The Biography of a Locomotive Engine ... With eight illustrations by P. Hardy

Preface

. One evening in August many years ago — to be accurate, in the year 1856 — a rather small boy, for his age, was standing on the platform of the Salt Hill station, near Kingstown, Co. Dublin. A train was approaching bound for the Irish capital ; the engine was named Comet. The small boy put a question to the engine-driver when he had stopped the train. " How far are you goin' ? " asked Paddy, in reply. The lad was not bound for any station ; he had come down for information only. "Jump up along wid me as far as the Rock* then, and ye'll see the ingin." The boy gladly complied, and that short run on the Comet was the first experience upon a locomotive of the writer of this book. After that he had many rides with his friend upon the Comet ; and the Engineering School at old "Trinity" confirmed the taste which had come "by nature " more readily than reading or writing.

From that time to the present the study of engines, and the practice of driving them when opportunities * Local for Black Rock station. The Biography of a Locomotive. offered, have been pursued, under varying circumstances, in all weathers, in England and Ireland. In the following pages the outcome of these experiences, in narrative form, will be found — a story of engine-life founded on facts. Some of the incidents are personal, some are facts related to the writer by engine-men and other friends. None is impossible, though the surroundings are imaginary. It has been the author's aim to produce a volume giving to all who like and admire locomotives an insight into their working and use, as well as a glimpse, from the engine itself, of the daily duty of those brave, heroic men, of whose work the public knows so little, and of whose devotion comparatively few readers have sufficient appreciation.

In conclusion, the author wishes to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. Michael Reynolds, who, in past days, gave him the run of his locomotives, and afforded him much information ; and to thank- Mr. W. Adams for admission, lately, to the London and S. VV. Railway Works at Nine Elms. H. F. London, August, 189 1. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface lii

Chapter I

Introductory: The Birthplace of the Locomotive — Engines, Single and Coupled — "Polyphemus" and his Friends 9 II. In the Shed— A Run with a "Goods" — The Engine- Driver's Warning 17 III, In a Goods-Yard— The Pilot Engine — An Adventure— "Broke Away!" !D IV. A Terrible Incident— Bob Eldred's Courtship— Amos Killby's Revenge and Eldred's Determination . 35 V. The Great Engine Works — An Encounter — The Hatching of Mr. Ricketts' Little Plot 47 VI Bob Eldred on the Foot-plate— Running the Train — The Driver's Business— The Burning Bridge . . 6i Progress of Mr. Ricketts' Little Plot— A Haunted Engine— The Whims and Fancies of Locomotives — VII. News of Removal of Eldred 72 VIII. A Domestic Scene— An Unfortunate Meeting— Bob Eldred in Trouble — A Surprise . . . . 82 IX. The Plot Thickens— Bad News— Eldred's Temptation — A Terrible Ride 91 The "Phantom" of Amos Killby — The Fight on the Foot-plate— A Handsome Recognition — An III- X. Tempered "Pilot" 103 XI. Running Pilot— In a Signal Box— A Bad Lead and a Fiery "Lagging" VI The Biography of a Locomotive. PAGE

CHAPTER XII

, Mr. and Mrs. Eldred at Home— An Unexpe. rED Visitor gets a Warm Reception— A Neighbourly Gossip— Bains' Sad Case 126 XIII In the " Cutting "-Box — Amos in Evidence — The Fog— How the Plot Proceeded— " Help I " . . 13S XIV. " Polyphemus" and the Mail Train— A Dim Prospect — A Glimpse of Danger— " Pull Up I "—Fate of Amos Killby 15° XV. "Polyphemus" in a Quandary— " Ceres" on the Line— Run Over 1 160 XVI. Bob Eldred makes Two Important Discoveries — A Runaway Engine — The Chase 173 A New Departure — The Strike Suggested — Bob Eldred is Firm, and "Takes it Fighting" . . 186 XVII. XVIII. A Fearful Warning — Mrs. Eldred Does her Duty — "Polyphemus" again in Danger .... 195 XIX. Phil Bartley's "Little Game" — An Explosion — "Into the Valley of Death I " .... 205 XX. Malcontents at Work — The Breaking of the Viaduct — A Noble Rescue, and Reward of Merit 215 XXI.

