Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 270, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1915 — FISHED LOCOMOTIVE FROM LAKE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FISHED LOCOMOTIVE FROM LAKE

The Locomotive Was Valued St SIO,OOO, so the Railroad Officials Figured That It Was Worth While to Recover It From the Bottom of the River. Divers Were Sent Down to Inspect the Engine and Fasten the Wire Cables to it. A Wrecking Crane Soon Lifted the Locomotive on to the Bridge and Placed It Gently on the Ralls.

GOOD WORK BY DIVERS

BROUGHT LOCOMOTIVE UP FROM DEEP WATER. Engine Worth Ten Thousand Dollars Replaced on Ralls In Short Time, Little Damaged by Its Unusual Bath. It can be statistically proved that the safest place in the world is in a Pullman car and the most dangerous, your own home. Only once in a while something goes wrong on the best regulated roads. The locomotive shown in the picture published in Popular Science Monthly and World's Advance, ran off the bridge and plunged into the river at Bay City, Mich.—one of these “once in a while” occasions. Today all railroads have as part of their equipment cranes, known as "wreckers,” and regularly employed in construction work of the heavier kind, such as bridge building and handling

turn tables. These cranes are always ready to be rushed to the scene of an accident. Equipped with a set of tools designed to handle derailed or damaged cars and locomotives, they lift an overturned car and place it back on the rails or else carry it to the shops for repairs. As soon as the accident pictured occurred at Bay City, a wrecking crane was sent for. It was found that the 75-ton locomotive lay in deep water, and that it would be necessary to send divers down to attach the lines. After the divers had inspected the locomotive they came up and selected the tools they desired to use, comprising different kinds of wire rope slings, hooks, eyes, clevises, hoist beams and yokes. Then they went down and attached the slings and lines to the locomotive. In three hours the submerged locomotive was once more on the rails and very little the worse for the experience. Getting it out of the water so promptly saved it from damage by rust or prolonged contact with the river bottom. —From Popular Science Monthly and World’s Advance.