Report of a Journey Around the World. 63 



fine finish, plate springs and couplings; bearing boxes in section 

 to show the oiling arrangement ; rails joined with fish-plates and 

 sections of the same ; all the steel pins, keys and bolts ; crank arms 

 and throttle handles; all brass castings from whistle to pet-cocks, 

 and these in neatly cut sections when this would better show the 

 construction. Specimens of the coals used and the oils; even of 

 the cloths used for the employee's uniforms, the covering of the 

 seats, the towels in the washrooms, the carpetings for the floors ; 

 the bedding for the wagon-lit and the curtain for the windows. 

 In hinged glass frames were specimens of all tickets used on the 

 Hungarian roads and diagrams of the methods of punching them. 



The arrangement of rails and switches, with working models 

 of a switch opened by the passage of a train, and apparatus used 

 to replace a derailed car ; turntable with model of a locomotive to 

 show how the table was moved, and clamped at the desired rails; 

 another to show how the wheels were changed for a different gauge 

 without disturbing the cars — a contrivance which seemed more 

 simple than the cumbersome and costly contrivances used on the 

 American roads when a shift was necessary to the former narrow 

 gauge lines of the southern states, and vice versa. 



Not less important, we were shown the operation of block 

 signals and the recording of telegrams sent ; the opening and clos- 

 ing of crossing gates from a distance, and the warning to approach- 

 ing trains by danger signals. Of these there were many working 

 models, all of which the obliging attendants put in operation for our 

 instruction ; older and now disused systems were also shown. 



Then came carefully constructed models of bridges both for 

 rail and common roads, most of them of bridges over the Danube 

 at Budapest, among them the fine Elisabeth bridge of single span, 

 but the humble culverts were not omitted, and we had an oppor- 

 tunity to see some of the actual specimens on the roads we 

 traveled over. 



Too much praise cannot be given to the scale models of all the 

 various wagons, trucks or cars, both for freight and passenger serv- 

 ice, finished as completely and perfectly as the vehicles in actual use; 

 and among these models should be mentioned two — one made by a 

 young man afflicted with curvature of the spine, every minute pipe 



and pin in the locomotive being beautifullv finished — the other by 



[211] 



