RELIABLE MEN NEEDED TO RUN LOCOMOTIVES.

Locomotive engine running is one of the most modern of trades, consequently its acquirement has not been controlled by the exact methods associated with ancient guild apprenticeships. Nevertheless, graduates to this business do not take charge of the iron horse without the full meed of experience and skill requisite for performing their duties successfully. The man who runs a locomotive engine on our crowded railroads has so much valuable property, directly and indirectly, under his care, so much of life and limb depending upon his skill and ability, that railroad companies are not likely to intrust the position to those with a suspicion of incompetency resting upon them.

EARLY METHODS OF MAKING LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS.

The prevailing methods of raising locomotive engineers have been evolved from experience with the kind of men best adapted to fill the position. In the early days of the railroad world, when such men as George Stephenson, Horatio Allen, John B. Jervis, Ross Winans, and other pioneer engineers, demonstrated the successful operation of the locomotive, they usually turned over the care of their engines to the men who had assisted in constructing the machines, or in putting them together. This was the best that could be done at the time; and the men selected generally proved competent for the trust reposed in them; but it gave rise to a belief that no man could run a locomotive successfully unless he were a machinist. The possession of mechanical skill necessary for making repairs was considered the best recommendation for an engineer. Under this system, all that a machinist was required to do,—so that he could graduate as a full-fledged engineer,—was to practice moving engines round in the yard for a few days, when he was reported ready for the road. Akin to this sentiment was that which recommended youths of natural mechanical ability for the position of locomotive engineer without subjecting them to any previous special training. Graduates from mechanical institutes were deemed capable of running an engine as soon as they were perfectly certain about how to start and stop the machine. The late Alexander L. Holley used to relate an anecdote of this kind of an engineer. During a severe winter storm, the train Holley was traveling on got firmly stalled in a snow-bank. In its struggles with the frozen elements, the engine got short of water; and Holley found the engineer trying to fill the boiler by shoveling snow down the smoke-stack!

PRACTICE OF RAISING ENGINEERS FROM MACHINISTS AND TECHNICAL-SCHOOL GRADUATES NOT FOUND SATISFACTORY.

But it came to pass that more light in the matter of engine-running dawned upon the minds of railroad managers. They discovered that expertness in effecting repairs on locomotives was not so essential in an engineer as was the less pretentious ability of working the engine so that the train would be pulled over the road safely and on time: they perceived but scanty merit in inherited mechanical genius which did not inspire a youth with sagacity enough to see that certain destruction would befall the heating-surface when he attempted to run without water in the boiler. Experience demonstrated, that, to manage an engine on the road so that its best work should be developed at the least cost, certain traits of skill and training were necessary, which were altogether different from the culture that made a man smart at constructing or repairing machinery. It was found that one man might be a good machinist, and yet make no kind of a decent runner; a second man would be equally expert in both capacities; while a third man, who never could do a respectable job with tools, developed into an excellent engineer. One of the best millwrights I ever knew, a man who achieved considerable celebrity for skill in his craft, became a fireman with the ambition of becoming a locomotive runner. He fired acceptably for two years, then was promoted, but quickly found that he could not run an engine, and acknowledged that to be the case by returning to the left side. He was too nervous, and lacked confidence in himself. Overweening egotism is not an attractive feature in a man’s character; but, every thing else being equal, it is the self-confident man that makes the successful engineer.

EXPERIENCE DEMONSTRATED THAT FIREMEN MADE THE BEST ENGINEERS.

The experiment of raising locomotive engineers from machinists and mechanical empirics was the uncertain groping in the dark for the right man to fill the right place. When the search for pretentious men proved unsatisfactory, the right men were found at hand, accumulating the necessary experience on the fireman’s side of the engine. Then it became a recognized fact, that, to take hold and run an engine to advantage, a man must learn the business by working as fireman. There have been frequent cases of men becoming successful locomotive engineers without any previous training as firemen, but they were the exceptions that proved the rule.

