CHAPTER EIGHT.
MRS. MARROT AND BOB VISIT THE GREAT CLATTERBY "WORKS."
We cannot presume to say what sort of a smiddy Vulcan's was, but we feelstrongly inclined to think that if that gentleman were to visit theworks of the Grand National Trunk Railway, which are about the finest ofthe kind in the kingdom, he would deem his own old shop a veryinsignificant affair!
The stupendous nature of the operations performed there; the colossalgrandeur of the machinery employed; the appalling power of the forcescalled into action; the startling _chiaro scuro_ of the furnaces; theHerculean activity of the 3500 "hands;" the dread pyrotechnic displays;the constant din and clangour--pshaw! the thing is beyond conception."Why then," you will say, "attempt description?" Because, reader, oftwo evils we always choose the less. Description is better thannothing. If you cannot go and see and hear for yourself, there isnothing left for you but to fall back on description.
But of all the sights to be seen there, the most interesting, perhaps,and the most amusing, was the visage of worthy Mrs Marrot as shefollowed Will Garvie and her son, and gazed in rapt amazement at theoperations, and listened to the sounds, sometimes looking all round witha half-imbecile expression at the rattling machinery, at other timesfixing her eyes intently down on one piece of mechanism in the vain hopeof penetrating its secrets to the core. Bob was not much less amazedthan his mother, but he had his sharp wits about him, and was keenlyalive to the delight of witnessing his mother's astonishment.
The works covered several acres of ground, and consisted of a group ofhuge buildings which were divided into different departments, and inthese the railway company manufactured almost every article used on theline--from a locomotive engine to a screw-nail.
Here, as we have said, above 3500 men and boys were at work, and allsorts of trades were represented. There were draughtsmen to makedesigns, and, from these, detailed working drawings. Smiths to forgeall the wrought-iron-work, with hammermen as assistants. Pattern-makersto make wooden patterns for castings. Moulders, including loam,dry-sand and green-sand moulders and brass-founders. Dressers to dressthe rough edges off the castings when brought from the foundry. Turnersin iron and brass. Planers and nibblers, and slotters and drillers.Joiners and sawyers, and coach-builders and painters. Fitters anderecters, to do the rougher and heavier part of fitting the enginestogether. Boiler-makers, including platers or fitters, caulkers andriveters. Finishers to do the finer part of fitting--details andpolishing. In short almost every trade in the kingdom concentrated inone grand whole and working harmoniously, like a vast complex machine,towards one common end--the supply of railway rolling-stock, or "plant"to the line.
All these were busy as bees, for they were engaged on the equitablesystem of "piece-work,"--which means that each man or boy was paid foreach piece of work done, instead of being paid by time, which of courseinduced each to work as hard as he could in order to make much aspossible--a system which suited both masters and men. Of course thereare some sorts of employment where it would be unjust to pay men by theamount of work done--as, for instance, in some parts of tin-mines, wherea fathom of rock rich in tin is as difficult to excavate as a fathom ofrock which is poor in tin--but in work such as we are describing thepiece-work system suits best.
Like a wise general, Will Garvie began with the department in which theless astonishing operations were being performed. This was the timberand sawing department.
Here hard wood, in all sizes and forms, was being licked into shape bymachinery in a way and with an amount of facility that was eminentlycalculated to astonish those whose ideas on such matters had beenfounded on the observation of the laborious work of human carpenters.The very first thing that struck Bob Marrot was that the tools were soheavy, thick, and strong that the biggest carpenter he had ever seenwould not have been able to use them. Bob's idea of a saw had hithertobeen a long sheet of steel with small teeth, that could be easily bentlike a hoop--an implement that went slowly through a plank, and that hadoften caused his arm to ache in being made to advance a few inches; buthere he saw circular steel-discs with fangs more than an inch long,which became invisible when in a state of revolution.
"What _is_ that?" said Mrs Marrot concentrating herself on one of theseimplements, after having indulged in a stare of bewildered curiosityround the long shed.
