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The Breakdown Train

How the road is cleared after accidents on the railway

TWO 70-TON CRANES ABOUT TO SLING a capsized locomotive.

DESPITE unremitting care and the manifold precautions that are adopted to render railway travelling secure, accidents will happen. This inevitable corollary to movement over the steel highway has been responsible in turn for the creation of a special force, maintained to deal with such contingencies. This is the “breakdown gang”, or, as it is called in some countries, picturesquely if not so appropriately, the “wrecking crew”.

A collision or serious derailment throws the working of a railway all sixes and sevens. The streams of traffic sent flowing with marvellous precision are obstructed, and congestion and disorganisation become complete. The public, notoriously fickle and prone to grumble whenever its own convenience or interests are affected, murmurs against delays, and anathematises a system very vigorously if a mishap is permitted to block movement for a very long time, ignoring the fact that massive, powerful locomotives and heavy coaches or wagons which have capsized or piled-up are difficult, cumbersome articles to handle.

The railway manager, who receives the full brunt of public obloquy, fortunately is fully alive to the capriciousness of his patrons. So the order runs: “Clear the line with all speed; never mind how; but clear it!” In Great Britain, where double tracking is the rule and not the exception, the full significance of this fiat may not be so apparent, since often it is possible to maintain communication by working the traffic in both directions over a single line; or possibly it can be diverted so that

the delay is not very appreciable. But in those countries where transportation depends upon a single track, the tangle is disastrous, because both streams of traffic are held up completely. Then the full significance of the clearing order becomes revealed very emphatically. The chaotic mass of twisted steel and splintered timber is thrown to one side or cleared right away with frenzied speed, and with very little consideration of salvage.

THE POWER OF THE MODERN WRECKING CRANE. Swinging a locomotive.

The “breakdown gang” is the emergency phase of railway life. The train engaged in this service is kept intact in its siding ready to answer a call at any hour of the day or night. Every tool — saws, hammers, hatchets, jacks, crow-bars and what-not — is kept in its allotted place. Likewise, the men forming the crew ever are on the alert, so that when the call comes for the “wrecking train”, it is able to respond with the celerity of a fire-engine answering an alarm. Reaching the scene of the catastrophe, work is prosecuted with unflagging energy until the debris is cleared away, and the permanent way is repaired. At night the scene is particularly thrilling. The torn balks of wood are piled into huge heaps and fired, the crew toiling frantically in the fierce ruddy blaze of the pyres and the brilliancy of the flare lamps.

Nowadays the task of the wrecking crew is heroic indeed, owing to the increased weights and dimensions of locomotives and rolling-stock. When an engine may tip the scale at 80 or 100 tons; when a passenger coach 60 feet in length, may weigh 40 tons; and when a high capacity wagon, 40½ feet in length, representing 16 tons, filled with goods aggregating another 44 tons, are jumbled into a heterogeneous heap, truly herculean effort is required to straighten things out.

THE WRECKING CRANE AT WORK. Clearing the steel highway. Accidents will happen in spite of the most eleaborate precautions. In order to restore communication in the minimum of time, wonderful and powerful cranes capable of slinging a locomotive weighing 150 tons have been designed.

Therefore, in order to be able to comply with the clearing order, the implements used by the breakdown gang must be of unusual design and power. Indeed, the designing of such equipment has become a highly specialised branch of railway engineering. It was not so many years ago that a small crane of 15 tons capacity proved completely adequate for wrecking operations, but to-day such a tool would be worse than useless upon the great railways of the world. Accordingly, as the mechanical engineer has evolved larger and heavier engines, coaches and wagons, so has the crane-builder progressed in the augmentation of the capacity of his wrecking crane, until to-day a locomotive weighing 120 or more tons can be picked up and slung bodily through the air as easily as if it weighed only a matter of ounces. Recently, the top-notch in this peculiar field has been attained by an American firm. The Industrial Works, of Bay City, Michigan, has perfected a mammoth crane of 150 tons capacity, which is at present the most powerful in service.