"Polyphemus" Runs with the Queen — How the Queen Travels by Railway— Eldred's Luck . 224 XXII. Bains has his Revenge -The Ballast Train— A Snowstorm and a Check 234 XXIII. Out in the Cold — A Terrible Experience— Last Trip of old " Polyphemus"— Eldred in a Fix — Conclusion LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Spectre on the Line Frontispiece. The Fight on the Embankment . . . To face page 53 Crossing the Burning Bridge . . . . ,, 70 The Struggle in the Cab 107 "If You Leave Your Box You'll be Shot!" . . ,, 145 Ruim Over! 172 The Explosion in the Drivers' Cabin 212 The Wreckers Foiled ,. THE BIOGRAPHY OF a LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE LOCOMOTIVE — ENGINES, SINGLE AND COUPLED — " POLYPHEMUS " AND HIS FRIENDS. To write the Biography of a Locomotive we must first become acquainted with its birthplace, its bring ing up, its first run in " leading strings," technically termed " loose pulleys," its youthful trials, and its adventures, or services, in after years. The intelligent reader will remark the many points of analogy between our human nature and the locomotive ; and this without any strained comparisons. But, as there are various classes of locomotives, of a more or less fast mode of life, we must choose the middle-class for our illustration so as to describe the working, nominally with the same engine, of goods and passen ger trains. We can thus become acquainted, not only with the business performed by the steady-going plodding " goods " engine, but also with the more " flash)' " and gaudy express locomotive, brave in brass work, and green and gold.

The nurseries or cradles of great men are always full of interest to the biographer. So are the cradles or nurseries of the race of giants, the Cyclops, the io The Biography of a Locomotive. Titans, of the locomotive world. These nurseries are prosaically known as " shops," and the crecting shop may be — and often is — at once the hospital and the birthplace of the engine. In these erecting-shops we shall find the loco motive in every stage of development, from the frame, or embryo, to the completed machine. To reach this erecting-shed we have passed through a perilous wilderness of lines, of points, and turntables ; per vaded by wandering engines of all kinds, careering, with apparent aimlessness, on pleasure bent ; but really on active service, whistling in every variety of key to be let out or to pass in.

The cheerful " crow " for liberty, the long drawn note for a signal, the sharp acknowledgment " thank you," are all audible. We have, let us suppose, passed through this wilderness and the graveyard of the engine — the scrap-heap, and the rusted sidings yonder. We have seen the old, the infirm, the maimed, the halt, the rusted machines ; the engines without ten ders like birds without tails ; the tenders sans engines ; the ranks of wheels, the masses of rusty iron. The engines are, so to speak, dead and buried ; scrap they were, to scrap they have returned ; but the same " scrap " will be again purified by fire, and " Resur gam " might be written over the smiths' shops and furnaces ! Verily, there is a strange analogy between the human creature and the machine, the intelligent engine and its creator, if we choose to pursue the comparison.

From the almshouse of pauper engines, from the hospital of the locomotive, from the graveyard of our iron horse, let us turn to its birthplace and note its surroundings. In some cases the engines are born, or made, in the hospital, amid the injured and ailing. The Locomotive. 11 Over a deep pit is the infant Hercules, a skeleton of an engine ; but on this frame a great fabric will be reared, and we shall see the gradual growth of our locomotive, which will not be complete until all its five thousand pieces are fixed and in thorough working order. Think of it ! The computation is under the mark. An eminent engineer has stated that in the engine are 5,416 separate pieces, which must be fitted as carefully as the pieces of a watch ! What are these pieces ? in what are they included ? The boiler, with its tubes, fire-box, smoke-box, chimney, etc.

