Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1917 — RAISING AN ENGINE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAISING AN ENGINE

HOW IMMENSE LOCOMOTIVE WAS RESCUED AT SAN PEDRO. Railroad Superintendent Devised In* genious Method to Recover Large Engine Which Had Toppled Over Into Bay. While handling a pile driver equipment used in rebuilding an-old trestle at San Pedro, Cal., a 120-ton locomotive broke through its track, toppled over the piling supporting the trestle and fell down a sloping embankment to the bottom of the . bay. It went through 30 feet of water and halfburied itself, top down, in slime and mud.

A floating derrick barge with equipment powerful enough to raise the engine was not available. A local railroad superintendent finally devised an ingenious method by which the big engine was successfully recovered. Two barges, each of 200-ton capacity, were floated out over the approximate location of the "drowned” locomotive. They were placed parallel to each other and united at each end by two girders made of three logs of 20foot piling lashed together with a 4’/i----inch manila rope tied about the piling and bits. As each turn of this lashing was made a hoisting engine was used to pull the rope tight. A complete coil of rope was used at each end of the girder, and several short lashings were made between the ends as well. Before the hoisting work started, sdme objectionable pile stumps had to be sawed off’close to' the bottom of the bay by a diver with a short piece of cross-cut saw. The first operation, necessary was to turn the engine and its tender right side up. This had to be done in two operations as the tender and engine could not be separated, owing to their depth in the slime. To support the engine, three clusters of large timbers were rigged across the barges. Two of these were placed at each end and one in the middle. From these supports one and one-half inch steel cables were dropped to the engine, passed under it tind made fast to it by the diver. When the cables were all made fast below and drawn tight about the supporting timbers above, 50-ton hydraulic jacks were placed at each end of the supporting bridging. As the supports were jacked up, railroad ties were inserted under them for cribbing. After the engine was turned, rightside up the. cables had to be readjusted and more units attached. The hoisting then continued until the cribbing had been built about 10 or 12 feet above the deck of the barges. Extra cable lashing was put on to hold the engine in suspension until the crib-

bing was removed and the supporting timbers lowered back To the deck of the barges. By repetitions of this performance the engine was elevated sufficiently from the bottom of the bay, so that it and the bargeS could be towed intact onto some mud flats half a mile distant and close to a spur railroad track. The whole equipment was pulled aground by a locomotive. —Popular Science Monthly.

The first operation was to turn the engine and its tender side up by means of cabies attached by a diver.