"That's a circular saw," replied Will Garvie; "one of the large ones,--about four feet in diameter."
"A saw!" exclaimed Mrs Marrot, in surprise. "W'y, Will, it's round.How can a round thing saw? An' it han't got no 'andle! How could anyman lay 'old of it to saw?"
"The carpenter here don't require no handles," replied Will. "He's aqueer fellow is the carpenter of this shop, as well as powerful. Heworks away from morning till night with the power of more than a hundredhorses, an' does exactly what he's bid without ever making any mistakesor axin' any questions. He's a steam-carpenter, Missis, but indeed he'sa jack-of-all-trades, and carries 'em on all at the same time. See,they're goin' to set him to work now--watch and you shall see."
As he spoke, two men approached the circular saw bearing a thick log ofoak. One of them fitted it in position, on rollers, with its edgetowards the saw; then he seized a handle, by means of which he connectedthe steam-carpenter with the saw, which instantly revolved so fast thatthe teeth became invisible; at the same time the plank advanced rapidlyand met the saw. Instantly there was a loud hissing yet ringing sound,accompanied by a shower of sawdust, and, long before Mrs Marrot hadrecovered from her surprise, the log was cut into two thick substantialplanks.
After two or three more had been cut up in this way in as many minutes,Will Garvie said--
"Now, let's see what they do with these planks. Come here."
He led them to a place close beside the saw, where there was a strongiron machine, to one part of which was attached a very large chisel--itmight have been equal to two or three dozen of the largest ordinarychisels rolled into one. This machine was in motion, but apparently ithad been made for a very useless purpose, for it was going vigorously upand down at the time cutting the atmosphere!
"It's like a lot of people as I knows of," observed Mrs Marrot, "verybusy about nothin'."
"It'll have somethin' to do soon, mother," said Bob, who was alreadybeginning to think himself very knowing.
Bob was right. One of the oak-planks had been measured and marked formortice-holes in various ways according to pattern, and was now handedover to the guardian of the machine, who, having had it placed onrollers, pushed it under the chisel and touched a handle. Down came theimplement, and cut into the solid wood as if it had been mere putty. Adozen cuts or so in one direction, then round it went--for this chiselcould be turned with its face in either direction without stopping itfor the purpose--another dozen cuts were made, and an oblong hole ofthree or four inches long by two broad and three deep was made in theplank in a few seconds.
Even Mrs Marrot had sufficient knowledge of the arts to perceive thatthis operation would have cost a human carpenter a very much greateramount of time and labour, and that therefore there must have been aconsiderable saving of expense. Had she been aware of the fact thathundreds of such planks were cut, marked, morticed, and turned out ofhands every week all the year round, and every year continuously, shewould have had a still more exalted conception of the saving of time,labour, and expense thus effected.
The guardian of the chisel having in a few minutes cut the requisitehalf dozen or so of holes, guided the plank on rollers towards apile, where it was laid, to be afterwards carried off to thecarriage-builders, who would fit it as one side of a carriage-frame toits appropriate fellow-planks, which had all been prepared in the sameway.
Not far from this machine the visitors were shown another, in whichseveral circular saws of smaller dimensions than the first were at workin concert, and laid at different angles to each other, so that when aplank was given into their clutches it received cuts and slices incertain parts during its passage thro
ugh the machine, and came out muchmodified and improved in form--all that the attendants had to do merelybeing to fit the planks in their places and guide them safely throughthe ordeal. Elsewhere Mrs Marrot and Bob beheld a frame--full ofgigantic saws cut a large log into half a dozen planks, all in onesweep, in a few minutes--work which would have drawn the sweat from thebrows of two saw-pit men for several hours. One thing that attractedthe attention of Bob very strongly was the simple process ofhole-boring. Of course, in forming the massive frames of railwaycarriages, it becomes necessary to bore numerous holes for large nailsor bolts. Often had Bob, at a neighbouring seaport, watched the heavywork and the slow progress of ship-carpenters as they pierced the planksof ships with augers; but here he beheld what he called, "augers anddrills gone mad!"--augers small and great whirling furiously, or, as Bobput it, "like all possessed." Some acting singly, others actingtogether in rows of five or six; and these excited things wereperpetually whirling, whether at work or not, ready for service at amoment's notice. While Bob was gazing at one huge drill--probably aninch and a half broad, if not more--a man came up to it with a plank, onthe surface of which were several dots at various distances. He put theplank under the drill, brought it down on a dot, whizz went the drill,and straightway there was a huge round hole right through almost beforeBob had time to wink,--and Bob was a practised hand at winking. Severalholes were bored in this way, and then the plank was carried to anothermachine, where six lesser holes were drilled at one and the same time bysix furious little augers; and thus the planks passed on from onemachine to another until finished, undergoing, in the course of a fewminutes, treatment that would have cost them hours of torture had theybeen manipulated by human hands, in addition to which the work was mostbeautifully, and perfectly, and regularly done.