DIFFICULTIES OF RUNNING LOCOMOTIVES AT NIGHT, AND DURING BAD WEATHER.

In the matter of speed alone, there is much to learn before a man can safely run a locomotive. During daylight a novice will generally be half out in estimating speed; and his judgment is merely wild guess-work, regulated more by the condition of the track than by the velocity his train is reaching. On a smooth piece of track, he thinks he is making twenty-five miles an hour, when forty miles is about the correct speed: then he strikes a rough portion of the road-bed, and concludes he is tearing along at thirty miles an hour, when he is scarcely reaching twenty miles; since the first lurchy spot made him shut off twenty per cent of the steam. At night the case is much worse, especially when the weather proves unfavorable. On a wild, stormy night, the accumulated experience of years on the footboard, which trains a man to judge of speed by sound of the revolving-wheels, and to locate his position between stations from a tree, a shrub, a protruding bank, or any other trifling object that would pass unnoticed by a less cultivated eye, is all needed to aid an engineer in working along with unvaried speed without jolt or tumult. On such a night, a man strange to the business can not work a locomotive, and exercise proper control over its movements. He may place the reverse lever-latch in a certain notch, and keep the steam on; he can regulate the pump after a fashion, and watch that the water shall not get too low in the boiler; he can shut off in good season while approaching stations, and blunder into each depot by repeatedly applying steam; but he exerts no control over the train, knows nothing of what the engine is doing, and is constantly liable to break the train in two. A diagram of his speed would fluctuate as irregularly as the profile lines of a bluffy country. This is where a machinist’s skill does not apply to locomotive-running until it is supplemented by an intimate knowledge of speed, of facility at handling a train, and keeping the couplings intact, and of insight into the best methods of economizing steam.

These are essentials which every man should possess before he is put in charge of a locomotive on the road. The great fund of practical knowledge which stamps the first-class engineer, is amassed by general labor during years of vigilant observation on the footboard, amidst many changes of fair and foul weather.

As passing through the occupation of fireman was the only way men could obtain practical knowledge of engine-running before taking charge, railroad officials all over the world gradually fell into the way of regarding that as the proper channel for men to traverse before reaching the right-hand side of the locomotive.

KIND OF MEN TO BE CHOSEN AS FIREMEN.

As the pay for firemen rules moderately good, even when compared with other skilled labor; and as the higher position of engineer looms like a beacon not far ahead,—there is always a liberal choice of good men to begin work as firemen. Most railroad companies recognize the importance of exercising judgment and discretion in selecting the men who are to run as their future engineers. Sobriety, industry, and intelligence are essential attributes in a fireman who is going to prove a success in his calling. Lack in any one of these qualities will quickly prove fatal to a fireman’s prospects of advancement. Sobriety is of the first importance, because a man who is not strictly temperate should not be tolerated for a moment about a locomotive, since he is a source of danger to himself and others; industry is needed to lighten the burden of a fireman’s duties, for oftentimes they are arduous beyond the conception of strangers; and wanting in the third quality, intelligence, a man can never be a good fireman in the wide sense of the word, since one deficient in mental tact never rises higher than a human machine. An intelligent fireman may be ignorant of the scientific nomenclature relating to combustion, but he will be perfectly familiar with all the practical phenomena connected with the economical generation of steam. Such a man does not imagine that he has reached the limit of locomotive knowledge when he understands how to keep an engine hot, and can shine up the jacket. Every trip reveals something new about his art, every day opens his vision to strange facts about the wonderful machine he is learning to manage. And so, week by week, he goes on his way, attending cheerfully to his duties, and accumulating the knowledge that will eventually make him a first-class locomotive engineer.

MODERN METHODS OF SELECTING FIREMEN.

On the various roads throughout the North American continent, there is great diversity of practice in the selection of men for the position of fireman.

