. The railroad and engineering journal . of the early locomotives built in thiscountry were built to burn wood. The Baltimore & OhioRailroad was, perhaps, the only pioneer road that commencedby using coal for fuel, and even on that line many locomotivesburned wood. As the weight of locomotives was increasedand coal was substituted for wood, larger fire-boxes were re-quired, and this led to the abandonment of the hemispherical-topped furnace, which was not well adapted to fire-boxeswhose length was materially greater than their width, and thesemi-cylindrical form which was first used, was subst
. The railroad and engineering journal . of the early locomotives built in thiscountry were built to burn wood. The Baltimore & OhioRailroad was, perhaps, the only pioneer road that commencedby using coal for fuel, and even on that line many locomotivesburned wood. As the weight of locomotives was increasedand coal was substituted for wood, larger fire-boxes were re-quired, and this led to the abandonment of the hemispherical-topped furnace, which was not well adapted to fire-boxeswhose length was materially greater than their width, and thesemi-cylindrical form which was first used, was substituted inits place. In these, the crown-sheets were usually stayed withcrown-bars placed either lengthwise or crosswise on the topof the fire-box. At first the cylindrical tops of the furnaces were madeflush with the tops of the barrels of the boilers, but thisform was succeeded by what is known as the wagon-topform of boiler, which was first used in the Rogers Worksin 1850. The tops of the furnaces, in the boilers of this Fig. Fig. 29. have to perform. A description of the different forms andmethods of construction of these organs, which were adoptedand in use at various times, will, therefore, become a sort ofcomparative anatomy of American locomotives. This mayconveniently be divided into three parts—one relating to theboiler, another to the engines, and a third to the carriage orrunning-gear. These will be taken up in succession. THE BOILER. The boiler of the Sandusky, the first engine built byMessrs. Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor, was substantially thesame as that of the Stephenson engines, of what is known asthe Planet class, that is, the top of the furnace was semi-cylindrical in form, and flush, or nearly flush, with the top ofthe barrel of the boiler. The horizontal section of the fire-boxbelow the barrel of the boiler was square, or nearly so. In 1S37, Mr. Bury was made locomotive superintendent ofthe London iV Birmingham Railway in England, which gavehim an oppo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1887
