Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 46, Number 115, 25 March 1921 — Page 10

PAGE TEN

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, RICHMOND, IIn'D.. FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1921.

New Pennsylvania Facilities, After Period of Four Years and Cost of Millions, Completed in Richmond

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; After a; period of work extendins over four years, and at a cost said to run into the millions, the new Pennsylvania facilities in Richmond, known as the "east yards," stand completed. The year 1920 saw the finishing touch-

, es applied to the construction, and the;

last temporary construction building ' was removed from the grounds only a' few weeks ago. j .It leads all other projects of its; kind ever attempted in this city, and! as completed, supplies Richmond with j a terminal second to none. With its!

completion, the needs of .this division foreseen by railroad officials over 20 years ago are realized. At that time tentative plans were made and re-made from year to year while the urgent need became more and more apparent. At last the execution of the project could not longer be economically postponed, so on June 28, 1916, official authority was granted and immediately local engineering forces were active in preparation for the construction work. The project in hand at that time was the extension of two freight main tracks from North Fourteenth street eastward, to pie junction point east of Glen Miller park, a distance of about two miles. 1 In Three Parts. .From that small beginning grew the present layout covering about 100 acres of ground. This terminal in divided into three parts; the transportation yards, the car rep.iir yards and the engine terminal. The transportation yard consists of two units; or systems of tracks; one unit for the handling of westward freight-traffic and the other for the handling of eastward freight traffic. Most of the freight trains arriving in Richmond have cars for the several divisions operating into the terminal. In these yards the trains are broken, or separated, and the cars re-assem

bled into new trains according to the destinations of each. This work is done, at the rate of 2,000 cars a day in normal; times. " Cars broken or Injured en route are worked over in the car repair unit. This' plant has established, a continuous output of 100 cars a day. The engine terminal in the complete layout was constructed to the - north of the new yards, on what was the old circus grounds, east of North Nineteenth street. Engine repairs or supplies are the stock in trade at this point. Yards Widened, Bef&re all of these modernly equipped buildings and departments could be erected and organized, however, an enormous amount of work lay ahead of the engineers. One of their initial dutiea-was:4o widen the yards. To accomplish this it was first necessary to extend two bridges which had already been built, over the streams forming an outlet to the springs in Glen Miller park, and to crecUone new bridge entirely. The extension of the two bridges, one over tLo outlet to the Glen Miller lake and the other over the outlet of the springs in the rear of the park had to be large enough to increase the number of tracks over one of them from the main lines of two tracks, to four main and 16 yard tracks, and over the other- from four tracks to 17. The. bridge over the lake outlet consisted originally of a stone arch, 24

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Above: View of Pennsylvania yards showing turntable in operation, and exterior view of shops. Below: View from North Twentieth street Aorth-east, showing vividly the extensive outlay of yard tracks in the distance, coal and sand containers, and car repair buildings. city property in Glen Miller park. Fori and most efficient clerks and foremen. V. I n ntnTi(iino C AAA rnKin VQT-fle nf ' m. . . r r . . .

ine year jib iouqu me roaas under government control, and this was the year that the company had intended completing certain units. In June the track facilities required for the

feet, and here, too, it was necessary to new car repair layout were completed build a retaining wall to prevent land-1 and that department was removed to

this extension, 5,000 cubic yards of concrete were used. Build Retaining Wall. The other bridge extension consisted of a 15-foot arch, running north of the old bridge, 239 feet and south, 30

i possible with the two plants in opera

tion.

With an exactness which is mystifying, certain levers pulled by the plant operator makes possible certain moves by engines or trains in the yards or on the main tracks. The system is so regulated that switches cannot be thrown which would cause an accident. When given switches have been operated for the passage of a train, it is impossible to operate levers controling switches leading onto that track. Even yard engineers have to telephone into the plant to learn if they can make certain moves on yard tracks. A map of the track system is hung above the levers, and the operator knows by the lighting of small bulbs just where engines are located. To guard against the plant being thrown out of operation by a breakdown of electric power from Richmond, each plant is equipped with powerful generators which can be put to use upon a moments' notice. Other Features. Two other features are the water softener system, and the coaling station. The water supply of the corn-

