The New York Subway - Its Construction and Equipment

Anonymous

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• Publié par: modot
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 11
• Langue: English
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The Project Gutenberg eBook, The
New York Subway, by Anonymous
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Title: The New York Subway
Its Construction and Equipment
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: January 21, 2006 [eBook #17569]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NEW YORK
SUBWAY***

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THE NEW YORK
SUBWAYOPERATING ROOM OF POWER HOUSE
OPERATING ROOM OF POWER HOUSE
INTERBOROUGH
RAPID TRANSIT
The New York Subway
ITS CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT
(I.R.T. symbol)
NEW YORK
INTERBOROUGH RAPID TRANSIT COMPANY
O IANN . DOM . MCMIVCopyright, 1904, by
INTERBOROUGH RAPID TRANSIT CO.
New York
PLANNED AND EXECUTED BY THE
MCGRAW PUBLISHING CO.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page

No.
INTRODUCTION, 13
CHAPTER I. The Route of the Road—Passenger Stations and
23
Tracks,
CHAPTER II. Types and Methods of Construction, 37
CHAPTER III. Power House Building, 67
CHAPTER IV. Power Plant from Coal Pile To Shafts of Engines
77
and Turbines,
CHAPTER V. System of Electrical Supply, 91
CHAPTER VI. Electrical Equipment of Cars, 117
CHAPTER VII. Lighting System for Passenger Stations and
121
Tunnel,
CHAPTER VIII. Rolling Stock—Cars, Trucks, Etc., 125
CHAPTER IX. Signal System, 135
CHAPTER X. Subway Drainage, 145
CHAPTER XI. Repair and Inspection Shed, 147
CHAPTER XII. Sub-contractors, 151INTERBOROUGH RAPID TRANSIT COMPANY
Directors
August Belmont
E. P. Bryan
Andrew Freedman
James Jourdan
Gardiner M. Lane
John B. McDonald
Walter G. Oakman
John Peirce
Morton F. Plant
William A. Read
Alfred Skitt
Cornelius Vanderbilt
George W. Young
Executive Committee
August Belmont
Andrew Freedman
James Jourdan
Walter G. Oakman
William A. Read
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Officers
August Belmont, president
E. P. Bryan, vice-president
H. M. Fisher, secretary
D. W. McWilliams, treasurer
E. F. J. Gaynor, auditor
Frank Hedley, general superintendent
S. L. F. Deyo, chief engineer
George W. Wickersham, general counsel
Chas. A. Gardiner, general attorney
DeLancey Nicoll, associate counsel
Alfred A. Gardner, associate counsel
Engineering Staff
S. L. F. Deyo, Chief Engineer.
Electrical Equipment
L. B. Stillwell, Electrical Director.
H. N. Latey, Principal Assistant.
Frederick R. Slater, Assistant Engineer in charge of Third Rail Construction.
Albert F. Parks, Assistant Engineer in charge of Lighting.
George G. Raymond, Assistant Engineer in charge of Conduits and Cables.
William B. Flynn, Assistant Engineer in charge of Draughting Room.
Mechanical and Architectural
J. Van Vleck, Mechanical and Construction Engineer.William C. Phelps, Assistant Construction Engineer.
William N. Stevens, Ass't Mechanical Engineer.
Paul C. Hunter, Architectural Assistant.
Geo. E. Thomas, Supervising Engineer in Field.
Cars and Signal System
George Gibbs, Consulting Engineer.
Watson T. Thompson, Master Mechanic.
J. N. Waldron, Signal Engineer.
RAPID TRANSIT SUBWAY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
Directors
August Belmont
E. P. Bryan
Andrew Freedman
James Jourdan
Gardiner M. Lane
Walther Luttgen
John B. McDonald
Walter G. Oakman
John Peirce
Morton F. Plant
William A. Read
Cornelius Vanderbilt
George W. Young
Executive Committee
August Belmont
Andrew Freedman
James Jourdan
Walter G. Oakman
William A. Read
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Officers
August Belmont, president
Walter G. Oakman, vice-president
John B. McDonald, contractor
H. M. Fisher, secretary
John F. Buck, treasurer
E. F. J. Gaynor, auditor
S. L. F. Deyo, chief engineer
George W. Wickersham, general counsel
Alfred A. Gardner, attorney
Engineering Staff
S. L. F. Deyo, Chief Engineer.
H. T. Douglas, Principal Assistant Engineer.A. Edward Olmsted, Division Engineer, Manhattan-Bronx Lines.
Henry B. Reed, Division Engineer, Brooklyn Extension.
Theodore Paschke, Resident Engineer, First Division, City Hall to 33d Street,
also Brooklyn Extension, City Hall to Bowling Green; and Robert S. Fowler,
Assistant.
Ernest C. Moore, Resident Engineer, Second Division, 33d Street to 104th
Street; and Stanley Raymond, Assistant.
William C. Merryman, Resident Engineer, Third Division, Underground Work,
