Grand Trunk betterments, etc.

It is said that building operations on the new general offices in Montréal, which have been suspended for some months, will not be resumed for some time owing to the difficulty experienced in obtaining iron & steel. The contractors have ordered a supply of material from Belgium, but it is uncertain when it will arrive, & nothing can be done till it comes. (Jan., pg. 6.)

The erection of an improved passenger station at Aurora has been commenced.

In reference to the rumor that the Co. intends erecting large freight sheds at Midland, Ont., for the handling of package freight, we were informed, on Feb. 23, that orders had not been issued for the erection of such a building, & that there was nothing in the report referred to, at least for the present.

On the middle division last year the Co. expended about $550,000 on improvements. This included the laying of new rails, new yards at York, Berlin, Palmerston, Niagara Falls & London, new roundhouse, shop, office & very complete coal chutes at Sarnia tunnel, & new bridges & buildings, among them being freight sheds at Woodstock, Hamilton, Beamsville, Jordan, & the extension at Simcoe street, Toronto, & new stations at Galt, Bright & Brussels. This year about $800,000 will be expended on improvements on the same division. It is said these will include a new station for Queen street east, coal chutes, new turn-tables, double tracks between Niagara Falls & Hamilton, Hamilton & London, & London & Sarnia.

In connection with the differences between the city of Hamilton & the Co. as to bridges, etc., the city engineer& solicitor have been instructed to take steps to compel the Co. to renew the bridge on the heights, construct a bridge over Strachan st., & open up Ferguson avenue across the main line.

The Engineering Dept. is surveying a line that was located several years ago, from Lynden, Ont., 15.61 miles west of Hamilton, & 3.24 miles east of Harrisburg, to Green's Bridge, near Brantford, the idea being to build a cut-off so as to run the main line passenger trains between Hamilton & London via Brantford. We are informed that nothing definite has as yet been determined in regard to the matter.

Arrangements have been made for the renewal of the superstructure of the bridge across the Niagara River at Buffalo, commonly known as the International Bridge, & the property of the International Bridge Co. The bridge consists of two distinct & independent structures. One of these is the bridge across the Niagara River proper; the other is that across Black Rock Harbor. The bridge across the river consists of 8 spans, & has a total length of 1967 ft. Two openings are bridged by the arms of the draw girder, which has a total length of 362 ft. The length of the bridge across Black Rock Harbor is 517 ft. The draw span of this bridge has a clear opening of 107 ft. This work is being carried out in order to bring the bridge fully up to the requirements of modern rolling stock & loads, which are considerably more than double of what they were in 1870, when the erection of the existing structure was begun. It is expected that the work will be completed during the current year. (July, '99, pg. 207.)

The 30-stall brick roundhouse at Port Huron, Mich., which was recently completed, is now in use. Each stall has a pit 50 ft. long, with brick sides & concrete bottom, heated with coils of 1-in. steam pipes the full length of the pits. It is a little over 76 ft. from the doors across the house to the other outside wall, so the longest engines can be housed & have plenty of room to get around them. The big St. Clair tunnel engines are housed & cared for here. Two lines of 2-in. pipe pass entirely around the house next the roof, one for live steam, the other for compressed air, with pipes down the posts between every two pits. Two lines of 4-in. water pipe also pass clear around the house overhead, one for hot water for washing out & filling up, the other for cold water. A pressure of 100 lbs. is maintained steadily in these pipes. Drop pipes, 2 1/2 ins. in diameter, lead down to the wash-out hydrants. In the side of each pit there is a pipe connection, which the blow-off cock can be coupled to, the water from the boilers is blown out into a hot water receiver or underground tank of very large size. This hot water is used for washing out boilers, being handled by one side of a large duplex pump; cold water is handled by the other side of the pump. Two tubular boilers, 5 ft. in diam. By 16 ft. long, furnish steam for the entire plant at 125 lbs. per inch. The dynamo & air compressor are in the boiler house. The entire plant is lit with incandescent lights. The copper wires for the electric lights are encased in a 4-in. pipe ail over the engine house. The foreman's office, storeroom & enginemen's waiting room are in a separate building, 75×22 ft. When the engines come from their trains they come by the coal chute, which has 32 pockets, take coal, then get sand from an overhead bin, then to the cinder pit, of which there are 2 side by side, with a track between them for the cinder gondolas, then across the table, a 70-ft. one, & on into the house. When they go out to their trains they pass out on another track, & are not held by the incoming engines. The cinder pits have a bar of iron 4×1 in. on each side near the top, supported by brackets, which makes a railway on which the ash buckets are moved along to the center of the pit, where an air hoist lifts the buckets of ashes up over the gondolas & they are dumped. The cinder hoist extends over both cinder pits. The cars of coal are drawn up on the coal chute with a cable passing over pulleys at the end of the building & attached to a locomotive on the tracks below; 4 cars can be pulled up at once. In the end of the coal chute is located the sand house, with drier on the ground floor. From there the sand is elevated to the bins above with air pressure. The storage bins for the fresh sand bold about 800 yards. In the way of running repairs there will be enough machinery to do considerable light work. There is one drop pit which will take out a pair of drivers or truck wheels. As this is a terminus of both the Middle & Detroit divisions, a large number of engines will be handled here daily. The old roundhouse at Ft. Gratoit, of 19 pits, will now be used for a repair shop.

Railways: G.T.Ry.

Stations: Aurora, Brantford, Lynden

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