slides, the wall being 144 feet long. For this work, 3,200 cubic yards of con

crete were used. To the north of the lake outlet bridge was constructed another concrete arch, forming an entrance into the new repair shops. This arch was originally planned to be 148 feet long, with a 23-foot inside diameter, but owing to the later plan to relocate engine terminal facilities in this territory, its length was increased 100 feet, making a total length of 248 feet, requiring the use of 4,430 cubic yards of concrete. With the erection of the new arches, came the tremendous task of changing the surface of the land from that of a wooded, hilly country, to a level stretch. To do this it was necessary to cut off 700,000 cubic yards of earth from the west side of the yards, and pile it over the east part of the new arches. Use Steam Shovels. For this work, three steam shovels appeared upon the scene in August, 1916, fully manned by workmen and work trains, and the huge undertaking begun. Two of these shovels were of the largest type, and the other much smaller. Every day they moved from 200 to COO carloads of earth, eating their way into the hill-side that was to form th western end of the yard. Satisfactory progress was made during that fall and winter. During the spring and summer of 1917 the arches were completed and the many branches of the entire work well organized. Everyone looked forward to rapid progress for the succeeding months. At the first signs of spring, however, the laborers began to leave, answering the lure of rapidly rising wages, produced by war industries. With America's entrance into the war, conditions changed rapidly and soon labor was at a great premium. The railroad company was forced to develop a system of obtaining the floating labor of the large cities, and at the same time, compete with war industries for workmen. Business Increases. Business passing through the terminal was at that time steadily increas

ing and the request from the trans-

teet in 'diameter and about .2 f eet i portation department for more room

long. To this was added an extension to the north; 238 feet long, and one lo the south 44 feet long, constructed of concrete, with an arch having a diameter of 23 feet inside. Before the t ill could be- made over this new bridge, it was also necessary to build a concrete retaining wall on the south side. 196 feet long, to prevent the dirt

was soon a demand. As soon as the rails were fastened to the ties, cars from the over loaded trains filled the new tracks. It was under these difficulties that the construction department labored during the year 1917 and 1918.

the new location, being housed in tem

porary quarters, as the new buildings were not finished. However, the preparation of this service was of inestimable value as it came at a time when traffic demanded that every possible car be in service. Relieves Congestion.

One of the units most desired was placed in service in September, 1918. This was the system of tracks known as the westward receiving and westward classification yards, connected by a hump. It is said that that finished unit of work was a great relief to the congested traffic. In this receiving yard all freight trains arriving from the east are set off and broken up. The classification yard is used to place on separate tracks all cars for a given point. When there are a sufficient number for a train, a crew is given orders to take the cars to the point for which they are intended. It can readily be seen what a great help to congestion the completion of this unit meant. Authority was given to local railroad officials in the latter part of 1918 to relocate the Twelfth street engine terminal at Nineteenth street. The old equipment was in -bad repair, and the expanded war traffic made this new move doubly important. Terminal delay to engines was an annoying handicap at that time. Build Terminal. From this order came the building of the present engine terminal just east of North Nineteenth street. It has been equipped with the best of modern machinery, and is a model in terminal architecture. Twenty of the largest locomotives built can be housed in this round-house. With the completion of all track work, the new yards now have over 22,000 feet of main track, or more than four miles of new main track; this to be used for freight traffic only, and about 83,000 feet of new yard track, making a total of almost 20 miles of additional yard track. Approximately 47,000 feet of the old track had to be taken up and re-arranged, which made a total of more than 28 miles of track that had to be laid. Electric Interlockers. Two electric "interlockers" have been installed, one at each end of the yards. One of the buildings is of brick, while the other is frame. The estimated cost for their erection i3 placed at nearly $200,000. These

plants control the movement of trains

pany is received from the city water works, of Richmond; the water being hard, the necessity of a softener resulted. - The water softener plant has a capacity of 100,000 gallons, and is ctnected td two storage tanks, each holding 50,000 gallons, by a six-inch feed pipe. These storage tanks are located in different parts of the yards and are about a half mile apart. From the storage tanks. 14-inch pipes supply the engines with water. The new coaling station has a capacity of 500 tons, in comparison to the old one of 150 tons. It is equipped with an electric automatic unloading device, which unloads coal from the cars on the track and automatically stores it in huge containers.

A sand compartment has been built in connection with the coaler. It stores and drys .100 carloads of sand for engine use. Airbrake Repairs. By installing a complete airbrake testing outfit, the sfiops are equipped to handle all airbrake repairs that can be made outside the Westinghouse factory, and a complete stock of airbrake parts are carried. Formerly it

was necessary to send all airbrake repairs to some other city, where facilities fo handling' airbrakes bad been

installed.