Many other operations did the visitors behold in this department--allmore or less interesting and, to them, surprising--so that Mrs Marrotwas induced at last to exclaim--
"W'y, Willum, it seems to me that if you go on improvin' things at thisrate there won't be no use in a short time for 'uman 'ands at all.We'll just 'ave to sit still an' let machinery do our work for us, an'all the trades-people will be throwd out of employment."
"How can you say that, Missis," said Will Garvie, "you bein' old enoughto remember the time w'en there wasn't five joiners' shops in Clatterby,with p'rhaps fifty men and boys employed, and now there's hundreds ofjoiners, and other shops of all kinds in the town, besides these hererailway works which, as you know, keeps about 3500 hands goin' all theyear round?"
"That's so, Willum," assented Mrs Marrot in a meditative tone.
Thus meditating, she was conducted into the smiths' department.
Here about 140 forges and 400 men were at work. Any one of these forgeswould have been a respectable "smiddy" in a country village. They stoodas close to each other as the space would allow,--so close that theirshowers of sparks intermingled, and kept the whole shed more or less inthe condition of a chronic eruption of fireworks. To Bob's young mindit conveyed the idea of a perpetual keeping of the Queen's birthday. Tohis mother it was suggestive of singed garments and sudden loss ofsight. The poor woman was much distressed in this department at first,but when she found, after five minutes or so, that her garments wereunscathed, and her sight still unimpaired, she became reconciled to it.
In this place of busy vulcans--each of whom was the beau-ideal of "thevillage blacksmith," all the _smaller_ work of the railway was done. Asa specimen of this smaller work, Will Garvie drew Mrs Marrot'sattention to the fact that two vulcans were engaged in twisting red-hotiron bolts an inch and a half thick into the form of hooks with as muchapparent ease as if they had been hair-pins. These, he said, were hooksfor couplings, the hooks by which railway carriages were attachedtogether, and on the strength and unyielding rigidity of which the livesof hundreds of travellers might depend.
The bending of them was accomplished by means of a powerful lever. Itwould be an endless business to detail all that was done in thisworkshop. Every piece of comparatively small iron-work used in theconstruction of railway engines, carriages, vans, and trucks, from adoor-hinge to a coupling-chain, was forged in that smithy. Passingonward, they came to a workshop where iron castings of all kinds werebeing made; cylinders, fire-boxes, etcetera,--and a savage-looking placeit was, with numerous holes and pits of various shapes and depths in theblack earthy floor, which were the moulds ready, or in preparation, forthe reception of the molten metal. Still farther on they passed througha workroom where every species of brass-work was being made. And hereBob Marrot was amazed to find that the workmen turned brass onturning-lathes with as much facility as if it had been wood. Some ofthe pieces of brazen mechanism were very beautiful and delicate--especially one piece, a stop-cock for letting water into a boiler, thevarious and complex parts of which, when contrasted with the hugeworkmanship of the other departments, resembled fine watch-work.
As they passed on, Bob observed a particularly small boy, in whom heinvoluntarily took a great and sudden interest--he looked so small, sothin, so intelligent, and, withal, so busy.
