Читать книгу Locomotive Engine Running and Management - Angus Sinclair - Страница 15

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No class of railroad-men affects the expenses of operating so directly as engineers do. The daily wages paid to an engineer is a trifling sum compared to the amount he can save or waste by good or bad management of his engine. Fuel wasted, lubricants thrown away, supplies destroyed, and machinery abused, leading to extravagant running repairs, make up a long bill by the end of each month, where enginemen are incompetent. Every man with any spark of manliness in his breast will strive to become master of his work; and, stirred by this ambition, he will avoid wasting the material of his employer just as zealously as if the stores were his own property; and only such men deserve a position on the footboard.

The day has passed away when an engineer was regarded as perfectly competent so long as he could take his train over the road on time. Nowadays a man must get the train along on schedule time to be tolerated at all, and he is not considered a first-class engineer unless he possesses the knowledge which enables him to take the greatest amount of work out of the engine with the least possible expense. To accomplish such results, a thorough acquaintance with all details of the engine is essential, so that the entire machine may be operated as a harmonious unit, without jar or pound: the various methods of economizing heat must be intimately understood, and the laws which govern combustion should be well known so far as they apply to the management of the fire.