time in the down run with the "electric express."
Locomotive engineers and firemen read with avidity everything which is explanatory of the construction or working of locomotives, but generally have a contempt for things which have no practical bearing. They demand "lucidity" in what they read with as much vehemence as Matthew Arnold did, and some editors and college professors, whose writing and thinking are foggy, would be greatly benefited by the criticisms of the Locomotive Brotherhood.
Fig. 38.—Interior of Erecting Shop, Showing Locomotive Lifted by Travelling Crane.