"Ah, you may well look at him," said Will Garvie, observing Bob's gaze."That boy is one of the best workers of his age in the shop."
"What is 'e doin'?" inquired Bob.
"He's preparin' nuts for screws," replied Will, "and gets one penny forevery hundred. Most boys can do from twelve to fourteen hundred a day,so, you see, they can earn from six to seven shillin's a week; but thatlittle feller--they call him Tomtit Dorkin--earns a good deal more, Ibelieve, and he has much need to, for he has got an old granny tosupport. That's the work that you are soon to be set to, lad."
"Is it?" said Bob, quite pleased at the notion of being engaged in thesame employment with Tomtit; "I'm glad to 'ear it. You see, mother,when you gits to be old an' 'elpless, you'll not need to mind, 'cause_I'll_ support you."
The next place they visited was the great point of attraction to Bob.It was the forge where the heavy work was done, and where the celebratedhammer and terrific pair of scissors performed their stupendous work.
At the time the visitors entered this department the various hammerschanced to be at rest, nevertheless even Mrs Marrot's comparativelyignorant mind was impressed by the colossal size and solidity of theiron engines that surrounded her. The roof of the shed in which theystood had been made unusually high in order to contain them.
"Well, I s'pose the big 'ammer that Bob says is as 'eavy as five cartsof coals must be 'ereabouts?" observed Mrs Marrot looking round.
"Yes, there it is," said Will, pointing in front of him.
"W'ere? I don't see no 'ammer."
"Why there, that big thing just before you," he said, pointing to amachine of iron, shaped something like the letter V turned upside down,with its two limbs on the earth, its stem lost in the obscurity of theroot and having a sort of tongue between the two limbs, which tongue wasa great square block of solid iron, apparently about five feet high andabout three feet broad and deep. This tongue, Will Garvie assured hiscompanion, was the hammer.
"No, no, Willum," said Mrs Marrot, with a smile, "you mustn't expect mefor to believe that. I _may_ believe that the moon is made of greencheese, but I won't believe that that's a 'ammer."
"No: but _is_ it, Bill?" asked Bob, whose eyes gleamed with suppressedexcitement.
"Indeed it is; you shall see presently."
Several stalwart workmen, with bare brawny arms, who were loungingbefore the closed mouth of a furnace, regarded the visitors with someamusement. One of these came forward and said--
"You'd better stand a little way back, ma'am."
Mrs Marrot obediently retreated to a safe distance. Then the stalwartmen threw open the furnace door. Mrs Marrot exclaimed, almostshrieked, with surprise at the intense light which gushed forth, castingeven the modified daylight of the place into the shade. The proceedingsof the stalwart men thereafter were in Mrs Marrot's eyes absolutelyappalling--almost overpowering,--but Mrs M
was tough both in mind andbody. She stood her ground. Several of the men seized something insidethe furnace with huge pincers, tongs, forceps--whatever you choose tocall them--and drew partly out an immense rudely shaped bar or _log_ ofglowing irons thicker than a man's thigh. At the same time a greatchain was put underneath it, and a crane of huge proportions thereaftersustained the weight of the glowing metal. By means of this crane itwas drawn out of the furnace and swung round until its glowing head orend came close to the tongue before mentioned. Then some of thestalwart men grasped several iron handles, which were affixed to thecool end of the bar, and prepared themselves to act. A signal was givento a man who had not hitherto been noticed, he was so small incomparison with the machine on which he stood--perhaps it would bebetter to say to which he stuck, because he was perched on a littleplatform about seven or eight feet from the ground, which was reached byan iron ladder, and looked down on the men who manipulated the iron barbelow.
On receiving the signal, this man moved a small lever. It cost him noeffort whatever, nevertheless it raised the iron tongue about six feetin the air, revealing the fact that it had been resting on anothersquare block of iron embedded in the earth. This latter was the anvil.On the anvil the end of the white-hot bar was immediately laid. Anothersignal was given, and down came the "five-carts-of-coals weight" with athud that shook the very earth, caused the bar partially to flatten asif it had been a bit of putty, and sent a brilliant shower of sparksover the whole place. Mrs Marrot clapped both hands on her face, andcapped the event with a scream. As for Bob, he fairly shouted withdelight.