This particular firm has made the wrecking crane one of its special studies, with the result that it is able to meet all requirements with the foregoing monster, or will supply a small implement able to lift only 5 tons or so. But it is the heavier type of crane which arouses the greatest interest, inasmuch as the design of such an implement within the limits of railway working bristles with many peculiar difficulties. In these Industrial Works’ machines all technical questions have been answered in a highly successful manner. So far as the land of their origin is concerned, the demand for cranes of this character, owing to the dimensions and weights of the locomotives now in vogue, tends towards a crane varying in capacity from 60 to 120 tons, with perhaps an enhanced request for those ranging between 60 and 75 tons. Such lifting powers are sufficient to meet all ordinary demands, as cranes up to this rating are quite capable of coping with the average Pullman car, and the box type of wagon, representing 60 tons in loaded condition. Consequently it is the crane able to lift from 60 to 75 tons which is most generally seen. In view of the fact that, in the case of a big accident, the average wrecking train is likely to include at least two such cranes, it is quite feasible to handle a locomotive running up to 130 tons in weight.

HOW THE TRACK IS CLEARED WITH FRENZIED HASTE. An Industrial Works 70-ton crane clearing the debris of a derailed mineral train. The ponderous steel cars are lifted bodily.

These cranes are imposing, substantial creations with massive frames of iron and steel. The framework varies from 24 feet 1½  inches in length by 9 feet 6 inches in width, in the case of the 60-ton machine, to 26 feet inches long by the same width, in the case of the 120-ton crane. In every instance the body is carried upon two four-wheeled trucks, having steel wheels and correspondingly heavy hubs and journals. The boom in each instance is short and heavy, the overhang being reduced to the smallest possible limits, for convenience in travelling. Each truck is fitted with an air-brake, while one truck has a hand-brake attachment with removable staff. Seeing that the crane is restricted to the track, and is compelled to fulfil its work often at awkward angles, so as to get a perfect lifting and pulling grip upon the wreckage, it is made revolving, the whole slewing round upon a heavy turntable. In the case of the 60- and 75-ton cranes, the slewing in either direction is accomplished by means of a double friction clutch and gearing, so that it is unnecessary to reverse the engine for such work.

The engines are double; those for the 50- to 100-ton cranes have cylinders of 9 inches diameter bv 12 inches stroke; while the 120-ton crane has cylinders with a diameter and stroke of 12 inches. In all cases the Stephenson link reversing motion is used to enable the engines to be operated in either direction when required. The boiler is of the submerged flue type, the dimensions varying according to the capacity of the crane. In the higher-powered machines — those ranging from 100 to 120 tons capacity — stability is assured by means of a complete system of telescopic outriggers on rollers, all of which are self-contained within the car body, the centre outrigger being provided with special ratchet mechanism for pulling it in either direction.

The very character of the work of the railway wrecking crew demands quick operation, and in the designing of the above machines this salient factor has not been overlooked. In the majority of cases the implement is called upon to handle loads far below the rated capacity. Consequently, ease and dispatch in working are essential features. At the same time the crane must be able to lift its maximum load with equal ease and celerity when the occasion demands. These machines likewise meet this consideration very completely. They are able to hoist the heaviest rated load at the rate of 10 to 15 feet per minute, which, as experience has shown, is adequate for ordinary purposes. Slewing is equally rapid, the 120-ton crane being able to swing a light or maximum load a complete revolution in sixty seconds.

As may be supposed, these cranes are of immense weight. The 60-ton crane, for instance, including all equipment and in working order, weighs approximately 68½ tons, distributed over a wheel-base of 17 feet 6 inches, while the 120-ton crane weighs, under similar working conditions, 95 tons, which is distributed over a wheelbase of 19 feet 8 inches. In the latter machine there is sufficient rope on the main hoisting drum to operate the block a distance of 30 feet from the boom.

THE MOST POWERFUL WRECKING CRANE YET BUILT. This appliance, designed by the Industrial Works, is able to lift 150 short tons at 17 feet radius.

