The Mechanical Handling and Storing of Material

628 THE MECHANICAL HANDLING OF MATERIAL At present between 140 and 150 engines are coaled per twenty-four hours, and the coal can be placed on the tenders at the rate of 2 tons per minute; these figures will show that, so far as speed of coaling is concerned, there is a large margin of time in reserve. Under the new condition of things an engine coming off the turntable would proceed in the following way, and would be detained for the time stated for each process:— Cleaning smoke-box of ashes Filling tank at water column Cleaning tubes Coaling engine Dropping fire 4 minutes - 3| „ - 4i „ - 4 - 8 Total ‘24 minutes These are the actual times taken by the several operations, and, as they are per- Fig. 881. Typical American Plant for the Removal of Ashes from Locomotives. (These dimensions are in metres.) formed in places only a few feet apart, little additional time is occupied in moving from one place to another. Under the old conditions the time taken was one and a quarter to one and three-quarter hours. An elevator for coaling railway engines is illustrated and described in the chapter on Elevators, see page 29. The Removal of Ashes from Locomotives.—This operation is often effected by the same mechanical appliances which supply the coal to the engine. A pit is frequently excavated between the rails, into which the cinders and ashes are dropped. In these pits there are sometimes receptacles which are removed when full by cranes of some kind, or the pits are without such receptacles and are emptied from time to time by