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"Interborough to Have Enlarged Shops" (1924)

ELECTRIC RAILWAY JOURNAL · Vol. 63, No. 18 · May 3, 1924 · pp 688-689.

Interborough to Have Enlarged Shops

General Layout of the New Shops of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. The Insert at Lower Left Shows Construction. Upper Right. Pit Construction and Arrangements for Lighting.

An Area of 26-1/2 Acres Will Be Occupied with New Office Buildings, Repair Shops, Service Buildings and Separate Yards Additions to the Present Shop, Not Including Equipment, Will Cost About $2,000.000.

With the continual increase of rolling stock necessary to carry the traffic on the lines of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, New York, has come a pressing need for more adequate shop facilities. Accordingly, the company is now making additions to its 148th Street shop. When completed an area of 265 acres will be occupied by the present and new shops, office buildings, service buildings and storage yards. The new buildings will extend from 147th Street to 151st Street between Seventh Avenue and the Harlem River, and additional storage space will be available between Lenox Avenue and the Harlem River as far south as 145th Street. The Lenox Avenue subway has a station at 145th Street and two tracks will run from this into the shop yards.

To secure additional space and provide facilities for receiving materials the bulkhead line along the Harlem River is being extended by permission of the War Department. A large amount of heavy supplies come by water, such as castings, rails, ballast, sand, car wheels and timber. The location of the yards along the Harlem River is particularly convenient for receiving such supplies.

The buildings now nearing completion constitute the third addition to the 148th Street shop. The first consisted of an extension of the shop east toward the Harlem River. The second was an addition to the south side of the shop throughout its entire length to provide facilities which, with the new arrangement, will be used as a blacksmith shop, mill room, wheel shop and repair shop for wrecked cars. The third addition, which is now under construction, consists of the general repair shop, an administration building, section for electrical and machine repairs, together with two service buildings, one for the stores department and the other for the way and structures department. The accompanying plan shows the arrangement of the shops and yards and indicates the various additions. The first and second are now completed, the third is under way and will be finished by midsummer.

The original shop and the first and second additions are now being used for maintenance work. The equipment in these portions at present will be rearranged as soon as the third addition is completed. The arrangement shown on the accompanying drawing is for the shop as it will ultimately be equipped.

A new administration building for use of the transportation, mechanical, electrical and track departments is being constructed at the northeast corner of Seventh Avenue and 147th Street. The building is of reinforced concrete throughout and has five stories and a basement. The first floor is on the street level. The general shape of the office building is that of an L, which extends along Seventh Avenue for a distance of 105 ft. and along 147th Street for 136 ft. The basement will be taken up by storerooms and an instruction room for the car equipment department. The first and second floors will be used principally by the transportation department; the third will be occupied by the offices of the mechanical, electrical, and economy departments; the fourth, by the engineering department and statistical and test departments ; the fifth, by the assistant general manager and his assistants. A large lecture room is provided on the first floor, which will be used for general instruction purposes, when it is necessary to assemble a considerable number of men.

The third addition to the general repair shop will be of steel and reinforced concrete construction. It will have a total width of 200 ft. and a length extending along 147th Street of 512 ft. There will be three bays. The first bay along 147th Street will be but 18 ft. high, as this part will not be provided with overhead traveling cranes, but instead will be served by an overhead telpher system with 4-ton telphers. This bay will be partitioned off for use as an air room, a machine shop and a department of electrical repairs.

The second and third bays will have a height of 45 ft. The front portion will be used as a general repair shop and the rear for truck repairs. Four tracks are to be provided in each bay with pits the entire length. The tracks will be laid with 15 ft. between centers and entrance will be from the storage yard at the Seventh Avenue end. When completed, the shop will be equipped with four 25-ton traveling cranes.

Sixteen 3-ton floor-controlled bridge cranes will be installed in the truck overhauling shop. In addition, an overhead telpher system will serve the truck shop at either end and connect with adjacent departments.

A small open transfer table will be provided along the east end of the truck and wheel shops. This will be used only for moving trucks and supplies for the wheel and truck shop and is not intended for shifting cars. The location of machines and equipment for the wheel and axle department, which is adjacent to the truck shop, has not been definitely decided, but wheel press and wheel lathe locations have been laid out and double-track connections perpendicular to the sides of the shop are being arranged to each machine. The telpher system, which is to serve this department, has been laid out so as to provide a continuous movement of material without interference.

One of the outstanding features of this shop design is the absence of transfer tables for the shifting of cars. This is accomplished by the use of ladder tracks at the Seventh Avenue end of the shop. Inside the shop the tracks are provided with pits, with the floor between pits constructed flush with the top of the rails. An accompanying drawing shows the construction.

The lighting' circuits for the machine shop have been laid out in two ways to include both alternating and direct current circuits. There are alternating rows of 100-watt lamps with the wiring capacity arranged so that 200-watt lamps can be used if required. In addition, there are rows of direct-current, 40-watt side light clusters. The d.c. clusters will be spaced 16 ft. apart and the a.c. lamps will be located 14 ft. apart. The purpose of having the two systems of lighting is so that if one should fail the shops would not be in darkness.

In addition to this general lighting, drop lights and hand lighting is provided at machine tools. The floor of the section, which will be used as a machine shop and department for electrical repairs, will be constructed of 2-1/2-in. creosoted wood blocks.

Just east of the third section of the repair shop is a three-story building, which has been designated as Service Building No. 1. This will have a floor area of 235 x 106 ft. and will be used almost entirely by the stores department. The first floor will be taken up by a storeroom, a yardmaster's office and lunch, locker and washrooms. The second floor will be occupied by the stationery and lost property departments and the third floor will be used as a storeroom.

Another building, which is designated as Service Building No. 2, is essentially for the track and structures department. This building will have a floor area of 225 ft. x 66 ft. and will be two stories high. The first floor will contain a plumbing and tinsmith shop, a paint room, blacksmith shop and provision for the lighting department, track department and road engineers' offices. The second floor will have a carpenter shop and space for the signal department.

The foregoing details of building construction give a general idea of the extensive provision that is being made to take care of maintenance work for the subway division of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. Considering the space for buildings and yards, this will be one of the largest electric railway shops in the world.

Preliminary tentative layouts of the tools and equipment for the enlarged shop have been made, but are not as yet ready for publication. The general arrangement, however, has been planned with the object of permitting the greatest possible economy of operation by a minimum movement of men and materials. A description of these layouts will be given in a future article.

Sources: Electric Railway Journal, McGraw Hill Company, Digitized by Microsoft, Americana Collection, archive.org.