Then comes the monarch of the shop, the steam hammer. Here we witnessed the strokes of this huge machine, at which even Vulcan himself would stare. The noise of this hammer striking on the red hot bars echoed around the whole square. Mr. Daniel Gowland remarked that the first steam hammer he ever saw in South America was in the ill-fated Paraguay.
There are six blacksmiths' forges constantly at work, fed by the steam fan, and always occupied in repairing locomotives, coaches, waggons, &c.
Mr. Manier is the foreman of this shop. Before, however, we leave it, we must notice the casting or blast foundry. Whilst we were present we witnessed the workmen casting old brass into new plates, which latter arrangement realised an immense saving, and redounds to the credit of the indefatigable Emilio Castro, who perceived the great loss in selling old brass and buying new; and last, not least, we must not omit the huge punching machine, very useful in its way, but little used. It punches quarter inch to an inch, and cuts up to three quarter boiler plates.
The repairing shop is large (50 metres by 50), and capable of holding thirty locomotives; we noticed four locomotives under repair. Damaged engines are here turned out as good as new; and, indeed, Mr. John Allen, who is the moving genius of the whole mechanical department, assures us that they can make their own locomotives, so replete with every utensil are the shops; but, of course, it is cheaper to import them. Two damaged engines were landed not long ago, and were about to be sold by auction, but Mr. Allen took them in hand, and now they are in excellent working order. Owing to the great falling off of traffic on the line, there are now only eight engines daily under steam, whereas this time last year they had sixteen; but in this shop all kinds of repairs can be done. Already the shops have built several first and second-class coaches—genuine native industry.
We next pass to the coach and waggon shop, (50 by 12), capable of holding about twelve carriages. Here all the coaches are overhauled, repaired, varnished, and even the upholstery attended to, and coaches built. The only thing which as yet baffles the mechanics are the wheels, which must be imported.
And now we come to the new carpenter's shop, where the new machines sent out by Mr. Allen have been just put up.
The chief attraction is the new machine which, as it does every imaginable kind of work, is called the “General Joiner.” None of the gentlemen present could give us the exact name in Spanish for this machine, so we call it the “Nuevo Carpintero General.” A facetiously disposed writer might opine that as President Mitre has given to the Republic a new cavalry major, Governor Alsina, not to be outdone, has given his country a new “General,” the best and most potent general in the Republic; and we congratulate the Governor on the acquisition of the new “Carpintero General.”
We all stood astonished at the work it did, and have not now time to explain its varied powers; it plains, moulds, and saws planks of every size in a few moments; and beside it we noticed the new endless saw; also the jigger saw for pattern making; also the new wood turning lathe, and the large drilling machine, the largest in this country for drilling wheels.
In the yard we noticed sixty pair of extra wheels from the States, but at these depots they have an immense extra supply of everything.
And if we were to stop to detail all we saw in those wondrous workshops it would fill half-a-dozen Standards.