104th Street to Fort George West Side and Westchester Avenue East Side; and
William B. Leonard, W. A. Morton, and William E. Morris, Jr., Assistants.
Allan A. Robbins and Justin Burns, Resident Engineers, Fourth Division,
Viaducts; and George I. Oakley, Assistant.
Frank D. Leffingwell, Resident Engineer, East River Tunnel Division, Brooklyn
Extension; and C. D. Drew, Assistant.
Percy Litchfield, Resident Engineer, Fifth Division, Brooklyn Extension,
Borough Hall to Prospect Park; and Edward R. Eichner, Assistant.
M. C. Hamilton, Engineer, Maintenance of Way; and Robert E. Brandeis,
Assistant.
D. L. Turner, Assistant Engineer in charge of Stations.
A. Samuel Berquist, Assistant Engineer in charge of Steel Erection.
William J. Boucher, Assistant Engineer in charge of Draughting Rooms.
[Pg 13]
(INTERBOROUGH RAPID TRANSIT)
INTRODUCTIONThe completion of the rapid transit railroad in the boroughs of Manhattan and
The Bronx, which is popularly known as the "Subway," has demonstrated that
underground railroads can be built beneath the congested streets of the city,
and has made possible in the near future a comprehensive system of
subsurface transportation extending throughout the wide territory of Greater
New York.
In March, 1900, when the Mayor with appropriate ceremonies broke ground at
the Borough Hall, in Manhattan, for the new road, there were many well-
informed people, including prominent financiers and experienced engineers,
who freely prophesied failure for the enterprise, although the contract had been
taken by a most capable contractor, and one of the best known banking houses
in America had committed itself to finance the undertaking.
In looking at the finished road as a completed work, one is apt to wonder why it
ever seemed impossible and to forget the difficulties which confronted the
builders at the start.
The railway was to be owned by the city, and built and operated under
legislation unique in the history of municipal governments, complicated, and
minute in provisions for the occupation of the city streets, payment of moneys
by the city, and city supervision over construction and operation. Questions as
to the interpretation of these provisions might have to be passed upon by the
courts, with delays, how serious none could foretell, especially in New York
where the crowded calendars retard speedy decisions. The experience of the
elevated railroad corporations in building their lines had shown the uncertainty
of depending upon legal precedents. It was not, at that time, supposed that the
abutting property owners would have any legal ground for complaint against
the elevated structures, but the courts found new laws for new conditions and
spelled out new property rights of light, air, and access, which were made the
basis for a volume of litigation unprecedented in the courts of any country.
An underground railroad was a new condition. None could say that the abutting
property owners might not find rights substantial enough, at least, to entitle
them to their day in court, a day which, in this State, might stretch into many
months, or even several years. Owing to the magnitude of the work, delay might
easily result in failure. An eminent judge of the New York Supreme Court had
[Pg 14]emphasized the uncertainties of the situation in the following language: "Just
what are the rights of the owners of property abutting upon a street or avenue,
the fee in and to the soil underneath the surface of which has been acquired by
the city of New York, so far as the same is not required for the ordinary city uses
of gas or water pipes, or others of a like character, has never been finally
determined. We have now the example of the elevated railroad, constructed
and operated in the city of New York under legislative and municipal authority
for nearly twenty years, which has been compelled to pay many millions of
dollars to abutting property owners for the easement in the public streets
appropriated by the construction and maintenance of the road, and still the
amount that the road will have to pay is not ascertained. What liabilities will be
imposed upon the city under this contract; what injury the construction and
operation of this road will cause to abutting property, and what easements and
rights will have to be acquired before the road can be legally constructed and
operated, it is impossible now to ascertain."
It is true, that the city undertook "to secure to the contractor the right to construct
an