An Invitation.

With this issue of the Magazine is started a new department under the head, "Echoes from the Firing Line," to which all readers of the Magazine are earnestly invited to contribute articles touching upon their daily experiences in the engine cab or on the road. The nature of this new department is to be along the lines of a similar department which was conducted in the Magazine about two years ago, known as "Letters from the Road," and which became very popular with our members.

It is believed that many of our members and readers are deterred from giving their views on mechanical subjects through their lack of professional technical knowledge, when if they knew there was a department in which they could give expression to their thoughts in their own language, a department expressly for their use, there would be many more responses. The Editor wishes to assure the members and readers of the Magazine that letters of general interest touching upon their road experiences, amusing or instructive incidents that come up in the daily lives of the locomotive enginemen, are solicited. Don't hesitate to write because you are afraid you can't do as well as others. If your letter needs polishing the Magazine will be glad to do this service for you only write.

It is not intended in any sense that this department will take the place of any other department now running, but to afford those who feel a timidity toward entering the other departments a chance to discuss those things which are constantly coming up in their daily work. The Magazine again invites you to write.

Trials of a Fireman in Oregon.

You first hear the hurrying footsteps of the call boy coming up the walk, then a rattle and bang on the door, making noise enough to awaken Rip Van Winkle from twenty years of peaceful slumber.

"Hello! Called for an extra east at 12.30 p. m. Get the 2193," and he is off again to call four more men, and only an hour and a half to do it in.

Here you plant your feet on the cold floor, rub your eyes enough to enable you

to see your pants hanging on a chairback, and everything is "hurry" to get to the roundhouse, change your clothes, grab your grip and torch, start around the house, passing one engine after another and looking at their number plates until with both lubricators empty, windows you come to the 2193. There she stands dirty, oil cans dirty, everything dirty.

For some reasons unknown to a fireman an engine will get dirtier standing in the roundhouse ten hours than it will in thirty-six hours on the road. The next thing to do is to get your supplies, fill the lubricator, light your cab lamps, classification lamps and headlight, put out your flags and light your road lantern. Here comes the "hog-head."

Just how the engineer became heir to this title remains for someone else to say, not me, but at any rate he is on the last fifteen minutes of his hour and a half call. He throws his old clothes into the seat box and with his oil can gets down and squirts a little oil here and there.

"Say, Ed! slack her back a little, will you, if you please, and hand me down the cups? Throw me a bunch of waste. Has monkey-wrench? Did you fill the rod she got any hot-box grease on her? Slack her ahead a little so I can get at these driving boxes-and that will be all."

The brakeman comes and pilots you around, switches out the caboose, and we back down and get a little ice and water while the conductor gets the orders. He comes, climbs on the engine and reads:

"Engine 2193 will run extra Ashland to Grant's Pass ahead of No. 226." "Toot, toot," and we're off.

I want to say before I go any further, for the benefit of the many firemen who are firing locomotives in the United States that there are still about 700 miles of the Southern Pacific lines in Oregon where about 100 firemen are mopping sweat behind the boiler heads of wood burning locomotives. I have heard it said that the Southern Pacific was about twenty years behind the times. This I am not in position to know, but if I were told that it was twenty minutes behind the time of a carded train with these wood-burning engines I would declare there was truth in the statement. We burn on an average twenty-five cords of wood on a round trip on my division.

The worst of all is that during the winter months, when it rains twenty-four hours in one day and after about sixty days, the wood becomes "very damp," if not "quite wet." When you are called to go and fight one of these battles of about fourteen hours' duration, with six hundred tons between the tender and the caboose, you feel like trading your "three year rights" for a corner lot in the cemetery. But, taking all things into consideration, we have a pretty fair job, and entertain the hope of having coal on all engines in the near future. We have some oil, and there is a possibility of having all oil, as it is about 50 per cent. of a saving to the company and another 50 per cent. of a saving to the fireman.

A FIREMAN.

A Peculiar "Meet" Order.

Thinking it might be of interest to some of our brothers who work in countries where they have deep snow, I will relate the following incident:

The winter here has been the severest we have had in twenty years. Snow lies four feet deep on the level, fences are hidden from sight, roads are well nigh impassable, and on a branch of the Lackawanna, from Alford to Montrose, it was felt the worst.

This is a short road in the mountain region, and it took the crew four and onehalf hours to run ten miles. Time after time they were stalled in the snow, and it took the combined efforts of the section crews and passengers to shovel out the drifts. When the train reached Montrose orders were issued not to attempt the down trip until the snow plow went over the road. When the snow plow reached Alford late in the evening it was ascertained that the crew did not know the location of the crossings on the L. & M. Division. It was after midnight when the agent at Montrose was told to summon John Casey and his men, and told to take an engine and go to Alford to pilot the crew of the snow plow.

"The engine can't get to Alford," replied Casey.

"Take your hand-car and go," was the next order.