The valves, gauges, and so on. The machinery, including the eccentrics, cranks, pistons, connecting-rods, cylinders, axles, slide-bars, and expanding gear, levers, etc. The steam-pipes, furnace, and pumps ; blower, steam-brake, vacuum-brake, injector to supply the boiler with water, and many other appliances made and fitted with mathematical accuracy. These are the principal parts, the details of which would fill several pages of description. The wheels are fitted when the engine is hauled up on end by cranes, like a rearing horse in appearance. Our engine being finished so far as the machinery is concerned, she is tried in the shops, and, if found to run all right up and down, the " ugly duck ling " comes forth a very plain-looking machine, unpainted, smeared here and there with daubs of colour, a decidedly untidy young locomotive full grown, and looking even larger than she really is, and bigger than she will look when dressed in her new coats of paint.

The trial trip is then made, a run, perhaps at night when the line is clear, and the unsightly monster, bearing her head-lights, is not perceived distinctly. A rushing, tearing locomotive is sent flying along the silent iron highways at a speed of perhaps seventy miles an hour ; and if all be not right then, woe to the occupants of the foot-plate ! The trial completed, the intelligent machine is returned to the shops to receive her " lagging." This is a wooden over-garment, or casing, which is fixed by " crinolines," or iron hoops, upon the boiler, and conserves the heat. The covering is then put on, and this outer casing is painted with as many coats as there were colours in Joseph's garment ; the final two coats being those affected by the superintendent — green, chocolate, or a mixture of colours as the case may be.

When the body colour, the filling and stopping, and other little attentions have been paid her, our locomotive, painted, burnished, cleaned, and polished, is ready to begin her travels, if a tank engine. If she requires a tender helpmate it is wedded to the engine, a kind of marriage which is seldom dissolved unless one of the two thus united becomes unworthy, or the death of the machine separates them. This tender is what may be termed the " better half" of the more noble creation — the engine. The latter can run alone, certainly, without a tender, self contained, quite able to rough it on the track, and willing to do plenty of work. But the tender-less engine cannot go so far, nor so fast, as the great wedded locomotive, whose "better half " assists him with supplies, and keeps up his flagging energy to the last.

Said I not truly, that engines have a great deal of " human nature " about them ? This tender carries water and coal ; not coal only, as many spectators imagine. Some four or five tons of coal, and a couple of thousand gallons of water, Varieties of Engines. 13 are the supplies carried to feed the living machine. With this breakfast the Polypliemus, if properly attended to, will be able to pull her Majesty's mails at express speed for a very long run. But as, in the creature world, there are many varieties of people, so in the locomotive world there are many varieties of engines : " single " and "coupled," "simple" and "compound," "inside-cylin der" engines and " outside-cylinder " engines, "tank" engines, and " tender" engines. We must understand the differences before the narrative commences.

A " single " engine — such as is so generally employed on the Great Northern, North Western, and other lines for express traffic — has one large wheel between the two small ones on each side. This wheel is sometimes over eight feet in height — as in the Great Western broad-gauge engines. A " coupled " engine has two wheels connected by a long bar, or coupling-rod, on each side. This bar works on a crank axle, and gives grip to the wheels, and therefore power of haulage. So a " coupled " engine can pull a heavier load, and at better sus tained speed, than a " single " engine, under ordinary circumstances. Some locomotives have cylinders inside the frames underneath the boiler; some have cylinders outside. These distinctions are obvious. The compound engines may have two or three cylinders. Webb's compounds have three — two " high pressure " and one of " low pressure," the latter being in the front in the centre of the engine, below the smoke-box, which is under the chimney.

Now you understand the different kinds of en o"ines, and will recognise them in the shops, and on the road. You can generally know a three-cylinder compound engine by the sound of the " exhaust," or the " puffing," which is much more deliberate than the puffs of the simple engine. This is accounted for by the fact that the steam escapes up the chimney only twice in a revolution of the wheels instead of four times, as in the simple engine. If you travel on the North Western Railway you will remark this im mediately in Mr. Webb's engines. A "goods " engine is immediately recognisable by its three coupled wheels on each side. This coupling gives it increased power with a load ; but it is not fitted for very rapid travelling, as the machinery might become hot in consequence of the rapid revolutions of the small wheels.