Blow after blow was given by this engine, and as each blow fell thestalwart men heaved on the iron handles and turned the bar this way andthat way, until it was pounded nearly square. By this time Mrs Marrothad recovered so far as to separate her fingers a little, and venture topeep from behind that protecting screen. By degrees the unwieldy massof misshapen metal was pounded into a cylindrical form, and Will Garvieinformed his friends that this was the beginning of the driving-axle ofa locomotive. Pointing to several of those which had been alreadyforged, each having two enormous iron projections on it which wereafterwards to become the cranks, he said--
"You'll see how these are finished, in another department."
But Mrs Marrot and Bob paid no attention to him. They were fascinatedby the doings of the big hammer, and especially by the cool quiet way inwhich the man with the lever caused it to obey his will. When he movedthe lever up or down a little, up or down went the hammer a little; whenhe moved it a good deal the hammer moved a good deal; when he wasgentle, the hammer was gentle; when he gave a violent push, the hammercame down with a crash that shook the whole place. He could cause it toplunge like lightning to within a hair's-breadth of the anvil and checkit instantaneously so that it should not touch. He could make it patthe red metal lovingly, or pound it with the violence of a fiend.Indeed, so quick and sympathetic were all the movements of thatsteam-hammer that it seemed as though it were gifted with intelligence,and were nervously solicitous to act in prompt obedience to its master'swill. There were eleven steam-hammers of various sizes in thisbuilding, with a staff of 175 men to attend to them, half of which staffworked during the day, and half during the night--besides seven smallersteam-hammers in the smiths' shops and other departments.
With difficulty Will Garvie tore his friends away from the big hammer;but he could not again chain their attention to anything else, until hecame to the pair of scissors that cut iron. With this instrument MrsMarrot at first expressed herself disappointed. It was not like a pairof scissors at all, she said, and in this she was correct, for thesquare clumsy-looking blunt-like mass of iron, about five feet high andbroad, which composed a large portion of it, was indeed very unlike apair of scissors.
"Why, mother," exclaimed Bob, "you didn't surely expect to see two largeholes in it for a giant's thumb and fingers, did you?"
"Well, but," said Mrs Marrot, "it ain't got no blades that I can see."
"I'll let 'ee see 'em, Missis, in a minute," said a workman who came upat that moment with a plate of iron more than a quarter of an inchthick. "Turn it on, Johnny."
A small boy turned on the steam, the machine moved, and Will Garviepointed out to Mrs Marrot the fact that two sharp edges of steel in acertain part of it crossed each other exactly in the manner of a pair ofscissors.
"Well," remarked Mrs M, after contemplating it for some time, "it don'tlook very like scissors, but I'm free to confess that them two bits ofiron _do_ act much in the same way."
"And with the same result, Missus," observed the machine-man, puttingthe plate between the clippers, which, closing quietly, snipped offabout a foot of iron as if it had been paper. There was, however, acrunching sound which indicated great power, and drew from Mrs Marrotan exclamation of surprise not altogether unmingled with alarm.
The man then seized a bit of iron about as thick as his own wrist--fullan inch and a half in diameter--which the scissors cut up into lengthsof eighteen inches or so as easily as if it had been a bar of lead orwood.
"Didn't I say it could cut through the poker, mother?" cried Bob with alook of triumph.
"The poker, boy! it could cut poker, tongs, shovel, and fender, all atonce!" replied Mrs Marrot--"well, I never! can it do anything else?"
In reply to this the man took up several pieces of hard steel, which itsnipped through as easily as it had cut the iron.
