APRIL, 1913. AMERICAN, ENGINEER. 169
AMERICAN
ENGINEER
THE RAILWAY MECHANICAL MONTHLY"
(Including the Railway Age Gazette Shop Edition.") Pret:sen ON THE FIRST THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH, BY THE SIMMONS-BOARDMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, WOOLWORTH BLDG., NEW YORK, N. Y. CLEVELAND; Citizen's Bldg. LONDON: meen Anne's Chamaliers, Westminster. CICAGO: Transportation Bids. ETOWARD A. Sons, President 1. 1. SHERMAN, Iice-President. HENRY Lar, Secretary. A. E. ilooves, Busness Manager. The address of the company is the address of the officers. Rox, WRIGHT, Editor. . E, THAYER. Ausnciale Leiter. A. Loucos, Associate Editor. GEORGE L. FOWLER, Issociate Editor. 1. A. AVEXILE, Meneging Editor, Subscriptions, including the eight daily editions of the Railway Ass Gascite published in June in connection with the annual conventions of the Master Cas Builders and American Raliway Master Mechanics' asso. ciations, payable in advance and postage free: United States, Canada and Mexica.. Foreign Countries (excepting daily editions).... Single Copy $2.00 a year 3.00 a year 20 cents Entered at the l'ost Office at New York. N. Y, as mail matter of the secomil class. WE GUARANTEE, that of this issue 5,750 copies were printed; Last að those 5,750 cuples, 3,250 were mailed to regular paid subscribers and 125 were provided for counter and news companies' sales; that the total copies printed this year to date were 20, 176-an Average of 5.044 a month, VOLUME 87. EMTORIALS: APRIL 1913. CONTENTS Supplies that Cost Nothing?. Improving Valve Gears... Work of the Firemen.. Car Department Competition. Decreasing Shop Operating Costa. Locomotive Connecting Rods... Another Locomotive Testing an. New Books COMMUNICATIONS: NUMBER 4 169 169 1692 170 170 1500 171 172 172 173 175 181 182 Handling Sand or Locomotives. Turning Driving Wheel Tires... Exhibits Open in the Evening. 173 Moving Pictures in Railway Educational Work. 174 GENERAL: Locomotive Connecting Ruds... Chrome-Vanadium Steel Wheels.. Transmission of Electric lower.... Superior European Roundhunse Facilities. 185 Effect of Figments on the Constatus of Linseed Oil. 139 Standardization of the Myriawat Baltic Type Locomotive 190 150 SHOP PRACTICE: Sith Shop Tools Pneumatic Hammer for Ruiler Saups. Turning Four Bar Crosshead Waist Pins. Shop limprovements at Barnside, Ill.. A Link Grinding Machine.. Repairing Locomotive Driving Boxes. CAR DEPARTMENT: Car Department Nates.... Removing Flat Spots from Car Wacels... Fisty Ton Low Side Gondola.. 191 191 192 193 198 199 Supplies That Cost Nothing? "We are not interested in fuel economy; you know our coal does not cost anything. The company owns the mines," How well this statement, recently made by a railroad ollieer, represents the state of mind that exists with many officers and a large number of employees in regard to the va.ne of railway supplies. The machinist thinks, "It makes no dis- ference i ruin this reamer or milling cutter, they are made here in the tool room and do not cost the road anything. The car repair man says, "Why should I bother to pick up those good lalts, our bols department turns out thousands of them every day." The fireman cares nothing about overloading the tender and putting a half ton of coai on the ground; the coal chute men are there anyway and it will not cost anything to the railroad for picking it up. And so it goes on. A coal shovel, a pint of valve a, a monkey wrench or a jack are valuable and must be taken care of, but a steel bar pounding an asa pan unti it leaks, or the burning up of a long 1% in. drill is of ne importance, as they are made at the shops and do not cast anything (?). Improving Valve Ciears In an attempt to correct an undoubted, but generally believed to be a minor fault of the ordinary types of locomotive valve gears, which results from the change in the relative positions of the main driving axle and the cylinders, a designer on the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis has very mate- rially increased a much more serious difficulty by practically doubling the weight of the gear. This design is illustrated and described in this issue, and it will be seen that in the effort to obtain a rigidly supported source of motion for an ordinary Walschaert gear, a number of very heavy parts have been added. The advisability of attempting any great refinement in the steam distribution of a locomotive is doubtful, especially where the ordinary reverse lever is employed. The conditions of opera- tion are so constantly varying that in order to obtain the heneti of a thoroughly accurate valve gear giving an ideal steam dis- tribution, it is necessary to make frequent small adjustments in the location of the point of cut-off. The full advantage of a refinement of this kind is entirely impossible with a reverse lever, and it is doubtful if it would actually be made even with a screw reverse gear. The experience of valve gear manufac- turers and designers of locomotives has always led to the same conclusion, ie, extreme accuracy in valve events or in steam distribution is not possible or even advisable. The successful valve gears have been those which presented a simplicity of arrangement, a low cost of maintenance and case of inspection. On the other hand, a reduction in the weight of a valve gear is of decided importance. It is quite probable that when the design throughout is refined as it will be in the future, and advantage is taken of the high quality materials that are avail- able, even the present valve gears will seem large and cumber- samme. Any effort toward increasing the weight of the valve gear without an undoubted corresponding advantage is a move in the wrong direction. 203 204 205 Work 207 211 212 of the Firemen Growing Cost of Freight Car Repairs. Steel Flerframe Car for the Reading. lumination of Postal Carx.. NEW DEVICES: Locomotive Valve Gear Drive: from the Crosshead. 215 Rumsey Freight Car Door.. Heavy Milling Machine. Postal Car Lighting Fixtures, Removing Sesse from Arch Tubes. Nun-Kinking Air and Steam Hose.. Prest--Welder ... Steel Rece Car Ladder... NEWS DEPARTMENT: Nutes Meetings and Conventions. T'ersonals New Shops... Supply Trade Notes At one of the sessions of the Arbitration Board which is hearing arguments in con- nection with the demand of the locomotive firemen for increased wages, D. F. Craw- ford, general superintendent of motive power of the Pennsyl- 216 vania Lines West. presented some interesting statistics based on actual observation of the amount of time spent by a fireman in manual labor. These observations covered a large number of 220 trips, including both stoker and non-stoker locomotives runing on various divisions of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The average for non-stoker locomotives weighing over 200,000 lbs. shows that the freman is actually engaged in supplying coal to the firebox about 15 per cent. of the total time of the trip. He is shaking the grates, hooking the Ere or shoveling down coal about 5 per 213 218 219 219 220 228 221 222 324 234
