. The street railway review . theties. The bottom of the conduit is filled with fine, brokenconcrete, mashed in and thoroughly rammed, before theties are laid in the trench. Having prepared the roadbedin this manner there remains beneath the ties a solid blockof unbroken concrete, of the width of the track and overtwo feet in thickness. After excavating the trenchthe track is laid, joined together temporarily by fishplates, tamped, lined, .surfaced and completely finishedin every particular before the joints are cast. The ap-paratus for casting the joints consists of a cupola furnacemounted on
. The street railway review . theties. The bottom of the conduit is filled with fine, brokenconcrete, mashed in and thoroughly rammed, before theties are laid in the trench. Having prepared the roadbedin this manner there remains beneath the ties a solid blockof unbroken concrete, of the width of the track and overtwo feet in thickness. After excavating the trenchthe track is laid, joined together temporarily by fishplates, tamped, lined, .surfaced and completely finishedin every particular before the joints are cast. The ap-paratus for casting the joints consists of a cupola furnacemounted on a heavy truck. The cupola is two feet in di-ameter, brick lined, and the blast is furnished by a No. 5Sturtevant blower, driven at 1800 revolutions per minute,by a 5-h-p. motor, which receives its current from thetrolley. The cupola is operated as is usual in a foundryand the iron used is one-half best soft gray pig and one-half selected scrap. The scrap consists of old gearwheels, man-hole covers and frames, an abundance of. BLASTING CAR CITIZEN S RAILWAY, ST. LOUIS. PORTABLE CUPOLA FOR CASTING JOINTS. which are found in the scrap heap of the railway. Thefurnace works very rapidly and in twenty minutes afterthe blast is turned on the iron is ready to pour. It maythen be tapped as long as the charging is continued at thetop. As the machine has been operated on the Citizensrailway, about twelve hundred feet of track has been pre-pared and all the joints moulded in one heat. As manyas seventy-two joints have been poured at one meltingand it is probable that ninety or one hundred could bemade before shutting down the furnace to renew thelining. The preparation of the joint for casting is as follows :The fish-plates are first taken off and the rail ends forabout 8 inches back polished with garnet paper. If thereis any opening between the rails it is closed by molds consisting of two castings made to fit the railare then placed about the joint and clamped in he
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Keywords: ., book, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectstreetrailroads
