Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/393

 Feeling the Way

���An Attachment on the Rear Truck In- dicates on a Scale Inside a Cabinet in the Car the Degree of Curvature and the Elevation of One Rail Over the Other

��A^

��NEW clcar- mce car has just been placed in service

on the Pennsylvania Railroad lines east of Pittsburgh and Erie. It is being run over ever>' division as rapidly as possible in order to secure correct measurements of the distances from the track to project- ing portions of station buildings, tunnels, bridges and other objects. It is also designed to indicate automatically while moving on curves the elevation of the rails and the degree of curvature.

The car is built entirely of steel, and is equipped with air-brakes, steam fittings and electric lights. There are two floors, or elevations, both of them used for taking measurements from the templets. Clearances are computed from the center of the wheel truck, over which the main templet is erected. From an eleva- tion of tweK'e feet above the top of the rails the templet tapers up toward the middle of the car at an angle of fort>- five degrees.

ImmediateK- in front of the templet is

��With All Attachments Working Automatically It Is Possible to Take Clearance Measurements While the Car Is Running

��an auxiliary templet designed to measure overhead bridges, tunnels and other ob- jects between elevations seventeen and twenty feet above the top of the rails. This templet is capable of being raised to a height of eighteen feet by a crank and a ratchet arrangement on the floor of the car. Enclosed in steel cylindrical boxes with translucent glass fronts facing the templets is a scries of electric lights which extend from the floor of the car on each side to a height of fifteen feet. Light from these makes it possible to take measurements both day and night. Attached to the feelers and the side of the templet are graduated scales which indicate automatically the dis- tance from the rim of the templet to a side or overhead object. In addition, a small board equipped with a set of feelers spaced one inch apart has been provided to measure cornices of roofs, of shelter shells, or other irregular objects.

��379

�� �