PASSING SKETCHES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 53, 26 November 1907, Page 6

PASSING SKETCHES.

A NIGHT IN THE RUNNING SHED. . ENGINE,CLEANERS AT WORK. There is a smell of oily steam mingled, with sulphurous smoke. In. the dim light the hugo bulks of the engines loom large and towering', their funnels hardly distinguishable. Above them.ruiWa horizontal flue having openings in its lower surface through which the smoke of the engines (theoretic-, ally speaking), ascends. In reality the smoko lounges heavily about, there being no draught to drive it anywhere. The horizontal- Hue is. connected to vertical shafts which carry the vapours outside, when/the engine happens to-be-immediately under the opening-'mentioned. In a stationary locomotive there is 110 draught from the furnace to the funnel and the smoke finds it. just'as easy to blow out of -the furnace door as through .the boiler tubes and up the funnel. • When an engine, under steam is standing ,at a station or running down hill, the draught is maintained by means of a blower consisting of a sharp jet of steam directed up the funnel. The heavy drumming noise sometimes heard emanating from a standing engine is made'by the blower, and is. not a premonitory warning of a boiler explosion as many people assume. ' The Cleaners at Work. ' There are cleaners already at work on the engines in the shed. It is nearly ten o'clock' and other engines are due to arrive shortly. Presently one of these rolls heavily in with a soft hissing of steam, her head-light flash-' ing on the brass : work of her fellow-haulers. She is a big freight engine, and.has;just brought down tho night train. Hardly naa she come to a-standstill over-the pit, which extends between tho rails from end to end ol the shed, when a cleaner is 011 her footplate and working away at the lever which rooks her fire-bars. This is the latest American way of getting rid of the hot clinkers. ■ The lire bars are made to oscillate by means, of a rack and pinion thus shaking the clinkers out-. In the olden types of engine employed' o:f the New Zealand railways, tho clinkers are shovelled out, the'cleaner using a long--handled shovel. As showing tho improvements effected in connection with this part of a cleaner's duties, it was customary in-Eng-land for the driver to pull tho fire-bars out of their racks when lie brought his engine in so-that all the clinkers were dropped out of tho furnace. Then, while the fire-box was still registering 250 degrees Fahrenheit a junior- cleaner,, knojm as the .'bar-boy, was sent into it to clean and replace the bars and to brush the box out wk.i a steel broom. The hot copper lining.frequently'burnt the lad severely, but it was part of his work; and he was not expected to flinch, though his boots were filled With perspiration from , his enforced Turkish bath. Tho hot clinkers fall in the pit- and scatter on the ground about the wheels, making for a time a luminous ■ glow in that pirt of the shed. The remains of the fire in the box are brushed to the back' and banked. 60 as to smoulder till morning. A Curious Scene. . The cleaner flits about the big engine like a veritable will-o'-the-wisp, the peculair looking little oil-lamp secured to the peak r of his cap allowing ihis hands freedom to poke and pry into the 1 intricacies of the mechanism. • There is no light in the shed save that given by tliese lamps and possibly-this fact accounts for much, of the skylarking and larrikinism which occurs in the running sheds all over the world. Tho cleaners, are youths whose ages vary from 17 to 21 —the ago when exuberant animal spirits demand an outlet— and they are employed at work which 's dirty and dull. Tnis work is done at night when there are none to hear savo the runn-ing-shod\foreman, who, though he may lioqr all, cannot see whence the disturbance emanates. Usually each cleaner is- given an. engine to clean. If it is a small shunting engine, the work is exceedingly easy. If a large .express or. freight engine, having a tender, the cleaner must waste 110 time if he wishes to turn her out bright and beautiful when the dawn comes. There is a lot'.of difference between a clean engine and one which looks clean, and the driver will soon let the lazy cleaner know.- what. he. thinks of him. There is incentive to the cleaners to work well, for they are the men who become firemen and drivers. Though the fire-box is rarely entered now-a-days, the smoke-box at the opposite end of the ongine, where tho funnel is sot, has to be thoroughly cleaned, and to do this the cleaner gets right inside and brushes away tho collection of soot and cinders which gathers there and in the .boiler-tubes. Qnce a week the boiler has to be washed out/ This is done to clear it of sediment which is-precipitated by the evaporating of the water,/and which, if left, forms a scale, on tho inside. of the boiler plates, ovontually corroding-the -plates: if not removed." . Finishing Touches.' It seems anomalous to say that- a . railway engine is cleaner at the end of a wet day than after a fine one.. Yet.this is so, and the reason of this is that the mill keeps the diisfc\ down, while, on dry days the. draught of tljo. engine's passage sucks the dust: into the. moving parts which are conceailed • beneath the hugo body. It is to clean these, parts that tho cleaner descends into the engine pit. Here lie crawls and probes among eccentrics arid, other queer contrivances., Wheu ono hears of the cleaners organising .whistling concerts 011 c can but . surmise tjiat some cleaner at work with a .piece of oily wast<s in tho "link-motion,'"'a vital part of an engine, "found it too long and turned it into' song;'' other talented artists joining in. Towards four o'clock.'in the morning the engines are practically rid' of the dust of yesterday, and those which are on' morning duty receive attention at the hands-of .the firelighter.'There is -usually one of these men in each shod. He,, commences operations' by throwing a couple of half sleepers upon the smouldering embers. Then lie turns 011 an electric-ally-driven blower which belongs to tho slicd anil is removed when the engine has made. enough steam to start-her own steam-blower. Gradually the fire is brought up to the highest pitch and tho cleaner moves about giving his finishing touches to tho engine. Tner'o must .be sand in her sand-boxes, and her sand-pipes -must be clear. Oil-cans must be filled and lubricator seen to: The headlamp, thoroughly polished and replenished with oil, is replaced. Then she is run out to the yard toibe coaled and . watered. The water,is carried in a tank in the tender; from there it- is pumped by the injector into the boiler. The coaling is done, by labourers, and in tho case of a large eiigino tho opera-' tion takes somo time for there is an art in stacking coal in a tender, just as there is in fixing tarpaulins 011 loaded waggons. All Ready. ' A littleb efore it' is time to back down to the train, the driver and fireman appear and thoroughly inspect the vital parts of the locomotive beforo giving her steam. Then she is run out to the main lino, and backed down to tho train. How many of .the passengers who admire the powerful, graceful engine, know that a man has been working at nor all night, just to have her ready to'carry them fast and famously over tho miles of metals ? As for the cleaner, ho is asleep, dreaming, maybe, of an engine which never gets dirty. For his work, though it cannot he called hard, is dirty and dull and weari- [ some. And the hard grimness of the engines themselves gives a roughness to the cleaners' characters which finds expression in horseplay and uncouth jests. And there is also tho foul air ami the darkness. It is essentially a strong man's task.