There are three types of this style locomotive built, the Climax geared locomotive, built by the Climax Mfg. Co., Corry, Pa., Heisler geared locomotive, built by the Stearns Mfg. Co., Erie, Pa., and the Shay geared locomotive, built by The Lima Locomotive & Machine Company, of Lima, Ohio. The most notable of these three, and the style which has been exciting most comment among the mechanical men of the various large railway systems of the United States, Canada and Mexico, is that of the "Shay Geared." The geared locomotive is designed to meet the requirements of roads containing heavy grades and sharp curves, where the ordinary type of direct locomotive would be impracticable to operate, and it is noted for the seemingly unreasonable heavy loads it can draw over such grades and around sharp curves. The method of conveying the power from the cylinders through gears to the driving wheels, enables the geared locomotive to maintain a very slow speed, yet still keep moving and dragging its load, while the direct locomotive would exhaust all its energy in keeping up the momentum of itself, let alone drawing a load. The geared locomotive has shown by severe tests given it by such roads as the Canadian Pacific, El Paso Rock Island Route, and others, its great adaptability for such class of work, and it is working in all parts of the globe.

The birth of the Shay locomotive dates back to the year 1880, and was invented by a logger in Michigan by the name of D.

Shay, from which it derives its name, and was originally designed to meet requirements of lumbermen, where tracks must be laid to where the timber is, not admitting a selection of suitable grades, curves, etc., which is usually admissible in roads of ordinary construction. It was gotten up in a crude manner at first, and when comparing it then with the great improved locomotive which is now being turned out by The Lima Locomotive & Machine Company, it would be like making a comparison of one of our modern direct connected locomotives with the ones built way back in the early history of the locomotive.

As the years pass by the consumption of timber becomes greater, and while there is considerable available timber lands yet left uncleared, they are situated in the most undesirable sections of the country. The lumbermen have followed out the old saying "Take the best first and you will always have the best," therefore the timber lands which are left are the most difficult to cut the timber from and get to market. Perhaps in no branch of the lumber business has more rapid strides been made in the past few years, than the methods of hauling logs, and the first thing which presents itself to the lumberman when starting in to cut a body of timber, is what grades can be obtained for his railroad on which to carry his timber to the mill, and the cheapest and best method to do it. While it is a well known fact that the best results from railroading are obtained from low grades, yet the operation of the logging railroad is not generally permanent and the fair-minded and successful logger does not desire to put any more money into his railroad than absolutely necessary. He generally lays a

cheap constructed spur into one part of the timber from a main line leading to his mill which is better constructed, cuts the timber from this portion and then removes the track to some other part of his timber and so on until it is all cut. Some loggers use the hoisting engines with cables to do their logging, others use large direct and saddle tank locomotives, but the most progressive loggers in this country are using the general locomotive.

In the mining districts, the question has confronted the operators as to the cheapest method of getting their ore, coal, etc., transported to where same can be marketed. The Canadian Pacific Railway was confronted by this very same

easy one to solve. The fact that the mines were situated at the top of the hill, it can plainly be understood that the problem was not to get the ore cars, loaded, down the grade, but to bring the empty cars back from the smelter and haul the necessary freight and coal required to keep a thriving little town of 7,000 inhabitants, with at least a half dozen of active mines using large quantities of coal and machinery. The company was operating on this branch of road locomotives of standard consolidation type, weighing about 110 tons each built at the company's own workshops in Montreal. This class of engine is admirably adapted for the ordinary grades

question when they were figuring on handling shipments of ore from their mining camp at Rossland, B. C., which grew with each passing month. The company had built what is known as the Rossland Branch, and one section of this from Smelter Junction where the Canadian Smelting Works Company located their big plant, to Rossland where the mines are situated, a distance of eleven miles by rail, the climb aggregating over 1,000 feet. The location of the roadbed, however, enabled the grades to be kept down to 4 per cent. and 4.2 per cent., yet it can be readily seen that the problem before the operating department to furnish motive power to successfully and cheaply handle these ore shipments was not an

encountered in the mountain divisions, but they were costly and ineffectual on such grades as were to be overcome on the Rossland and Smelter Junction run. The geared locomotive was proposed to the company and after considerable consideration they placed an order with The Lima Locomotive & Machine Company for one 100-ton engine. This engine was delivered and placed to work and it was found that it would do about two and one-half times as much as the consolidation locomotives, and do the work with perfect safety, without any danger whatever of stalling on the grades, as was so often the case with the consolidation. So well pleased was the railroad company's mechanical department, that a duplicate of

this engine was ordered and delivered some time ago, and the writer understands that the company is now considering the purchase of a 150-ton geared locomotive to be used as a "pusher" on mountain division of its main line.

