Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/141

 of buildings, 993 feet long, and 106 feet wide, and are fitted with wheel lathes for turning the tyres of the engine wheels as they become worn, and with all kinds of machinery for effecting the necessary repairs to the various parts of an engine. They are also furnished with boiling pans for removing the oil and grease from the parts when they are taken to pieces for repairs, so that they are turned out well cleaned at very little cost, the grease removed being collected and converted into soap.

It may here be mentioned that up till about the year 1873, the attempts which had been from time to time made to introduce steel into the manufacture of boilers, had resulted in failure, but at the International Exhibition in Vienna, in 1873, a locomotive boiler and fire-box were sent from the boiler shop at Crewe, which were fine specimens of boiler work, and were constructed entirely of steel, and since that time no less than 2,863 locomotive, and 218 stationary boilers, have been made of that material without a single case of failure having occurred other than those due to ordinary wear and tear. The greatest care is taken to ensure the selection of reliable plates for the boilers, a piece being cut from each plate and subjected to the most severe tests of all kinds, and a register being kept of the result of the tests, and of the position occupied by every plate in each boiler.

Extensive brick-making plant exists at Crewe, consisting of two brick-making machines, and a large circular kiln, and drying sheds, the turn-out being some five or six millions of bricks in a year. The "Deviation Works" previously referred to, consist of a range of shops built alongside the