How Railway Engines Pick up Water.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXII, Issue 7024, 12 November 1906, Page 1

How Railway Engines Pick up Water.

Locomotive working Past passer ger trains ' consume from 25 to 50 gallons of w«ter every mile they run, the quautity varying with the weight of the train, tie state of the weather, and other eoiditions. Hence a train used to be frequent y stopped at a station tor rhe engine to quench its thirst at a water column when, from a traffia point of view, tush a stop wss unneces ary. But since the incroduotion of water troughs on the great railways, engines can pick up from one to two thousand gallons of water m about fifteen seconds wh-n runuing at t'uil speed. To accomplish this open troughs about a quarter ot a mile long ore laid between the rails, and the tender of each engine fitted with a hinged scoop, which can be lowered so that its nose dips under and skims the surface of the waer m the trough as the train travels over if, the spoed forcing the water to run up the inclined scoop into the tank of the tender. To pick up the water is a Bimplu operation, but, even to the enu;inemen, it is an exciting incident on the journey. As the train rushes along both driver and fireman are on the alert to locate the position of the troughs. This is an easy matter m daylight, but m the daifc i it is more difficult; they have then to be guided by some land mark, such as an ovei bridge, or by sound as wh^n the train i rumbles ovfr an iron' bridge. While the ddver, with his hand on the regulator, looks out ahead, thb fireman watuhs for the trough, and the instant that the tender is over it he, with a quick turn of the handle of a screw, lowers tbo scoop and notes the rapid rise of the waier m the tender «s I indicated by a guage. He must be prompt m reversing the screw just before the tender is full, otherwise the water will spout | out m great volume through the oveiflow ! pipes and floed the train, A little practice, bowever, overcomes this difficulty, and a skilful fireman caa juige to a nicety when his tank is full.—Pearson's Magazinp.