--_La Nature._
* * * * *
[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 622, page 9935.]
THE CHANGE OF GAUGE OF SOUTHERN RAILROADS IN 1886.[1]
[Footnote 1: A paper read before the Western Society of Engineers,
June 7, 1887.]
By C.H. HUDSON.
Many of the wheels that were still in use with the long hub were put
into a lathe, and a groove was cut an inch and a half back from the
face, leaving our cast collar, which was easily split off as before.
(Fig. 24.)
With tender wheels, as with our car wheels, the case was different.
Originally, the axle for the 5 ft. gauge was longer than for the 4 ft.
9 in.; but latterly the 5 ft. roads had used a great many master car
builders' axles for the 4 ft. 9 in. gauge, namely, 6 ft. 111/4 in. over
all, thus making the width of the truck the same as for 4 ft. 9 in.
gauge. To do this a dished wheel, or rather a wheel with a greater
dish by 11/2 in. than previously used, was needed, so that the tread of
the wheel could be at its proper place. (See Fig. 25.) There were, of
course, many of the wheels with small dish and long axles still in
use. Their treatment, however, when the day of change came, did not
vary from that of the short axle.
[Illustration: FIG.
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