But if Mrs Marrot's surprise at the scissors was great, not less greatwas it at the punching machine, which punched little buttons the size ofa sixpence out of cold iron full half-an-inch thick. This viciousimplement not only punched holes all round boiler-plates so as to permitof their being riveted together, but it cut patterns out of thick ironplates by punching rows of such holes so close to each other that theyformed one long cutting, straight or crooked, as might be required. Inshort, the punching machine acted the part of a saw, and cut the ironplates in any shape that was desired. Here also they saw the testing ofengine springs--those springs which to most people appear to have nospring in them whatever--so very powerful are they. One of these waslaid on an iron table, with its two ends resting against an iron plate.A man approached and measured it exactly. Then a hydraulic ram wasapplied; and there was something quite impressive in the easy quiet way,in which the ram shoved a spring, which the weight of a locomotive canscarcely affect, _quite_ _flat_ against the iron plate, and held itthere a moment or two! Being released, the spring resumed its properform. It was then re-measured; found not to have expanded ahair's-breadth, and, therefore,--as Will Garvie took care to explain,--was passed as a sound well-tempered spring; whereat Bob remarked that itwould need to be a good-tempered spring, to suffer such treatmentwithout grumbling.
It seemed to Mrs Marrot now as if her capacity for surprise had reachedits limit; but she little knew the wealth of capacity for creatingsurprise that lay in these amazing "works" of the Grand National TrunkRailway.
The next place she was ushered into was a vast apartment where iron inevery shape, size, and form was being planed and turned and cut. Theceiling of the building, or rather the place where a ceiling ought inordinary circumstances to have been, was alive with moving bands andwhirling wheels. The first thing she was called on to contemplate wasthe turning of the tyre or rim of one of the driving-wheels of alocomotive. Often had Mrs Marrot heard her husband talk of tyres anddriving-wheels, and many a time had she seen these wheels whirling,half-concealed, in their appropriate places, but never till that day hadshe seen the iron hoop, eight feet in diameter, elevated in baresimplicity on a turning-lathe, where its size impressed her so much thatshe declared, "she never _could_ 'ave imagined engine-wheels was sobig," and asked, "'ow did they ever manage to get 'em lifted up to w'erethey was?"
To which an overseer kindly replied by pointing out a neat little cranefitted on a tail, which, when required, ran along the apartment like astrong obedient little domestic servant, lifting wheels, etcetera, thata man c
ould scarcely move, and placing them wherever they were wanted.Mrs Marrot was then directed to observe the rim of the wheel, where shesaw a small chisel cutting iron curls off it just as easily, to allappearance, as a turner cuts shavings off wood--and these iron curlswere not delicate; they were thick, solid, unpliant ringlets, that wouldhave formed a suitable decoration for the fair brow of a locomotive, or,perhaps, a chignon--supposing that any locomotive could have beenprevailed on to adopt such a wild monstrosity!
This same species of chisel, applied in different ways, reduced massesof iron in size, planed down flat surfaces, enlarged holes, madecylinders "true" and smooth inside, besides doing a variety of otherthings.
After seeing the large tyre turned, Mrs Marrot could not be induced topay much regard to the various carriage and truck wheels which werebeing treated in a similar manner in that department, but she wasinduced to open her ears, and her eyes too, when the overseer informedher that the "works" turned out complete no fewer than one hundred andthirty pairs of locomotive, carriage, and waggon wheels a week.
"How many did you say?" she asked.
"A hundred and thirty pair of wheels in the week," repeated theoverseer.
"Every week?" asked Mrs Marrot.
"Yes; every week. Sometimes more, sometimes less; but altogether,pretty well on for 6000 pairs of wheels every year."
"W'y, what _do_ you make of 'em all?"
"Oh, we make good use of 'em," replied the overseer, laughing. "We wearthem out so fast that it keeps us working at that rate to meet ournecessities. But that," he continued, "is only a small part of what wedo. We turn out of the works 156 first-class carriages besides manyseconds and thirds, and about 1560 trucks every year; besides threeengines, new and complete, every fortnight."
"Three noo engines every fortnight!" echoed Mrs Marrot; "how many'sthat in the year, Bob?"
"Seventy-eight," replied Bob, promptly. Bob was a swift mentalcalculator, and rather proud of it.
"Where ever do they all go to?" murmured Mrs Marrot.
