Practical Rules for the Management of a Locomotive Engine: | Page 3

ball-clacks, and a screw-jack.

THE MANAGEMENT OF A LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE ON THE ROAD.
In the management of a Locomotive Engine, many unforeseen circumstances may occur, requiring the use of that discretion which experience alone can confer, and which it would be almost impossible to comprise in the particular instructions contained in the following pages, which, however, the writer believes to contain all the leading principles of Engine-driving.
On receiving the signal to start, the Engine-man should only slightly open the regulator, and let the train run for several yards, before he opens it, by slow degrees, to the full extent. The object of thus giving a slight aperture to the regulator in starting, is to avoid any jerk to the carriages, by which passengers might be annoyed, or even the coupling-irons broken; to prevent the slipping of the driving-wheels, from their adhesion being unequal to the inertia of the train, when the full power of the Engine is suddenly used; and because fully opening the regulator at starting generally causes the Engine to prime considerably, from the quantity of water condensed in the cylinders and steam-passages while the Engine was standing. When priming occurs at starting, the discharge-cocks of the cylinders should be opened to remove the water. On leaving the station, and frequently on the road, the Engine-man should watch the train behind him, to see that it is all right and its motion regular.
The Engine-man should now be standing on the foot-board of the Engine, which he ought never to leave, unless the machinery is out of order, when he may leave the Stoker in his place; he should as much as possible be in such a position as to command, without moving from his place, the reversing-lever, the whistle, and the regulator, these being the parts which he is most frequently obliged to use at the shortest notice; his hand should be upon the regulator, which, when he has arrived at a good speed, he will gradually ease off, so as to economise steam without retarding the train: his eye should be constantly directed to the rails in front of him, that he may be immediately aware of any obstruction, and at the same time his full attention must be given to the maintaining a sufficiency of steam at an equable pressure; this is to be done by using the requisite care in the manner and time of supplying water and fuel.
Water is supplied by opening the cocks in the feed-pipes, which allow the pumps to act; and the height of water in the boiler is commonly shown by a glass gauge-tube, and by three gauge-cocks at the side, which should be opened from time to time, (especially when stopping,) as they afford a more correct indication of the quantity of water and steam than the gauge-tube.
One pump, if constantly at work, would, in most Engines, supply as much, or rather more water than is required by the Engine as equivalent to the steam consumed; so that by turning on or off either or both pumps, the Engine-man has the power of regulating the height of the water in the boiler at discretion.
It may be laid down as an invariable rule, that water alone should always blow off from the bottom cock (which is from 1 inch to 1.5 inch above the top of the fire-box), in order that there may be enough water over the fire-box and tubes to prevent their burning; and few Engines will carry their water much above the top cock without priming, so that the height of the water may be made to range between these two points, according as more or less steam is required.
The water is higher when the Engine is running than when stopping: a good working height for it in most Engines is when water blows off from the middle cock while running, and water and steam when stopping: an Engine-man is sometimes obliged to run the water rather lower, if he has heavy work; but it is always better to keep the level of the water as high as possible.
It is observed that when any variation takes place in the pressure of the steam, a corresponding change occurs in the level of the water,--that when the pressure of the steam rises or falls, the height of the water rises or falls simultaneously. Partly for this reason, and partly to allow the more rapid generation of steam, the feed-pumps are not generally allowed to act when the Engine starts: a knowledge of this fact also shows the necessity of the water being above the ordinary level, before a decrease is allowed in the pressure of the steam.
When the Engine is highest on an inclined plane, rather a greater height of water must be kept over the fire-box than on a level,