There are " express " goods en gines, however, having wheels of somewhat greater diameter than coal-train engines, and these travel fast. A tank engine has no tender. It carries its supplies of coal in a bunker behind the foot-plate, and the water in the tanks outside the boiler, or beneath or at the back of the coals, in the hinder part. These engines do not run long journeys ; but they are handy for suburban traffic, and " get away " quickly with a load. A " light " engine is simply an engine "unattached " — without a train : the epithet has no reference to its weight. I have heard people call " tank " engines " light" engines because they are small, and "goods" engines "luggage" engines — which, like the term " luggage train," is a complete misnomer. These engines are used as passenger, goods "bank," or pilot engines.

A "pilot" may be the foremost engine of two, or a forerunner to indicate the coming of a royal or special train. A " bank " engine is a railroad " good Samaritan ; " it assists Engine Stables. 15 its weaker brethren up steep inclines — known as "banks" by engine-men — and is always ready on emer gencies to take an injured friend's place without reward or thanks. In this particular we may note a difference from the general practice of humanity. When the locomotive is prepared for business it is in the " running shed " that its driver finds it. Travellers to Victoria (London) on the Brighton Railway have seen and noticed the round engine stables with a number of funnels near Battersea Park. Each engine, when it returns home, is coaled up for next day,* and placed in its proper position within the shed, its chimney under a funnel and standing over a pit from which the interior " motion " (the machinery which moves the engine) may be duly cleaned and examined.

The cleaning is performed by a gang of lads, and entails considerable hard work. The writer has had conversation with young firemen who have emerged from this stage, and has learnt some of the hardships of their lives. They are liable to many accidents in the shed while cleaning. The cold and wet and the terrible draughts in winter affect them seriously. The work is hard, and generally performed during the night. To their efforts the brilliant, natty appear ance of the locomotive is due — not to the driver or his fireman. f The engine, we will imagine, is in its shed. Its name is Polypliemus, let us say — but the gender is always feminine. Be the title never so masculine, the engine is " she ! " Hercules himself, Cyclops, * The coaling-time differs on different lines, but is best done before the engine is cleaned. tThis is the proper term — not "stoker."

A "stoker" fills a similar berth on board a steamship. Vulcan, Pegasus, Firebrand, Juno, or Gladstone, arc all " she's." God or Goddess, Statesman or Queen, Prince or Princess — all are classed under the same gender in the grammar of the foot-plate. Now Polyphemus is awaiting us, and his driver and fireman. We will write " his " or their adventures ; and many a novelist has had a more unworthy hero. What is he like, then ? Look and sec ! Polyphemus is a handsome locomotive, and stands on two driving wheels of six feet six inches diameter, with bogie truck and trailing wheels. The cylinders are seventeen and a half inches, with a stroke of twenty-six inches. Its cost was close upon .£2,600. It can carry some three thousand gallons of water, and nearly five tons of coal. When loaded, it weighs little short of seventy tons, tender included ; and it can pull eighteen loaded coaches, at a very high speed, for a hundred miles without coaling or taking in water.

To use such an engine on " goods " work is not usual, but we will try it on such a " run," so that the manners and customs of the locomotive may be seen, and fully appreciated. Polyphemus is fitted with a bogie truck whose wheels — the front pair — are on a non-rigid axle, like that of an ordinary road-carriage. This arrangement facilitates the movements of the machine round curves, as the non-rigid wheels adapt themselves more readily to the turnings and windings, or irregularities, of the metals, and obviate the friction which rigid wheel bases necessarily occasion. It need scarcely be insisted on that the brakes are of the proper automatic pattern, and that a steam brake is added. The tender is also fitted with the usual hand-brake — a very useful appendage — and, in fact our Polyphemus is a fair specimen of a modern The Running- Sheds. 17 locomotive.

Different builders have different ideas, and it would be impossible, in such a volume as this, to give all the various types of engine. We have strained our position in running Polyphemus with a "goods" train, but he (or she) will do so for the greater simplicity of narrative. Now, reader, we will go together to the sheds and take notes for our Biography of Polyphemus, riding in imagination with his trusty friends, driver Eldred and fireman Ames. Let us peep into the shed first. . . .

