CHAPTER 2
The revolution in transportation in New Mexico and all of the West brought about by the introduction of steam locomotion in the last decades of the nineteenth century was dramatic and immediate. Most obviously, the speed of travel increased by an order of magnitude. In the 1840s a hurried wagon trip from Santa Fe to Kansas City–Independence, Missouri, was “usually made in about forty days.”1 In 1880, by contrast, Adolph Bandelier, riding an AT&SF train, covered that same distance in the opposite direction in less than fifty-eight hours, just over two days.2
Such speed was possible only with constant maintenance of tracks and lubrication, watering, refueling, inspection, and frequent overhaul of the steam locomotives that pulled the cars full of passengers and freight. Steam locomotives were particularly vulnerable to catastrophic disaster because they combined active, energetic fires on board; superheated steam circulating through long, serpentine arrays of pipes; and hundreds of rapidly moving parts meshed with others; all moving together as a unit at significant speed along iron rails that were constantly being shaken and jarred out of alignment.
The most dangerous single component of a steam locomotive was the boiler and its associated steam conduits (flues). As a 1930 film record of locomotive repair made clear, “the life of a [railroad steam] engine is largely dependent on the life of its boiler.” Natural impurities in the water that circulated through boilers could precipitate out as scaly deposits that would slowly constrict passageways, dangerously raising pressure in the system. Some impurities could cause frothing or scale could break loose. Either of those eventualities could suddenly clog pipes, raising pressure in the whole steam system beyond the strength of even iron and steel. Nineteenth-century newspapers regularly reported steam locomotive explosions that would destroy rolling stock and nearby buildings, and kill or grievously maim railroad workers. Typical is this report from April 1904: “A locomotive boiler exploded, on May 15th, on the Santa Fe Railroad, near Bagdad, Cal. Engineer S. Ebbutt received injuries from which he died shortly afterwards. Fireman J. F. Showalter also received minor injuries.”3 As early as 1866, the Hartford Steamboiler Inspection and Insurance Company was incorporated at Hartford, Connecticut. One of its avowed goals was to inspect steam boilers and insure the owners against loss or damage arising from boiler explosions. The efforts of this and similar companies led to adoption by railroads, including the AT&SF, of routine, detailed locomotive boiler inspections undertaken at repair shops.
To actually move a steam locomotive, the high-pressure steam was admitted alternately to one side and then the other of reciprocating pistons. The level of the water in the boiler had to be carefully watched by the engineer and fireman. Their judgment was only as good as the combination of gauge cocks and water glasses that constantly showed the water level in the boiler. Periodic testing, cleaning, and repair of the gauge cocks was literally of life-saving importance and required keen judgment on the part of the locomotive crew.4 The quality of water sources for use in boilers varied through time. In New Mexico and many other places, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, unprocessed or imperfectly processed ground water (including spring water) was regularly used in locomotive boilers. Thus, cleaning “mud” and scale from boilers was a crucial task performed at the Shops. Furthermore, the effectiveness of steam in moving the pistons depended on how thoroughly the piston rings sealed against the interior of the steam cylinders. Therefore, the efficiency and power of the steam engine hinged on periodic replacement of the piston rings, as well as hundreds of other parts.
Figure 2.1. Sectioned fire-tube locomotive boiler and firebox from a DRB Class 50 Locomotive, dating between 1939 and 1948. Photo by Rabensteiner. GNU Free Documentation License at fsf.org.
Figure 2.2. Diagrammatic cross-section through an early steam locomotive boiler and firebox. From Handbook of Steam Locomotive Enginemen (British Transport Commission, 1957) (label of firebox added).