Efficiency and conservation have

been the standards of the company, in the eauiDment of the hew vards. and

every device for the speeding up of work and the lessening of manual lai bor, has been installed. A salvage

house for pcrap metal where all parts that were formerly sold for scrap iron has been installed, and a crew of workmen are kept busy sorting every piece of metal, saving that which may be used, and scrapping only that which is of no value in car repairs. With this system hundreds of dollars are saved by the company, no metal parts. The welfare of the workmen has

also been taken into consideration in the new site, and to this end. there has been constructed a large, well lighted building, with wash rooms, lavatories and lockers, where men may work, read or rest, away from their work benches. One of the most interesting bits of routine connected with the yard work is that of the care of each engine following a run. Every possible convenience has "oeen provided for the methodical handling of the great monsters. In addition to the briefly detailed account of the care of engines, which follows, state laws demand that certain boiler and other tests be made periodically for human safety. As the engine comes from the road, it enters the terminal. At the inspection pits the engine crew is relieved and the engine taken over by the terminal workmen. The pits' are so arranged that the men inspecting the engines are able to walk under the engine in specially designed pits, as well as above and around them.

After passing over the inspection pits, the engine is driven into the ash house, where the fires are cleaned and ashes removed. As the ashes are drawn from the engine, they are dropped into electrically operated cars, running beneath a hopper in the pits, and these cars then are driven to the

ash dump. With this method, the necessity of shoveling the ashes from the pits into cars and from there to ' another pit, is eliminated. Park Engines. I When leaving the ash pits, the en

gine is driven on to the turntable, and

from there is parked in one of the 20

stalls of the engine house. The engine house is constructed, with pits beneath each engine, and a forced draft heating system, so as to keep the engines in proper condition in all kinds of weather. To handle the smoke from the en-

To top the alredy encumbered pro- j in and out. as well a3 those trains on gress, came the draft. This took from I the main lines through the yards. It

thrown in the fill from falling into the the railroad offices some of the best is said that accidents are almost im-

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You can now get Silver Flash Gaso'ine from the following good dealers. They sell it to you because they know it's the best, the most efficient, and the cheapest in the long run: McCONAHA GARAGE 418 Main St. CHENOWETH ELECTRIC SERVICE CO. 1115 Main St. DAVIS-OVERLAND SALES CO. 1211 Main St. COFFMAN & SON GARAGE 16 South Sixth St. GEORGE WORLEY'S GARAGE 15 South Ninth St. EARL WRIGHT MOTORCYCLE GARAGE 31 South Fifth St. ELMER SMITH MOTORCYCLE GARAGE 426 Main St. EDGAR DENNIS 28 North Seventh Street BENNETT'S TIRE SHOP 1512 East Main Street F. E. THREEWIT'S GARAGE 703 South 9th Street JOHN ZWISSLER'S 28 South Fifth St. THE DAFLER-MOSER CO. 272 Ft. Wayne Ave. FOREST MONGER-Auto Moving, 519 North D St. HOWARD BROOKS East End Lunch Room Opposite Roundhouse ANDREW WALKER GROCERY Greenwood Ave. L. E. LITTLE-32 Lincoln St. HARRY HASELTINE GROCERY 103 Richmond Ave. W. H. HARRIS Corner Grant and Sheridan ROSCOE HELM'S GARAGE Centcrville LESLIE LEMEN CO. GARAGE Cambridge City, Ind. Western Oil Refining Co. Richmond Branch 1723 North F E. F. WILSON, Mgr. Res. Phone 4504 Off ice Phone 3425

gines, always a trouble la the terminals, each pit is equipped with a funnel shaped derice -which draws the smoke from all of the engines, and forces it outside through an SO foot stack, located just east of the terminal, and here all minor repair? to the engines are made. The &hop is large, well lighted, made of brick, and equipped with the most modern machinery for metal working. Here, as in the ear repair shops, an annex has been built to care for the comfort of the men. and a room similar in construction to that at the car repair shop has been provided. Power House. Just east of the engine terminal, is located the power nouse. It furnishes heat and compressed air to both the car repair shops and the engine terminal. The heating plant contains three 300 horse-power Sterling boilers, equipped with automatic stokers, and a specially designed forced air draft sysiem that doubles the capacity of the boilers. Ashes are cared

(Continued on Page Eleven)

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is nourishment and tonic that builds up the whole body.

Seott & Bw . ItlniwrfUU. H. X

ALSO MAKERS Ol

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REACH for BREAD ITS worth a high climb to bring those sweet, tender slices within reach. Bread is so delicious so nourishing so economical It's the big food value today. Nell Bread the Loaf Sweetest of All Ask Your Grocer Frank Jacobs 623 N. 12 Street

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