Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-09-18
THE NEW ST. LOUIS STATION.

The boast of st. Louis that in the new
passenger station recently opened there
it has the finest building of the kind in
the world is pardonable, if not literally
true, for the main structure is spacious
and architecturally imposing, and the
equipments are on most elaborate scale.
The total cost, including land, buildings,
powerhOuse, train shed and tracks, was
SS0O0,000. The passenger station itself
is S0x456 feet, and is three stories in
height, surmounted by clock which can
be seen from all parts of the city. The
material is gray stone. The ground floor
is taken up by the carriage entrance,
cOnCourse, restaurant, postofficE, tele-
graph office, barber shop and washroOms,
emigrants' room and ticket office. The
second story contains the general hall,
ladies' and gentlemen's waiting rooms,
the dining hall, kitchen, smoking room,
news and cigar stands. and parcel and
cloak rooms The third story is occu-
pied by the Terminal Railroad Associa-
tion's offices. The waiting rooms are
richly decorated and are elegant in their
appointments. Especially is this so in
the case of the ladies' waiting room,
which has tiled floor, walls of blue
and white and gold, and heavy oak fur
niture. The train shed, which covers
twelve acres, is built of iron and wood,
with a concave glass roof. There is
room in it for thirty tracks, besides ap-
proaches, platforms, and mail and bag
gage sheds. Five million pounds of iron
and four million feet of lumber were
used in its construction.
Beyond the train shed are three ex-
press houses and milk platform $50 feet
long. The houses are 250x50 feet, and
provided with spurs of track on one side
and pavement for teams on the other
But of all the features of the new station,
the arrangements for handling traffic are
the most interesting. The thirty tracks
are Joined by system of switches to the
four main tracks within the passenger
station. The power TO work the switch
eS and signals is furnished by compressed
air delivered through pipes from the
power house. The wires are set in mo-
ton electrically by means of small mag
net valves. When the operators in the
tower desire a certain switch or signal
thrown, they move small lever three or
four inches long, which closes the Cir
cults in the tower, and by working the
magnet valves at the switch or signal,
lets in the compressed air which COM
peteS the movement. The lnterlocklng
system is so constructed that it is impos-
sible to make a mistake. Every switch
in given route must be set in its cor
rect position before the signal can be
given for the train to move. In like man.
ner, after signal is once given train,
it is impossible to move any of the
switches on the route governed by the
signal or to give signals for any other
routes. The interlocking machine is
the largest in the United States. 1t has
66 switch levers, and 65 single levers,
controlling 1870 pairs of movable switch
points and 103 signals. Some of the
switches and signals are nearly 1000 feet
distant from the tower, distance which
would make it impossible to handle
them mechanically. Over 1877 miles of
insulated wire were used to connect the
various switches and signals with the
tower.