At times the wrecking crews upon the railways of North America are called upon to perform almost superhuman work. On one occasion cranes of this type removed the wreck of a train which had jumped the rails through fouling an obstruction, and had plunged into a river 30 feet below. The result was a terrifying pile of huge box-wagons, packed upon the top of the submerged locomotive. Two 75-ton wrecking cranes, however, made short work of the scrap-heap. The majority of the wagons had broken up, and had to be retrieved in large pieces, which were deposited upon trucks for removal to the yards. Those wagons which were not seriously damaged were lifted bodily in the air, notwithstanding that they represented a dead load of 50 tons or more, and were re-deposited upon the metals to be hauled slowly to the nearest sidings. In order to regain the locomotive, which was about 10 or 15 feet under water, divers were required. With great difficulty they burrowed under the engine, which had buried itself deeply in the mud, and finally they got heavy chain slings beneath it. When the word to haul away was given, the cranes spluttered and creaked and tugged desperately at the chains. The engine was reluctant to leave its slimy couch, but at last, with a kind of kick, it came away, and was drawn up on the embankment just clear of the water. It was a heavy Consolidation, scaling some 70 tons, but when it was high and dry, and with the chains still taut, the wrecking crew scrambled over and under it, attaching a new sling.

The “haul-away” order once more was rapped out, the cranes tugged at the load, and in a few seconds the engine was swinging in the air, slung round, and was deposited without a jar upon the metals ready to be hauled back, battered and torn, to the repair shops.

On another occasion a passenger train had come to grief by tumbling through a burnt-out trestle bridge into a mountain rift some 35 feet in depth. The coaches were packed in a ghastly heap, and the superstructure in the majority of cases had been tom from the trucks by the impact of the fall. The wrecking crane was drawn up to the brink of the gap, and the crew swarmed over the pile, attaching the chains to the larger pieces. Then the crane engine snorted and groaned, the hoisting chain was drawn as taut as a bow string, and with a rending and splitting the roof and one wall of a Pullman coach was pulled away, swung round, and dumped upon the embankment for the time being. The locomotive was not to be seen, being covered by the wreckage of the coaches. When at last the crew were able to reach the engine it presented a sorry sight. It was battered

out of recognition. The boiler had been crushed in and torn off the frame. But within a few hours its remains were cleared out of the rift, and were piled up on trucks ready for removal to the scrap heap.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE MODERN WRECKING CRANE. A locomotive which had tumbled through an open drawbridge being lifted out bodily.

But possibly the most impressive illustration of the power of the modern wrecking crane was in the reclamation of a big Mikado scaling a round 100 tons. The engine had been derailed, and had tumbled over on its side, breaking its couplings and throwing its tender athwart the track. The breakdown crane was brought up, and under its own steam — the majority of these cranes are able to propel themselves at about 4 miles an hour, so as to move up to the most favourable points of attack — it crawled towards the tender, which had been wrenched free. In the course of a few minutes this part of the locomotive was whisked out of the way. Then slings were passed

under the locomotive, and it was lifted into the air clear of the track. The crane backed out of the way with its load, to permit the traffic, which had been held up, to pass over the repaired permanent way. At night, in the glare of powerful flare lamps, the crew set themselves to the task of restoring the locomotive to its normal upright position on the rails — a job which was by no means easy. Then the breakdown train was re-made up, and started off, dragging the two parts of the locomotive behind it as far as the nearest divisional point, where it was repaired sufficiently to be run back to the shops for overhaul. The ease with which the huge, ungainly weight of 100 tons odd was slung through the air, however, served to convey a very forceful idea of the enormous power possessed by the crane.

Although a crane of 150-ton lifting capacity is now in service, it is by no means indicative of the limit in this direction. Upon many foreign railways engines weighing from 200 to 400 tons are in operation. The crane-builder is compelled to keep pace with the advances of the locomotive engineer, but with engines of the foregoing weight the difficulties of design along the lines heretofore followed become increasingly complex. Indeed, it is maintained in some quarters that the 150-ton crane represents practically the extreme limits of such design. The enormous concentrated weight imposes a supreme tax upon bridges, trestles, and similar works, while, moreover, the limitations concerning height and width have to be borne in mind.