On numerous roads, especially in the Western States, men are taken from all occupations; no preliminary training being deemed necessary before putting a man on an engine as fireman. A list of applicants is kept by the master mechanic, and likely men recommended for firemen. When a man is wanted, the first one who can be found conveniently is sent out; and the engineer must break him in as best he can. On other roads, again, the men intended for firemen are taken to work about the round-house, and are employed in helping with the cleaning, repairing, and preparing of locomotives for the road. This plan is greatly in vogue in Europe, and on certain of the older roads of America; and it has many features to recommend it over the practice of placing men entirely devoid of railroad experience upon engines. It is better for the men themselves, since working about engines familiarizes each to some extent with the work he is expected to do as an engineer’s helper, for that is really a fireman’s position; it is better for the company, since the officers get the opportunity of observing a man’s habits before he receives training that entails some expense; it is better for the engineer, since his assistant is not entirely strange to the work he is expected to do.

FIRST TRIPS.

A youth entirely unacquainted with all the operations which a fireman is called upon to perform, finds the first trip a terribly arduous ordeal, even with some previous experience of railroad work. When his first trip introduces him to the locomotive and to railroad life at the same time, the day is certain to be a record of personal tribulation. To ride for ten or twelve hours on an engine for the first time, standing on one’s feet, and subject to the shaking motion, is intensely tiresome, even if a man has no work to do. But when he has to ride during that period, and in addition has to shovel six or eight tons of coal, most of which has to be handled twice, the job proves no sinecure. Then, the posture of his body while doing work is new; he is expected and required to pitch coal upon certain exact spots, through a small door, while the engine is swinging about so that he can scarcely keep his feet; his hands get blistered with the shovel, and his eyes grow dazzled from the resplendent light of the fire. Then come the additional side duties of taking water, shaking the grates, cleaning the ash-pan, or even the fire, where bad coal is used, filling oil-cans, and trimming lamps, to say nothing of polishing and keeping things clean and tidy. By the time all these duties are attended to, the young fireman does not find a great deal of leisure to admire the passing scenery.

POPULAR MISCONCEPTION OF A FIREMAN’S DUTIES.

A great many idle young fellows, ignorant of railroad affairs, imagine that a fireman’s principal work consists in ringing the bell, and showing himself off conspicuously in coming into stations. They look upon the business as being of the heroic kind, and strive to get taken on as firemen. If a youth of this kind happens to succeed, and starts out on a run of one hundred and fifty miles with every car a heavy engine will pull stuck on behind, his visions of having reached something easy are quickly dispelled.

Like nearly every other occupation, that of fireman has its drawbacks to counterbalance its advantages; and the drawbacks weigh heaviest during the first ten days. The man who enters the business under the delusion that he can lead a life of semi-idleness must change his views, or he will prove a failure. The man who becomes a fireman with a spirit ready and willing to overcome all difficulties, with a cheerful determination to do his duty with all his might, is certain of success; and to such a man the work becomes easy after a few weeks’ practice.

LEARNING FIREMEN’S DUTIES.

Practice, combined with intelligent observation, gradually makes a man familiar with the best styles of firing, as adapted to all varieties of engines; and he gets to understand intimately all the qualities of coal to be met with, good, bad, and indifferent. As his experience widens, his fire management is regulated to accord with the kind of coal on hand, the steaming properties of the engine, the weight of the train, the character of the road and of the weather. Firing, with all the details connected with it, is the central figure of his work, the object of pre-eminent concern; but a good man does not allow this to prevent him from attending regularly and exactly to his remaining routine duties.

A GOOD FIREMAN MAKES A GOOD ENGINEER.

There is a familiar adage among railroad men, that a good fireman is certain to make a good engineer; and it rarely fails to come out true. To hear some firemen of three months’ standing talk, a stranger might conclude that they knew more about engine running than the oldest engineer in the district. These are not the good firemen. Good firemen learn their own business with the humility born of earnestness, and they do not undertake to instruct others in matters beyond their own knowledge. It is the man who goes into the heart of a subject, who understands how much there is to learn, and is therefore modest in parading his own acquirements, that succeeds.

