PURPOSE: To improve thermal efficiency in the case of applying to a heating furnace by shortening the installation length of a divided type walking beam type carrier device provided with a walking beam divided in the material forwarding direction.

CONSTITUTION: A material is idled by raising and advancing a front side walking beam 11b by way of interlocking it with a rear side walking beam 11a and retreating and lowering the front side walking beam 11b after the rear side walking beam 11a is lowered at the time when the material is charged in a rear side carrying zone 6a in the state where the material is filled in a front side carrying zone 6b. It is possible to prevent the material W1 at the rear end position of the front side carrying zone 6b from being interferred by the front end part of the rear side walking beam 11a at the time of lowering motion, and it is not required to keep the position of the material W1 as an empty space.