Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1917 — LOCOMOTIVES THAT CAME BACK TO LIFE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LOCOMOTIVES THAT CAME BACK TO LIFE

(From Scientific American.) An order of 50 locomotives fresh from the works Is good-sized, but when a railroad decides to turn out that number from Its own scrap yards the achievement has more than ordinary significance. This has recently been accomplished by the Burlington railroad in its various shops and the same engines that a year or so ago were lined up on the side tracks In a dilapidated condition are now serving branch lines in various parts of the middle West. A quarter of a century ago the biggest locomotives were little eightwheeled affairs. One who has noticed their long, low appearance and narrow boilers will not soon forget them. These engines pulled the big trains of their day and ran on every line in the country. The iron leviathans of the present time had not been thought of. Trains were composed of three or four coaches for the most part and traffic had reached but a small portion of its present size. The little locomotives did service because there was no call for anything better. Little Engine* Crowded Out But year by year the main lines of the roads secured more traffic, trains grew longer and cars heavier and the little engines that ‘had done their service so well a few years before were crowded off. The Atlantic and Pacific types of locomotives took their places and the little “eight-wheelers” were gradually side-tracked as they wore out. Every railroad has found them accumulating, so great has been the revolution in locomotive building. But they are coming back. The building of 50 engines out of their

derelict predecessors proves that uses may be found for everything if one looks far enough. As the larger engines came into use on the main lines, such of the “eight-wheelers” as could be used did service on branch lines. And that is where the 50 locomotives are being put to work. The branch lines of the present day may be compared to the main lines of 25 years ago and the extension and growth of service on these small linen naturally bring a demand for engines that can be operated without too great expense. Old Frames Were Good. When it came time to reclaim all of these locomotives from the scrap pile it was found that the frames were for the most part entirely good. New boilers consequently were bought and the old engines‘taken down part by part. Generally speaking with the exception of the boilers all the other parts of the new engines were saved from the scrap pile. The good parts from the old locomotives were assembled just the same as In building entirely new engines. Even the old boilers were not entirely lost_ for many of them were made to do service In round houses and shops where there was no necessity for high-steam pressure. While at first sight the new locomotives appear shorter than the old, in reality they are not; the fact that larger boilers were used makes them appear so. About one-third the cost of new locomotives was saved by the plan; and the engines are. pronounced vastly superior to their forerunners, and altogether the equal of any of their size built entirely new at locomotive works.

LOCOMOTIVE OF 25 YEARS AGO IN SCRAP YARD.

SCRAPPED LOCOMOTIVE RESTORED TO LIFE.