"Impossible," telegraphed Casey.

ford and Heart Lake. Then were issued these unique "meeting orders":

"Conductor, snow plow, Alford. Proceed to Heart Lake with snow plow. Meet Casey with horse and cutter there. E. M. R."

"Casey, Montrose. With horse and cutter proceed to Heart Lake and meet snow plow. E. M. R."

Casey reached Heart Lake two hours ahead of the snow plow. So, hats off to Casey, his horse and cutter. JOHN J. WADE.

Filling Boiler of Dead Engine.

Can dead engines be pumped up? In the light of my experience, I believe that they can, and that under certain conditions it would be advisable to do so.

I had a dead engine on my hands some time ago, and I pumped it up without any serious trouble, by following a simple law of nature. Nature abhors a vacuum, and it is said that the laws of nature are unchangeable. My plan of action was as follows:

Remove the tank cover, open the engine and injector throttles, also the cylinder cocks, close the release valves (green or white flags will do), then place the reverse lever in the corner in the direction in which the engine is going. The principle is the same as that on which the "old town pump" works. The piston heads are immense suckers, which will force the air from the cylinders, thereby creating a vacuum in the boiler, and permitting the superior atmospheric pressure on top of the tank of water to force the same into the boiler.

There are several mistaken ideas on pumping up dead engines which ought to be corrected. Don't close your cylinder cocks, as you then simply cause the air to be churned from one chamber to the other. In order to pump the air out of the boiler it is necessary to provide some avenue of escape for it, and this is best done by leaving the cylinder cocks open. Don't depend on your check, as sometimes a corroded check will refuse to raise for a vacuum pressure, and when the water line raises above the check it will have a tendency to block your vacuum. If you leave your injector throttle open the water will

His reply was that the turnpike was blocked with snow, but that he could drive on the track to Heart Lake, and there was no grade crossing between Al

about your check.

Another erroneous idea is that the reverse lever ought to be placed in the opposite direction to which the engine is going. This pumps air into the boiler,

which destroys instead of creates a

vacuum.

I wish that any others who have had

similar experience would write it up for the benefit of the readers of the Magazine. JAMES DEEGAN.

American Compound Locomotives. This is the title of a handsome cloth covered book by Fred H. Colvin, just published and for sale by the Derry-Collard Company, 256257 Broadway, New York, N. Y. It contains 144 pages, is fully illustrated, and has ten special inserts showing the different types of compounds. It tells how to locate blows, test for leaks, what to do in case of breakdowns and how to make repairs, notes on drifting, valve motion, disconnecting, and describes what might happen if disconnecting was not properly done. Formulas are given for figuring the power of compound locomotives, and tables are given for comparing the power of different types of locomotives. The typographical work is excellent, the illustrations are handsome, and in all it is a work well worthy of space in the library of any progressive engineman. The price of the book is $1.50, and will be sent on approval by the publishers if desired.

The Traveling Engineers' Association. The proceedings of the eleventh annual convention of the Traveling Engineers' Association, which was held at Chicago, Ill., September 8 to 11, 1903, inclusive, has been issued and forms a valuable treatise on railway technical matters. Among the subjects discussed at this convention were the following: "How do you consider the use of the brick arch in engines burning bituminous coal in deep, shallow and wide fireboxes?" "Most satisfactory method of lubricating piston rods"; "The Traveling Engineers' front end arrangement"; "Care and handling of the compound locomotive"; "Main check valve above the water line of boilers"; "The combined straight air and automatic engine and tender brake"; "Is the water glass a valuable adjunct to the successful operation of a locomotive?"

Copies may be obtained for 75 cents and $1, for paper and leather covers respectively, and orders for same may be

sent to Mr. W. O. Thompson, Secretary, Traveling Engineers' Association, Oswego, N. Y.

Official Changes. Effective January 18,

1904, Mr. C. C. Elwell was appointed Superintendent of the Shore Line Division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, vice Mr. J. V. A. Trumbull, resigned.

phone and Telegraph Departments of the Effective February 1, 1904, the TeleNew York, New Haven and Hartford

Railroad were consolidated and placed under the supervision of Mr. N. E. Smith, Superintendent of Telegraph.

Railroad Improvements in Mexico.-The following from United States Consul-General Hanna, Monterey, Mexico, under date of November 26, 1903, in Daily Consular Reports, will be of interest:

I am informed that the work of changing the gauge of the Mexican National Railroad has been completed, and that the entire road, which was until a year ago the longest narrow-gauge railroad in the world, is now standard gauge from Laredo to the City of Mexico, and that standard gauge trains are running over the entire length of this system of railway. The branch road of the Mexican National running from Corpus Christi, Tex., and connecting with the main line at Laredo, has also been changed to standard gauge.

About $13,000,000 gold has been expended in rebuilding the roadbed, changing the gauge, and in furnishing modern railway equipment for this road. Within a short time it is the purpose of the National railroad officials to run through trains from St. Louis to the City of Mexico. The whole system is being equipped in first-class manner, its locomotives and cars were built in the United States, and its passenger trains are equal to those of the trunk lines in the United States.