Chapter II. In The

SUED— A RUN WITH A "GOODS" — THE ENGINE-DRIVER'S WARNING. " FIRE ! Look alive there ! Fire, Fire ! " It is five o'clock on a fine, albeit rather chilly, summer morning. The engines are in their stalls in proper train order. The " roster " is attended to, and the first required will be ready first, and so on in proper succession. Every engine has its appointed men ; they know their engines, and we may almost say the engines know them. All is quiet in the shed. Suddenly someone who knows the time when the engines must be ready — for there is a " lighting list," or record for duty — shouts " Fire ! " No one is alarmed. Those in the shed, the fitters and cleaners, know that the shout comes from the man who is responsible for getting up steam in the engines, Polyphemus included. This man is the fire-lighter.

B The engine is clean. Polyphemus, since his arrival on duty from his first run, has been coaled while dirty ; and then, rather splashed, and perhaps heated, has teen "run in" to the shed where the sitter has examined him, and perhaps his driver has also inspected him. This was Polyphemus's first run, and he may feel a little nervous and warm ! So the cleaners deal tenderly with him, and the fitters look him over carefully for his " grooming." " Fire ! Come on there ! " There is always a fire burning there — all day and all night — a fine fire. So, at the call of the " lighter " the cleaners appear, and put a certain quantity of live coals into the furnace of Polyphemus ; and as he has had a good drink of water in his boiler, which has been washed out, he soon begins to steam pleasantly, and to smoke peacefully.

The smoke rises up into the still morning air through the funnel in the roof of the shed, and the daily work of our hero is about to commence. But he still stands quietly, motionless in his stall, waiting for the touch of the master-hand. He has to wait some little time longer, however. Train time is not yet come ; an hour has to elapse before the driver will appear, and our " hero " smokes away, the vapour from his morning pipe curling round the chimney. While Polyphemus is thus waiting patiently he is by no means unattended to. He is not left entirely to himself; a responsible person keeps him in view, and watches his behaviour. This is necessary for several reasons. The steam must be kept at proper height, and engines have at times run away by themselves, in consequence of some neglect, and then serious accidents have happened.

But in his full-grown youth Polyphemus is very steady, and waits patiently for bis fireman and driver. A Mystery. 19 They appear in due time, the fireman first. He examines his steed, and finds it in proper order. The driver arrives later. " All right, mate ? " he asks. " Fine mornin'. "All right ! " replies the fireman, who is sweeping up the foot-plate — for he knows his driver is particular as to coal-dust, and a few bushels have just been added to Polyphemus's furnace. " Seen anything of that party, mate ? " asks the driver as he goes, oil-feed in hand, around the engine. " No," replies his mate. " I don't think he is any one, Bob. No one at all ! " " D'ye mean that I'm not to believe my own senses, mate ? Why I saw him plain as I see you. He came across the track by the lattice-bridge, and he held up his hand for me to stop."

" Yes, and we pulled up," replies Ames, who is oiling the tender-brake and couplings. " It's a mighty queer job." The engine-driver makes no reply. He wipes the nozzle of the oil-can with a piece of waste in his left hand, and proceeds to touch the cranks and fill the siphons. The incident to which he referred was rather alarming. He and his mate had been running a night trip with "goods" to the same place whither they are this morning bound, and when approaching a certain lattice-bridge, over a small stream on the main line, a man had suddenly leaped out, and waved his hand — a hand without a lamp, but the hand was apparently crimson. The "goods" was quickly pulled up. Driver Eldred got down and advanced to inter view the man who had thus stopped his train. But to his astonishment no one was there!

B2 Annoyed at the trick which had been played, Eldred returned to the engine, put on steam, and on arriving at the next station reported the matter to the agent. The signalmen on each side were ordered to keep a bright look-out, and the matter dropped. But on the next occasion — this was in the evening on the up journey — the same figure appeared, and again caused the driver to pull up. This pause nearly caused an accident, and did delay the express. So Eldred was " carpeted " and reprimanded for not keeping time, and for " getting in front " of the fast train. Of course his explanation was received with incredulity, and a caution was administered. Matters were in this condition when Bob Eldred went on passenger traffic, and had no more stops. He has now obtained the new engine, and is about to try her with a fast goods — to run her home with a "pick-up," and then to go off on his passenger trains again.