AN INDUSTRIAL WORKS' BREAKDOWN CRANE lifting a wagon body and its load to

afford access to the wheel truck.

Under these circumstances it is believed generally that the crane of the future will follow quite different lines. In this connection the Stokes articulated crane offers a very complete solution of the problem. This machine has been invented by Mr. Wilfred Stokes, the Managing Director of the Ipswich engineering firm of Ransomes and Rapier, Limited. The scope of this patent is the temporary increase of the wheel-base, together with the number of wheels upon which the weight of the crane is distributed. The crane carriage is mounted upon an eight-wheeled truck, with a four-wheeled bogie at each end, provided with a detachable articulated relieving girder, which can be attached or detached quickly from the headstock of the crane carriage by withdrawing a pin. Suitable arrangements are incorporated with each bogie for transferring some of the load of the crane on to the former by means of this relieving girder. The bogie is free to swivel about the pin at the end of the relieving girder, while the relieving girder itself also is free to move laterally about its pin, connecting it to the headstock. Thus the fixed wheel-base of the crane is not increased by the addition of the bogies. The arrangement certainly is very flexible and suitable for running round sharp curves.

A NASTY SMASH: the locomotive fell through an open drawbridge on to the deck of a vessel which happened to be passing at the moment: the latter was sunk by the impact.

When the bogies are detached they can be lifted out of the way by the crane itself — slings are provided for this purpose — and can be deposited either on another track or elsewhere until required. The relieving girders are carried by the bogies in such a way as to be moved easily, either vertically or horizontally, so as to facilitate the insertion or withdrawal of the connecting pin. Thus coupling up or relieving only occupies from three to four minutes.

One of the first cranes built upon this principle was for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, wherein the weight supported by each axle is 16¼ tons when the bogies are removed, and only 10¼ tons per axle when the bogies are attached for travelling. The wheel-base of the crane itself is 13 feet 3 inches, and 40 feet 3 inches with the two bogies. Prior to its dispatch to India this new type of crane was subjected to interesting and severe tests in England to demonstrate its advantages. Experience has confirmed very completely the contentions of the builders, and railway engineers have not failed to appreciate the fact that the articulated system offers a highly satisfactory means of securing heavy breakdown cranes for any class of work, without overstraining existing bridges and other works over which they may have to pass during transit.

THE STOKES ARTICULATED CRANE, BUILT BY MESSRS. RANSOMES AND RAPIER, LIMITED, at their Ipswich works for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Showing how the relieving bogies can be detached and slung clear of the road to allow the crane to be brought up closer to its work.

This articulated wrecking crane, of 5 feet 6 inch gauge, is able to lift 20 tons at a radius of 19 feet. In working order the weight of the crane alone is about 65 tons; complete with bogies approximately 78 tons.

Although designed essentially for wrecking purposes, the duties of these powerful machines are by no means confined to such operations. They constitute a handy tool to the railway engineer when bridges have to be rebuilt, while they are also exceedingly useful for handling heavy loads in the construction shops and yards. For instance, a defect in one of the wheels of a loaded high-capacity wagon may be discovered suddenly, rendering movement of the vehicle dangerous. Instead of removing the contents to another car, the breakdown crane is brought along, the vehicle and its load intact are lifted, and the repair is effected without disturbing the contents of the wagon. Again, when such a laden vehicle becomes derailed through fouling points, and the bogie trucks become damaged or thrown out of alignment, the wrecking crane enables the car to be replaced on the metals upon new trucks. Thus it will be seen that, taken on the whole, the “wrecking crane” is fully employed upon work widely divergent from that for which it was primarily designed.

THE LOCOMOTIVE LIFTED FROM THE RIVER and being replaced upon a temporary

track by the wrecking cranes.

Read more on “Accidents and the Breakdown Train”, “Railway Accidents” and “The Railways Daily Work” on this website.