The pistons articulated with a complex of dozens of rods and levers that turned the large drive wheels. Precision-ground and polished bearings (or journals) and shafts were located at each point of connection in the resulting power train to minimize friction. Grease, oil, and other lubricants reduced friction at the bearings even further. But through time the rotation of wheels and cranks wore away the surfaces of bearings and shafts. Without periodic machining or replacement, what had once been a smoothly running assembly would eventually seize up and stop a locomotive dead. So all of those parts had to be retooled or replaced periodically. According to Chris Wilson, “Over the fifteen-year life of an average locomotive, it might be rebuilt or receive other major shop repairs once every 12 to 18 months.”5
In his book Iron Horses: America’s Race to Bring the Railroads West, Walter Borneman writes, “The locomotive was the beating heart of a train, but brakes were the circulatory system that allowed it to function.”6 In the AT&SF’s early days, “individual cars were outfitted with brake wheels at one end. When these wheels were tightened, the connecting rigging clamped brake shoes against the running wheels . . . creat[ing] enough friction to slow their revolutions, thus slowing the trains. . . . Operating these brake wheels gave rise to the most dangerous job in railroading. At a whistle signal from the engineer, nimble brakemen ran atop the cars—jumping from one swaying car to another—and frantically set the brakes.”7 During the 1870s, air brakes became common on trains, utilizing long compressed-air lines running the length of a train. By the mid-1880s, though, George Westinghouse deployed a more reliable system with an independent air cylinder on each car. With this system, if the main compressor failed or cars broke free of a train, “the brakes would set automatically and in theory stop the train.”8 As fail-safe as automatic brake systems seemed to be, they were only as effective as the most recent replacement of brake shoes and servicing of air cylinders.
No matter the source of a locomotive’s power, its ability to run smoothly along the rails with a minimum of risk of derailing depended on the condition of its wheels, both driven and rolling. Especially critical were the flanges that held the wheels against the rails, the source of much of the squealing that one hears as a train passes by. And flanges are only the most obvious element of wheels that determined safe and efficient operation of locomotives. There is a large number of other wheel parts that played a critical role in moving a locomotive and its train of cars, including suspension systems, axles, journals and bearings, and swivels. The malfunction of any of those parts could render a locomotive inoperable. And even with all wheels turning smoothly the locomotive could lose traction in rainy, snowy, or icy weather. To mitigate against that, steam locomotives were equipped with sand domes and pipes that dribbled sand onto the rails immediately ahead of the wheels. If, under adverse conditions, the delivery of sand were interrupted, a locomotive could come to a standstill with wheels spinning, especially on a grade.
Figure 2.3. Railroad wheel showing flange and steel tire. Author’s drawing.
These are only the most critical physical components of steam railroading, all of which were inspected, serviced, and maintained during scheduled maintenance at shops like the ones built at Albuquerque. Without routine repair and overhaul of literally thousands of parts, steam locomotion would soon come to a halt. For many decades steam locomotives and steam marine engines drove the vast majority of transportation in the United States and around the world. If steam engines didn’t run because of a lack of parts or skilled machinists, neither did the nation’s trade and commerce.
Beyond essential maintenance and repair, there were also two vital supplies that kept steam locomotives running for about a hundred years: fuel and water. Coal was the fuel of preference for most of the time steam locomotives dominated railroading. That was because it was denser and could therefore generate more heat than wood, and it took up less space to carry, which meant fewer fueling stops were necessary. Albuquerque and New Mexico presented several sources of coal that were used for steam locomotives. Large coal fields existed in relative proximity to the AT&SF rail line near Gallup and Raton, with a smaller but rich field in the Cerrillos area. “As much as 45,000 tons of anthracite [coal] were mined annually from the Cerrillos field during the period 1888 to 1957.”9 Not coincidentally, that period is almost identical to the time span of coal-powered steam locomotion in New Mexico.
The Middle Rio Grande Valley at Albuquerque offered abundant, shallow ground water.10 Like nearly all water used by steam railroads, water in New Mexico had to be treated in the tender in order to minimize the deposition of calcium carbonate scale within locomotive boilers. A tender was a specialized car coupled to a locomotive that carried the supply of water and coal or other fuel.
Both coal and ground water were also necessary at every stage of locomotive repair and overhaul. Hot water and piped steam were in use every day, all day throughout the Shops for cleaning parts, tools, clothing, shop areas, and shopmen. In the early days of the Shops, stationary steam engines supplied direct power for industrial-scale tools, such as power hammers in the blacksmith shop, via a system of belts. And even after conversion of most tools to electricity, a steam-driven power plant generated that electricity. All of those functions ran on water converted to steam mainly by the burning of coal.