The Shay general locomotive is also found working on the "Crookedest Railroad in the World," The Mill Valley & Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway running from San Francisco to Mill Valley, Cal., a distance of eight and one-fifth miles. The longest straight piece of track found on this road is but 413 feet, and the roadbed is cut in the solid rock of the mountain side at some points. This mountainclimbing railway is not a "cog road" and has no steep incline, as the grade is gradual, the average being five feet to the hundred, and the maximum, seven, but as an ascent of 2,500 feet must be made the road takes a tortuous course, winding in and out the numerous canons, making 277 curves in the distance of eight and one-fifth miles.

You will probably be surprised, when we state that the "Heaviest Locomotive on Drivers in the World" is a geared locomotive. This locomotive weighed on drivers 280,000 pounds and was furnished for the El Paso Rock Island Route. To corroborate this statement, we will compare this engine with the heaviest direct locomotive yet built, which weighed on drivers 267,800 pounds and was furnished for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry., by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pa. This "remarkable geared locomotive" was designed at the outcome of the operating department of the El Paso Rock Island Route to provide a machine which would economically operate on the division extending from Alamogordo, New Mex., to Cox Canon, N. M. This division is 31 miles in length and has a total elevation between terminals of nearly 6,000 feet, the grades ranging from 3 per cent. to 6.2 per cent, the latter grade being coupled with heavy curves. After numerous tests of a number of types and makes of direct locomotives it was decided to consider the Shay locomotive, which was delivered back in April of this year and for the past few months it has been undergoing the most severe tests, the outcome of which will be of great value to the various large railway systems, which have such difficulties to overcome on their mountain divisions.

The writer also saw a notice a short time ago in the trade papers that the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway had just placed an order with the Lima works for

a 150-ton engine This will be still heavier than the engine furnished the El Paso Rock Island Route, although it is understood that it will be of the same design.

We give some illustrations which will show the Shay locomotive and the conditions under which it is placed, and in conclusion would state that while there have been numerous novelties in the line of engine-building for grade work, there is not one produced so far which would tend to interest the casual spectator more than the Shay, and still hold the same position in the economic handling of heavy traffic over the mountain divisions of our large railway systems, as well as doing great service on logging and mining roads. HENRY C. HAMMACK.

Freezing Up of Train Pipes.

THE

HE season of the year is now well advanced in which the danger of frozen train pipes is with us, and it will, therefore, be in order to devote a little time to their consideration. To be sure, not all of the readers of the FIREMEN'S MAGAZINE are located in a climate where, during the next four months, the temperature will fall low enough to freeze water, but I assume that, while they may be congratulating themselves that they are not troubled by this danger, they will, nevertheless, be interested in an article on the subject of freezing up of train pipes.

Two things are necessary in order to have a frozen train pipe; first, there must be water present in the train pipe in large quantities, and, second, the temperature of the weather must be 32 degrees Fahrenheit or lower; that is, the temperature must be below the freezing point.

The second factor in the frozen train pipe problem is beyond our control, but not so the first; for with a little additional care during cold weather, we can prevent the presence of moisture in the train pipe in quantities sufficiently large to endanger blocking up, or materially restricting the passage therein, by freezing.

How does moisture and water get into the train pipe? In two ways. One is through the open ends of uncoupled hose that are allowed to hang down, which, especially during heavy snow storms and during the time that a heavy snow fall remains on the ground, are dragged through the snow until the opening in the end is filled up, then when coupled up,

without being blown out, this snow is carried back into the train pipe, there to melt, and afterward to cause trouble in filling up the passage with moisture that will freeze when colder weather conditions prevail.

To prevent moisture from this source ever getting into the train pipe to do damage, it will be necessary to hang the hose up properly in the dummy hose couplings, and also before coupling to the hose of adjoining cars, to blow them out thoroughly. Indeed, at all times of the year, the practice of blowing out the train pipe occasionally, thus ridding it of the accumulations of dust and dirt, should be strongly encouraged and faithfully performed.

lar periods of pump work have caused many to wonder why more water is found there at one time than at another; and they have set about to discover the causes in order to find means to reduce the quantity which lodges in the main reservoir as well as to satisfy their own curiosity.

