Report of Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association Volume 34 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901 edition. Excerpt: ...the first trouble with the engine was the excessive compression. On cutting out the inside of the valve to three-sixteenths of an inch clearance that excessive compression was obliterated and we had no further trouble with a saving of steam. There is one other thing that occurs to me in this matter and that is in connection with the reduction of the quantity of solid fuel thrown out of the stack. Most of us have to use run-of-mine coal which is frequently very fine and the excessive draft carries these pieces of coal out of the stack. On the Atlantic Coast Line where I was for some years, the practice was started of wetting down this fine coal before it was put on the engine and a very marked economy was found in that practice just by preventing that waste through the stack. Mr. Miller: Mr. President, before this matter is closed I would like to say, in regard to the fuel consumption, that while I agree with Mr. Rhodes I think the comparison between the car oiler and the locomotive fireman is not entirely correct. They are in many respects different. That is, it is a much harder problem to educate a hundred firemen away from the terminals out on the road to work properly than it would be to educate ten car oilers where you can have them practically under your eye. I remember one of the first things when Mr. Miller, who has been referred to, offered to furnish us with car oil for a certain sum, not coming up to what we had been using, that one of the first things that he did was to introduce into the use of that work a packing or waste that cost 12 cents a pound where we had been 0formerly using waste costing y/2 cents a pound. Now if the same method was used in fuel there is no question but what there would be in many cases a large saving and I...