LEARNING AN ENGINEER’S DUTIES.

When a fireman has mastered his duties sufficiently to keep them going smoothly, he begins to find time for watching the operations of the engineer. He notes how the boiler is fed; and, upon his knowledge of the engineer’s practice in this respect, much of his firing is regulated. The different methods of using the steam by engineers, so that trains can be taken over the road with the least expenditure of coal, are engraven upon the memory of the observant fireman. Many of the acquirements which commend a good fireman for promotion are learned by imperceptible degrees,—the knowledge of speed, for instance, which enables a man to tell how fast a train is running on all kinds of track, and under all conditions of weather. There would be no use in one strange to train service going out for a few runs to learn speed. He might learn nearly all other requisites of engine running before he was able to judge within ten miles of how fast the train was going under adverse circumstances. The same may be said of the sound which indicates how an engine is working. It requires an experienced ear to detect the false note which indicates that something is wrong. Amidst the mingled sounds produced by an engine and train hammering over a steel track, the novice hears nothing but a medley of confused noises, strange and meaningless as are the harmonies of an opera to an untutored savage. But the trained ear of an engineer can distinguish a strange sound amidst all the tumult of thundering exhaust, screaming steam, and clashing steel, as readily as an accomplished musician can detect a false note in a many-voiced chorus. Upon this ability to detect growing defects which pave the way to disaster, depends much of an engineer’s chances of success in his calling. This kind of skill is not obtained by a few weeks’ industry: it is the gradual accumulation of months and years of patient labor.

CONDITIONS OF ENGINE RUNNING THAT VANQUISH THE INEXPERIENCED MAN.

I once knew a machine-shop foreman, a man of extensive experience in building and repairing engines, who took a locomotive out on trial trip. A side-rod pin began to run hot; and, although he was leaning out of the cab-window, he did not observe any thing wrong till a drop of babbitt struck him in the eye. An experienced engineer watching the rods would have detected the condition of affairs before babbitt was thrown.

A difficult thing for an inexperienced man to control in running a locomotive at night, when the conditions of adhesion are bad, is the slipping of the drivers. Slipping is a simple matter enough to those who feel it in the vibrations of the engine; but the novice has not this sensitiveness to slipping vibration developed, and he must depend upon his eyesight or his hearing to detect it. On a dark, stormy night, the eye is useless as a means of judging as to the regularity of the revolving wheels: the howling wind or rain, rattling on the cab, drowns the sound of the exhaust. Under circumstances of this kind, an engine might jerk the pins out before the empirical engineer discovered the wheels were slipping.

LEARNING TO KEEP THE LOCOMOTIVE IN RUNNING-ORDER.

As his acquaintance with the handling and ordinary working of the locomotive extends, the aspiring fireman learns all about the packing of glands, and how they should be kept so as to run to the best advantage: he displays an active interest in every thing relating to lubrication, from the packing of a box-cellar to the regulating of a rod-cup. When the engineer is round keying up rods, or doing other necessary work about his engine, the ambitious fireman should give a helping hand, and thereby become familiar with the operations that are likely to be of service when he is required to draw upon his own resources for doing the same work.

Of late years the art of locomotive construction has been so highly developed, the amount of strain and shocks to which each working part is subjected has been so well calculated and provided against, that breakages are really very rare on roads where the motive-power is kept in first-class condition. Consequently, firemen gain comparatively small insight, on the road, into the best and quickest methods of disconnecting engines, or of fixing up mishaps promptly, so that a train may not be delayed longer than is absolutely necessary. A fireman must get this information beyond the daily routine of his experience. He must search for the knowledge among those competent to give it. Persistent inquiry among the men posted on these matters; observation amidst machine-shop and round-house operations; and careful study of locomotive construction, so that a clear insight into the physiology of the machine may be obtained,—will prepare one to meet accidents, armed with the knowledge which vanquishes all difficulties. Reflecting on probable or possible mishaps, and calculating what is best to be done under all contingencies that can be conceived, prepare a man to act promptly when a breakdown occurs.

