CHAPTER VI.

HANDLING A TRACTION ENGINE ON THE ROAD.

It is something of a trick to handle a traction engine on the road. The novice is almost certain to run it into a ditch the first thing, or get stuck on a hill, or in a sand patch or a mudhole. Some attention must therefore be paid to handling a traction engine on the road.

In the first place, never pull the throttle open with a jerk, nor put down the reverse lever with a snap. Handle your engine deliberately and thoughtfully, knowing beforehand just what you wish to do and how you will do it. A traction engine is much like an ox; try to goad it on too fast and it will stop and turn around on you. It does its best work when moving slowly and steadily, and seldom is anything gained by rushing.

The first thing for an engineer to learn is to handle his throttle. When an engine is doing work the throttle should be wide open; but on the road, or in turning, backing, etc., the engineer’s hand must be on the throttle all the time and he must exercise a nice judgment as to just how much steam the engine will need to do a certain amount of work. This the novice will find out best by opening the throttle slowly, taking all the time he needs, and never allowing any one to hurry him.

As an engineer learns the throttle, he gradually comes to have confidence in it. As it were, he feels the pulse of the animal and never makes a mistake. Such an engineer always has power to spare, and never wastes any power. He finds that a little is often much better than too much.

The next thing to learn is the steering wheel. It has tricks of its own, which one must learn by practice. Most young engineers turn the wheel altogether too much. If you let your engine run slowly you will have time to turn the wheel slowly, and accomplish just what you want to do. If you hurry you will probably have to do your work all over again, and so lose much more time in the end than if you didn’t hurry.

Always keep your eyes on the front wheels of the engine, and do not turn around to see how your load is coming on. Your load will take care of itself if you manage the front wheels all right, for they determine where you are to go.

In making a hard turn, especially, go slow. Then you will run no chance of losing control of your engine, and you can see that neither you nor your load gets into a ditch.

GETTING INTO A HOLE.

You are sure sooner or later to get into a hole in the road, for a traction engine is so heavy it is sure to find any soft spot in the road there may be.

As to getting out of a hole, observe in the first place that you must use your best judgment.

First, never let the drive wheels turn round without doing any work. The more they spin round without helping you, the worse it will be for you.

Your first thought must be to give the drive wheels something they can climb on, something they can stick to. A heavy chain is perhaps the very best thing you can put under them. But usually on the road you have no chain handy. In that case, you must do what you can. Old hay or straw will help you; and so will old rails or any old timber.

Spend your time trying to give your wheels something to hold to, rather than trying to pull out. When the wheels are all right, the engine will go on its way without any trouble whatever. And do not half do your work of fixing the wheels before you try to start. See that both wheels are secure before you put on a pound of steam. Make sure of this the first time you try, and you will save time in the end. If you fix one wheel and don’t fix the other, you will probably spoil the first wheel by starting before the other is ready.

Should you be where your engine will not turn, then you are stuck indeed. You must lighten your load or dig a way out.

BAD BRIDGES.

A traction engine is so heavy that the greatest care must be exercised in crossing bridges. If a bridge floor is worn, if you see rotten planks in it, or liability of holes, don’t pull on to that bridge without taking precautions.

The best precaution is to carry with you a couple of planks sixteen feet long, three inches thick in the middle, tapering to two inches at the ends; also a couple of planks eight feet long and two inches thick, the latter for culverts and to help out on long bridges.

Before pulling on to a bad looking bridge, lay down your planks, one for each pair of wheels of the engine to run on. Be exceedingly careful not to let the engine drop off the edge of these planks on the way over, or pass over the ends on to the floor of the bridge. If one pair of planks is too short, use your second pair.

Another precaution which it is wise to take is to carry fifty feet of good, stout hemp rope, and when you come to a shaky bridge, attach your separator to the engine by this rope at full length, so that the engine will have crossed the bridge before the weight of the separator comes upon it.

Cross a bad bridge very slowly. Nothing will be gained by hurrying. There should especially be no sudden jerks or starts.

SAND PATCHES.

A sandy road is an exceedingly hard road to pull a load over.

In the first place, don’t hurry over sand. If you do you are liable to break the footing of the wheels, and then you are gone.

In the second place, keep your engine as steady and straight as possible, so that both wheels will always have an equal and even bearing. They are less liable to slip if you do. It is useless to try to “wiggle” over a sand patch. Slow, steady, and even is the rule.

If your wheels slip in sand, a bundle of straw or hay, especially old hay, will be about the best thing to give them a footing.

HILLS.

In climbing hills take the same advice we have given you all along: Go slow. Nothing is gained by rushing at a hill with a steam engine. Such an engine works best when its force is applied steadily and evenly, a little at a time.

If you have a friction clutch, as you probably will have, you should be sure it is in good working order before you attempt to climb hills. It should be adjusted to a nicety, as we have already explained. When you come to a bad hill it would probably be well to put in the tight gear pin; or use it altogether in a hilly country.

When the friction clutch first came into use, salesmen and others used to make the following recommendation (a recommendation which we will say right here is bad). They said, when you come to an obstacle in the road that you can’t very well get your engine over, throw off your friction clutch from the road wheels, let your engine get under good headway running free, and then suddenly put on the friction clutch and jerk yourself over the obstacle.

Now this is no doubt one way to get over an obstacle; but no good engineer would take his chances of spoiling his engine by doing any such thing with it. Some part of it would be badly strained by such a procedure; and if this were done regularly all through a season, an engine would be worth very little at the end of the season.