| Show A FIRELESS airet ESS locomotive odd german switch engine that I 1 Is simple and eff efficient clent philadelphia special agent car den of the united state states revenue cut ter service sends from berlin an ac count of the fireless locomotives nov now used in germany and which he b thinks would be of great service it tz the united states he ile says the germans are turning out a fireless locomotive which in point oi 0 simplicity ingenuity and economy Is I 1 thoroughly characteristic of their nation I 1 have had occasion to ride on one of these fireless locomotives and its type of fireless locomotive used in germany simplicity can be understood when I 1 state that in the cab the mechanism consisted merely of a throttle bar re gear and brake only one man was required to run the machine thus saving raving the expense of a fireman As the name implies the locomotive Is fireless there la Is no firebox in general appearance the machine re the ordinary type of locomotive minus the firebox funnel and other attachments it must be understood that this type of locomotive Is unsuitable for uninterrupted railway service but Is esse essentially a yard shunting machine in other words it must keep near its base of supply and this base of su supply aply Is the boiler of some local power sta tion at this local power station the tank of the locomotive Is filled with steam and on this steam supply the engine will run from tour four to five hours doing ordinary switching work when I 1 entered the cab of one of these switching engines the steam gauge showed a reading of 45 pounds I 1 was informed that two hours bad had elapsed since the boiler bolle r was charged and that steam was taken on at pounds pressure the chief engineer of the works stated that the boiler could limp back to its station even with steam pressure as low as one half an atmosphere |