METHODS OF PROMOTION ON OUR LEADING ROADS.

In the method of promotion of firemen, considerable diversity of practice is followed by the different railroads. On certain roads, with well-established business, and little fluctuation of traffic, firemen begin work on switch engines, and are promoted by seniority, or by selection through the various grades of freight trains, thence to passenger service, from whence they emerge as incipient engineers. A more common practice, and one almost invariably followed in the West, is for firemen to begin as extra men, in place of firemen who are sick or lying off. From firing extra, they get advanced, if found competent and deserving, to regular engines. Then, step by step, they go ahead to the best paying runs, till their turn for being “set up” comes round. Passenger engines are not fired by any but experienced men, but the oldest firemen do not always claim passenger-runs. For learning the business of engine-running, freight service is considered most valuable; and many ambitious firemen prefer the hard work of a freight engine on this account.

NATURE OF EXAMINATION TO BE PASSED.

When a fireman has obtained the experience that recommends him for promotion, on nearly all well-regulated roads he is subjected to some form of examination before being put in charge of an engine. In some cases this examination is quite thorough. The tendency to require firemen to pass such an ordeal is extending, and its beneficial effect upon the men is unquestioned. The usual form of examination is, for officers connected with the locomotive department to question the candidate for promotion on matters relating to the management of the locomotive, and how he would proceed in the event of certain mishaps befalling the engine. Parties belonging to the traffic department propound questions relating to road-rules, train-rights, understanding of time-card, and so on.

MASTER MECHANICS ON THE BEST METHOD OF EDUCATING YOUNG MEN FOR ENGINEERS.

The Master Mechanics’ Association appointed a committee to investigate the “best manner of educating young men for locomotive engineers,” and the following report was made:—

“Considering this subject to be of vital importance to the Association, and to the public in general, and that proper care and attention have not been given to it in the past, the committee have spared no pains to get all the information they possibly could on this subject, knowing and feeling that men selected to fill the responsible position of locomotive engineers must possess faculties, that, as a general thing, do not belong to all the human race; and, as locomotive engineers have to be selected from the ranks of firemen, they feel that due care and caution should be exercised in selecting young men for firemen. Now, to arrive at a proper conclusion,—one that would be satisfactory to the Association and to the railways of the country,—your committee sent circulars to all the master mechanics in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. We sent out five hundred and thirty-two circulars, to which we received seventy-six replies; being an average of one answer to every seven sent. Many of these replies contain very valuable information, and were from many of the leading roads of this country, Canada, and Mexico. Your committee beg leave to return thanks for the answers to their circular.

“The opinions given us by the different master mechanics who replied, were as follows: Five recommended that none but machinists should be locomotive engineers; nineteen thought that nothing more was needed than to have a young man fire from three to four years with good, competent engineers, to make him a good runner; fifty-two thought that one year in the shop and round-house, with two to three years’ firing, was necessary to make a competent engineer; many recommended that young men, while firing, read and study books that would give them a general knowledge of the locomotive, such as Forney’s Catechism of the Locomotive, and several other works of that kind. Many of the replies admitted that machinists would make the best runners if they would consent to fire one year after having learned their trade, as they would then have the advantage of knowing all about the construction of the locomotive. Of course, when speaking of that class of men, they meant bright, intelligent young machinists, men with nerve and energy, and quick to act in cases of emergency. Of course, there are some who would never make engineers, no matter what opportunities were given them. If young men of this kind would consent to run one year or more as firemen, we could select our locomotive engineers from among that class; but they will not do it, from the belief that they are just as competent to run a locomotive as the best engineer on the road for which they are working: and, if they are given an opportunity to run an engine, they are certain to make a failure. This being the fact, we are compelled to select our engineers from among the ranks of the firemen, as the best and safest runners. Now, this being the class of men from which we have to select our engineers, some uniform mode of instructing them for the responsible position that many of them will have to fill in the future, will have to be adopted by the different railroads in America. Your committee would therefore recommend the following:—

“All master mechanics should have full control of the engineers and firemen in the employ of their respective roads, with full power to hire and discharge the same,—of course, recognizing the rights that the general managers or superintendents have to order the discharge of any engineer or fireman for neglect of duty.

