The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-01-23
ONLY ONE LARGER.
The Great Round House of
the Pennsylvania
Railroad.
MAKING WAY FOR TRACK ELEVATION.
Plans for Coming Improvements,
as Far as They Have Been
Perfected.

Everyone who has travelled of late on
the Pennsylvania Railroad, as he has
gone flying past the Point of Rocks, has
caught glimpse of an immense circular
stone wall and small army of laborers
engaged in grading the surrounding land.
These operations are put portion OF
the vast system of improvements which
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company is
making in this city in connection with its
scheme for elevating its tricks. The
elevation of its tracks is now an assured
fact and the work will be pushed as
rapidly as the weather will permit
4 A MAMMOTH ROUND HOUSE.
In prosecuting their plans the company
was confronted at the start with the me-
cessity of constructing new round house
and yard for the accommodation of the
& passenger coaches when not in use. Old
Mount Pleasant and the land adjacent
was decided upon. This was prepared at
large expense, owing to the formation
of The land. 1t was necessary to excavate
the rock of the hill on one side and fill in
a large gully on the other.
Then the gravel with which the space
was ieveled off was brought from a dis
tance. The round house itself, with but
one exception, will be the largest in the
+ world. 1t will be 323 feet in diameter,
and be able to accommodate fOrty-four
engines.
There will be over five miles of tracks
in the yards which will furnish accomo-
dations for $50 passenger coaches. The
distribution of the space among the vari-
Gus descriptions of works has not as yet
been decided upon.
The yard is almost entirely graded and
the track laid. The foundation wall for
the round house Is about completed; the
frogs for the tracks are all in, and the
10 n
structure proper, which will be built Of
brick made near Bordentown. The en-
tire area occupied by the yard is between
twelve and fourteen acres.
III addition to the round house there
will be in the yard a large store house,
boiler house and blacksmith shop and
oil house, sand and lamp house, a coal
and ice house and coal wharf. The de-
tails Of these buildings are not entirely
completed vet.
FREIGHT STATION CHANGES.
In eleyating the tracks the. company
location of the local freight station. now
at Warren and Plymouth street,
and in order to accommodate the
local freight traffic at Jersey City
it has been decided to build new freight
station at Henderson and Second street,
where the old ball ground used to be 10
Gated. This new building Will have a
frontage of l03 feet on Henderson street.
The portion of the building on Hender-
son street will be two stories high with a
double II" running along Second street.
The one fronting on the street will iie two
stories high, and will have accommoda-
tions for offices, while the other will be
simply shed for freight.
In erecting this building the company
was obliged to remove the tracks for de-
liyering carloads and make other provis-
ions for them. This was done by extend
ing the track north of the yard.
AS soon as this new freight yard is COM
pleted the local business will be removed
from Warren and Plymouth streets,
which will then be torn down in order to
allow for rearrangement of some of the
tracks In the yard.
As soon as this is done work will be
commenced on the wall for the elevated
tracks which will extend from Hudson to
Warren street.
Work ON the wall would have been
under way ut this time if it had been pos
sible to arrange the tracks without de-
molishing the freight house.
CHANGES IN PASSENGER STATION.
Chief Engineer Brooks, of the United
Railways division and the Chief Engi-
neer of the entire road, will have a con-
sllltation this week and decide upon the
details for the change in the passenger
station and ferry house in the city made
necessary by the elevation of the tracks.
1t may be necessary to abandon the pres
ent depot and erect temporary sheds and
lay additional tracks to the north of the
structure.
The elevated structure will accommo-
date four tracks, and it is proposed to
build two at time and use the present
tracks while one-half of the structure is
in course of erection and then use that
while the other section is being put up
The fact that Jersey City is the
terminal of the road makes the elevation
more difficult than it would be in any
other place and presents several difficult
engineering problems which have not as
yet been solved.