Air or atmospheric pressure, or we might say the free air, that the pump is taking in and compressing in the main reservoir, always contains moisture in suspension, as already stated, and it is this moisture we must try to prevent from working its way into the train pipe.

Two things effect the capacity of air from holding moisture, viz., pressure and temperature. Let us suppose that we have one hundred cubic feet of free air

The water that finds its way into the train pipe, through the open hose coupling, does not, however, constitute the greater portion of the moisture found in train pipes, but in another way, namely; by means of the compressed air itself, on account of the moisture which it carries in suspension, precipitating it in the train pipe. No matter what the season of the year, the atmosphere always contains moisture in suspension, sometimes more, sometimes less, but it always will have some moisture in it. In cold weather it contains less moisture than in warm weather, but, of course, in cold weather what moisture the compressed air does contain, can be the source of greater danger on account of the likelihood of its freezing up in the piping.

The varying quantities of water found in the main reservoir at the ends of regu

which we are going to pump into the main reservoir. This free air will contain a certain quantity of moisture. Now, let us suppose that we have in the main reservoir a pressure of seven atmospheres after we have pumped one hundred cubic feet of free air into it, or a pressure of about ninety pounds, as shown on the air gauge. This will mean that one hundred cubic feet of free air has been reduced in volume to one-seventh of one hundred cubic feet, or to a little more than fourteen cubic feet. The effect which this reduction in volume will have on the capacity of the air to hold its moisture will be to reduce it about six-sevenths; that is, considering the effect of pressure alone on the capacity of the air to hold its moisture, it will reduce directly as the pressure increases.

From the above it would seem that

about all we had to do to free the air of all its moisture before it goes into the train pipe would be to compress it to a very high pressure in the main reservoir. But in doing this we meet with another difficulty; we heat air in compressing it, and the capacity of air for holding moisture in suspension increases with its temperature. Changes of temperature affect the capacity of air for absorbing moisture, and retaining it in suspension, so that we ought always to remember this fact, that the hotter the air, the greater will be the quantity of moisture that it will carry, and also that experience has shown that, in the ordinary method of compressing air, without special cooling apparatus, such as a water jacket around the air cylinder of the pump, the capacity of the air for carrying water is increased more by the heating, than it is reduced by the reduction in volume, due to compression.

From this we may conclude whenever we find air going through the return pipe and the engineer's valve, that is sensibly warmer than the outside air, or surrounding atmosphere, that there is moisture going into the train pipe that will be precipitated therein as the air cools, and will, if the weather be cold enough, freeze there and, possibly, cause serious trouble. We can obviate such an occurrence to a large degree by keeping the main reservoir thoroughly drained, by keeping the air pump packing rings and valves in good condition, and by watching the rod packing on the air piston, and seeing that it does not leak.

Much can be done towards cooling the air down before it gets back to the engineer's brake valve and so prevent moisture from going back to the train pipe, but this is a matter that properly comes under the consideration of correct methods of piping, and a proper location for the main reservoir.

However, in closing, I might say that the cooler the location for the main reservoir the better, provided it is upon the engine; and if the main reservoir itself is made so as to present as much radiating surface as possible for the conduction of heat, more of the contained water in the compressed air will be precipitated in it, and, therefore, will not go into the train pipe.

Where main reservoirs are located on the tenders, extra precautions should be taken to prevent the discharge pipe from freezing up. J. P. KELLY.

A Few Remarks on Boilers.

or,

"I don't know. He is not the sort of man who commits himself readily. You see the boiler is full of mud, as we call it, It more properly speaking-scale. commences to accumulate from the time any boiler goes in service until it returns to the shop, but with us here when the water is particularly bad, and when the business has been as heavy as it has of late, and the boilers have not been washed out as often or as thoroughly as they should be, scale accumulates rapidly in them and nearly all our engines are reported as leaking. I think that is one thing that makes the 'Old Man' so hostile with a number of the men about their engines leaking,” replied Tom Bailey.

"Yes," said Charley Smith, "it's hurry up and cool them down; run the water through them quick; fill them up; fire them up; blow them up; and get them hot as soon as possible. This rapid contrac tion and expansion is bound to bring a big strain on the boilers, and do more damage than the burning down of the fire on the road."

"Yet both should be avoided," replied Tom Bailey. "I know engineers who delay reporting boilers washed out because on their next trip their engines die or all but die with them. Of course, this is not a good excuse, but it shows to what extent this ill has grown.

"When a boiler is washed out, it should be cooled gradually, all scale removed that is possible, and it should be fired up so as to be hot at the required time without forcing the fire. Without sufficient power