"Why," replied Will Garvie, "they go to all the stations on the line, ofcourse; some of 'em go to smash at once in cases of accidents, and allof 'em goes to destruction, more or less, in about fifteen or twentyyears. We reckon that to be the life of a locomotive. See, there's adrivin' axle, such as you saw forged by the big hammer, being turnednow, and cut to shape and size by the same sort of machine that you sawcuttin' the tyres."
They passed on, after looking at the axle for a few minutes, until theycame to a part of the building where rails were being forged. Thisalso, although not done by hammer, was a striking process. The placewas so hot owing to the quantity of uncooled metal on the floor, that itwas not possible to remain long; they therefore took a rapid survey. Inone place several men were in the act of conveying to the steam-hammer amass of shapeless white-hot iron, which had just been plucked from afurnace with a pair of grippers. They put it below the hammer for a fewminutes, which soon reduced it to a clumsy bar; then they carried it toa pair of iron rollers driven by steam. The end of the bar beingpresented to these, it was gripped, dragged in between them, and passedout at the other side, flat and very much lengthened, as well asthinned. Having been further reduced by this process, it was finallypassed through a pair of rollers, which gave it shape, and sent it out acomplete rail, ready to be laid down on the line.
Here Garvie took occasion to explain that steel rails, although veryexpensive, were now being extensively used in preference to iron rails,because they lasted much longer. "For instance," he said, "steel costsabout 12 pounds a ton and iron only costs about 7 pounds; but then, d'yesee, steel rails will last two years and more, whereas iron rails getwore out, and have to be renewed every six weeks in places where there'smuch traffic."
"Now, I can't stand no more o' this," said Mrs Marrot, down whose facethe perspiration was streaming; "I'm a'most roasted alive, an' don'tunderstand your explanations one bit, Willum, so come along."
"Oh, mother, _do_ hold on a moment," pleaded Bob, whose mechanical soulwas in a species of paradise.
"You'd better come, Bob," interposed Garvie, "else we won't have time tosee the department where the engines are fitted."
This was sufficient for Bob, who willingly followed.
The fitting shed at that time contained several engines in variousstages of advancement. In one place men were engaged in fittingtogether the iron framework or foundation of a locomotive, with screws,and bolts, and nuts, and rivets. Others were employed near them, on anengine more advanced, in putting on the wheels and placing the boilersand fire-boxes, while another gang were busy covering the boiler of athird engine with a coating of wood and felt, literally for the purposeof keeping it warm, or preventing its heat from escaping. Farther on,three beautiful new engines, that had just been made and stood ready foraction, were receiving a few finishing touches from the painters.Fresh, spotless, and glittering, these were to make their _debut_ on themorrow, and commence their comparatively brief career of furiousactivity--gay things, doomed emphatically to a fast life! Beyond theseyoung creatures lay a number of aged and crippled engines, all more orless disabled and sent there for repair; one to have a burst steam-piperemoved and replaced, another to have a wheel, or a fire-box or acylinder changed; and one, that looked as if it had recently "runa-muck" against all the other engines on the line, stood sulkily grim ina corner, evidently awaiting its sentence of condemnation,--the usualfate of such engines being to be torn, bored, battered, chiselled,clipt, and otherwise cut to pieces, and cast into the furnaces.
While gazing round this apartment, Mrs Marrot's eyes suddenly becametransfixed.
"Wot's the matter _now_?" demanded Bob, in some alarm.
"I _do_ believe--w'y--there's a locomotive _in the air_!" said MrsMarrot in an undertone.
"So it is!" exclaimed Bob.
And, reader, so it was. In that shed they had a crane which rested on aframework overhead, and ran on wheels over the entire shop. It wascapable of lifting above fifty tons' weight and as a large locomotive,ponderous though it be, is not much over twenty tons, of course thisgiant crane made short work of such. When the men have occasion toremove a wheel from the iron horse, not being able to make it lift upits leg, so to speak, to have it taken off, they bring it under thecrane, swing it up as a little boy might swing a toy-cart, and operateon it at their leisure.