This is the situation on the morning of our introduction to Polyphemus. Eldred is a cautious man ; so before he " signs on " he inspects and studies the Notice Board. On this board the visitor will find recorded some very import ant items of information — the alterations to the line or signals, repairs, special trains, and "tidal " traffic for the system, and those items of information which refer to his own line. The driver must note them, else he may run over a line under repair, or kill platelayers, or wreck his train ! These instructions mastered, and the train to which he is to be attached ascertained, he mounts his engine, and touches the whistle. The fireman, who is underneath the Polypliemns, scrambles out immediately ; when he has gained the foot-plate, Polyphemus is moved, and with a few gentle puffs makes his way from the shed along the line to '"Polyphemus" Starts. 21 the place where his train, already made up by small engines, awaits him.

Such a fine engine as our hero will not condescend to such shunting work ! He is above soiling his aristocratic machinery and wheels in commonplace work ! No ; he will pull the trucks as bidden, for obedience is the first duty of a locomotive, as it is stated by the first clause of the Mutiny Act to be that of a soldier ; but Polyphemus is not intended for such common business. He is " above trade ! " Eldred studies his way-book while his fireman couples up the train, and as soon as he has mastered the " stops" and shunting-places, he whistles joyfully : a kind of crow for liberty, which is understood to mean " Let me out." The signalman understands this appeal ; the levers are pulled, the signals drop. Polyphemus whistles a sharp acknowledgment, and, urged gently by his driver, pulls at the trucks.

Polyphemus is a little impatient, and tugs rather hard. Bang ! bang ! go the unwilling waggons, roughly disturbed from their repose in the comfortable siding. They hang back unwillingly, but he will not be denied ; he insists, and then, finding all resistance useless, the trucks and waggons start after him obediently in a kind of follow-my-leader. Polyphemus knows his way about, too. He picks his way amidst the intervening lines, and through the points and switches. If he were of a poetical turn of mind the " monster Polypheme " would break out into poetry in Tennysonian metre, and describe, like the " Brook," how— "With many a curve our flanges fret, By many a field and fallow, And many a switch by pointsmen set, And greased with oil and tallow ! " The lines seem to kiss each other as the engine brings us on our journey.

They run together quickly, as if anxious to meet ; but, like coy lovers, they dart asunder at the first touch, as if alarmed at their own temerity ! Then, alas ! like some lovers, they remain parted, and go their different ways, never more to meet ! But Polyphemus and his masters are not senti mental. They glide about, and in and out, crunching and puffing, the unwilling trucks squealing and pro testing behind them, and u rithing in a long sinuous tail over the lines until the last brake is clear of the yard, and our hero is fairly out on the main line with his load. Now Polyphemus begins to try his paces. Puffing sonorously, yet with a leisurely beat, he goes on ; the driver and fireman silent ; their eyes and ears intent on every spot, and attentive to every sound ; gazing through the glasses of the weather-board ; looking .ihead, as hedges fly past and telegraph posts race after each other ; furrows radiate across fields, and banks rise, run alongside, and then fall off in despair of beating our Polyphemus, who goes puffing steadily along, the steam expanded, and the regulator nearly fully open, behaving " like an angel," as Eldred re marks to his mate, a good hand with him.

" I can't understand that fellow, mate," he says after a while ; " and the gaffer wouldn't believe me about the red hand." " And the public wouldn't," replies the fireman, as he handles the shovel. " The public ! " echoes Eldred. " What does the public know or care about the engine-men, or how they get on ! The public ! Why, people often hear, I daresay, a little touch of the whistle when two trains are Eldred Speaks Up. 23 passing, just a note, and never know that that note means a touch of sympathy — a friendly nod, as it were, from two drivers or firemen to each other ! Then Bill, when he gets home, can tell Tom's missus how he passed him safe and well in the cutting with the down mail. But do the public care? Not they! You see there's a deal of human nature amongst engine-men ; and I'm afraid the general public don't much understand or appreciate us !