“1st, The qualifications for the position of fireman on all the railways in America should be as follows: The applicant should be from eighteen to twenty-four years old, able-bodied, and in good health, with a good common-school education, and a fair knowledge of arithmetic, and of sober and steady habits. All applicants should be required to make application in their own handwriting, signing it in the presence of the master mechanic, or the person he may appoint to hire that class of men. In selecting men for firemen, great care should be exercised. The master mechanic should endeavor, so far as lies in his power, to select energetic, smart, and active young men,—men of nerve, and presence of mind, quick to act in cases of emergency which may occur in the position they may be selected to fill in the future. If we select men of that kind, there will be very little difficulty in educating them up to the proper standard to fill the place of engineers.

“2d, There should be three grades of firemen, classed as junior, intermediate, and senior firemen,—the young man just commencing, to be classed as junior fireman, and so on up to senior fireman; the senior fireman receiving the highest pay for his services, the others in proportion. When a fireman has fired four years, and is worthy of promotion, and fully competent to run a locomotive, there may be no vacancies in the engineer force on the road by which he may be employed. In that case we recommend that he receive a small amount more per day than the senior fireman (say from fifteen to twenty cents per day more), and be ranked as veteran fireman. On the road which one of your committee represents in this convention, this custom has been in vogue for a number of years, and has worked exceedingly well. All the engineers on this road have been educated under this rule, and to-day no engineers in the country rank higher than they do.

“Proper care should be taken, in selecting young men for firemen, as to their ability to distinguish colors in a practicable, common-sense way. We recommend that all railroads having a sufficient number of employÉs to justify them in so doing, have a reading-room and library for their firemen and engineers, in which the other employÉs could participate. The library, to some extent, should consist of works on the locomotive engine that a man with a fair education could understand. While we do not think it essentially necessary, still we believe it would be beneficial to some extent to let firemen work one year out of the four in the shop and round-house, so that they might obtain a more perfect knowledge of all the parts of the locomotive.

“Young men consisting of the class we have mentioned, are certain to make good runners; and there will be no difficulty, at the proper time, in selecting good junior engineers from among that class of men. All opportunities possible should be given firemen to get such knowledge of the theory and movements of the different parts of the locomotive as would be beneficial to them when they enter on their career as engineers. To accomplish this end, monthly lectures might be given in the reading-room by men of good practical common sense, who fully understand what they are talking about. If possible, these lectures should be given by one of the engineers. The firemen would learn more from him, as they would better understand what he was saying; he having formerly been one of them.

“Your committee is convinced, that, if the mode recommended by them is adopted generally throughout the country, a large majority, if not all, of the firemen, would be educated to a point from which there would be no difficulty in selecting men who will make good and reliable engineers.

“3d, The fireman now being competent to run a locomotive, and being placed in charge of one, has yet some few things to learn that he did not have the opportunity of learning, from the fact that he was not running the engine. While he may run carefully, and avoid accidents, he has to learn to run his engine with economy in the consumption of fuel and the cost of repairs. To learn this, and to give the young engineer an opportunity to become a first-class man in his occupation, we recommend there be three grades of engineers,—first, second, and third grades,—and that the remuneration they receive be according to grade; the fireman just promoted ranking in the third grade; after one year’s service he enters the second grade; when two years have passed, he enters the first grade, and becomes a first-class locomotive engineer.”