Mrs Marrot felt an unpleasant sensation on beholding this. As the wifeof an engine-driver, she had long felt the deepest respect, almostamounting to reverence, for locomotives, in regard to the weight, speed,and irresistible power of which she had always entertained the mostexalted ideas. To see one of the race--and that too, of the largestsize--treated in this humiliating fashion was too much for her, shedeclared that she had seen enough of the "works," and wouldn't on anyaccount remain another minute!
"But you won't go without seein' the carriage and truck department,surely?" said Bob.
"Well, I'll just take a look to please _you_," said the amiable woman.
Accordingly, to the truck and van department they went, and there Bob,whose mind was sharp as a needle, saw a good many pieces of mechanism,which formerly he had only seen in a transition state, now applied totheir ultimate uses. The chiselled, sawn, and drilled planks seen inthe first department, were here being fitted and bolted together in theform of trucks, while the uses of many strange pieces of iron, which hadpuzzled him in the blacksmiths' department, became obvious when fittedto their appropriate woodwork. Here, also, he saw the internalmachinery of railway carriages laid bare, especially the position andshape of the springs that give elasticity to the buffers, which, heobserved, were just the same in shape as ordinary carriage springs,placed so that the ends of the buffer-rods pressed against them.
But all this afforded no gratification to Mrs Marrot, whose sensitivemind dwelt uneasily on the humiliated locomotive, until she suddenlycame on a row of new first-class carriages, where a number of peoplewere employed stuffing cushions.
/> "Well, I declare," she exclaimed, "if here ain't cushion-stuffing goingon! I expect we shall come to coat-and-shift-making for porters andguards, next!"
"No, we haven't got quite that length yet," laughed Will Garvie; "but ifyou look along you'll see gilding, and glazing, and painting going on,at that first-class carriage. Still farther along, in the directionwe're going, is the infirmary."
"The infirmary, Willum!"
"Ay, the place where old and damaged trucks and carriages are sent forrepair. They're all in a bad way, you see,--much in need o' thedoctor's sar'vices."
This was true. Looking at some of these unfortunates, with crushed-inplanks, twisted buffers and general dismemberment, it seemed a wonderthat they had been able to perform their last journey, or crawl to thehospital. Some of the trucks especially might have been almost said tolook diseased, they were so dirty, while at the corners, where addresscards were wont to be affixed, they appeared to have broken out in asort of small-pox irruption of iron tackets.
At last Mrs Marrot left the "works," declaring that her brain was"whirling worser than was the wheels and machinery they had just left,"while Bob asseverated stoutly that his appetite for the stupendous hadonly been whetted. In this frame of mind the former went home to nurseher husband, and the latter was handed over to his future master, thelocomotive superintendent of the line.
Reader, it is worth your while to visit such works, to learn what can bedone by the men whom you are accustomed to see, only while trooping homeat meal hours, with dirty garments and begrimed hands and faces--to seethe grandeur as well as the delicacy of their operations, while thuslabouring amongst din and dust and fire, to provide _you_ with safe andluxurious locomotion. We cannot indeed, introduce you to the particular"works" we have described; but if you would see something similar, hiethee to the works of our great arterial railways,--to those of theLondon and North-Western, at Crewe; the Great Western, at Swindon; theSouth-eastern, at Ashford; the Great Northern, at Doncaster; the NorthBritish, at Cowlairs; the Caledonian, at Glasgow, or any of the manyothers that exist throughout the kingdom, for in each and all you willsee, with more or less modification, exactly the same amazing sightsthat were witnessed by worthy Mrs Marrot and her hopeful son Bob, onthat never-to-be-forgotten day, when they visited the pre-eminentlygreat Clatterby "works" of the Grand National Trunk Railway.
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Note. The foregoing description is founded on visits paid to thelocomotive works of the Great Western, at Swindon, and those of theNorth British, near Glasgow--to the General Managers and Superintendentsof both which railways we are indebted for much valuable information.--R.M. Ballantyne.