Evening star., 1896-12-28
THE B. AND o. SHOPS.
Increased Facilities Added to the Mount
Glare Plant.
Locomotive Repair Works and Great.
ly Improved Electric Motor md
Lighting System.


Ohio Railroad Company to make every por-
ton of the invested capital of the corpora
ton produce the best results, Receiver MUIR
ray is having completed at Baltimore i'm
provements which when finished will make
Of Mount Clare one of the largest and best
equipped locomotive repair shop in the
United States, If not IN the world.
To accomplish this the series Of buildings
known IS the nut and boiler shops are be-
ing transformed into what will be one of
the most extensive structures of the kind
to be found anywhere.
A few years ago when adversely came
rpon the company, and there were dis
charges by the wholesale from Mount
Care. it was thought that the Baltimore
and Ohio would never again be in a posi-
ton to manufacture its own motive power.
but new era seems TO have set IN, ana
when the new shops are ready for service
1t will necessitate the employment OF hum
dreds of raen who are now out of work.
The dividing walls of the shops mention
ed are beng taken out, throwing the new
structure into ore big house 40 feet long
and seventy-two feet wide. Here IL is pro-
posed 10 build rev locomotives. remodel
Old ones Snd repair engines that have met
with serious m.shap on the road. The
monster iron horses Will come in through
large doors at the north end of the build
ing, there beng three sets of tracks to ac-
&C mmodate them. Beneath the floor are
the pits. partially hidden from view yet OF
IN merse capacity and equipped with the
most perfect drainage appnances. There
are also hidden storage pits, wnere the ma
ter1al from dismantled locomotives will be
placed and properly marked.
Engine Repairing.
This innovation will be a vast improve
ment over the methods now in At
present, when one more engines are
being repaired, the stock is thrown care
lessly upon pile, and when the time
comes for their being put again into use
much time and labor are lost in selecting
the various pipes to fit the respective en-
gines.
Another splendid feature of the new
building will be the lighting facilities. In
addition to the twenty or more windows
ranging along each side, there will be Sc
ries OF skyllghts, nine feet in width, over
head, ard running the entire length of the
Dig shop.
Probably the most interesting of the va
rious appliances to be used will be the
giant crane, that is being SO constructed
as to be easily moved from one end of the
building to the other. The monster car
rage Will have carrying capacity of
nearly three hundred tons, and the suppo-
sitlon at present is that it Will be operated
by electricity, the current in all PROBABILITY
to come from the Belt Line power house
The crane will be SO arranged as to make
II easily possible for it to lift a sixty or
eighty-ton locomotive as if ii were a mere
babe, and carry it from one side of the
shop TO the other, setting it down gently
upon one of the steel rail apartments.
Work upon. the building is being pushed
with as much vigcr as the present weather
will permit. The interior additions of any
magnitude do not depend upon the walls
Tor any support, as substantial pillars for
them are sunk into firm foundations of
masonry, and the overhead connections
are stanch iron girders.
While 1t may be many years before the
Baltimore and Ohio will begin again build
Ing It's own locomotives. ~ there h.a
every detail for this purpose put into the
building, so as 10 DE reaGy for instant use
When the time comes. In the beginning the
new shops will be used more tor the repair
and remodellng of engines, and this in
i.self Will give employment to a large force
of men.
Electrical I'm mprovements.
The electrical department of the Isaiti-
more and Ohio company is now growing at a
very rapid rate, and the public has but a
slight idea of the various plants At differ
ent points along the line additions are be-
ing made to the power and lighting plants.
These Improvements are being made with
great care, and it Is expected that the re-
suits will be of a very beneficial character.
AT the Baltimore Belt Line power house,
which is located at the south end of the
tui mel, and but a short distance from Cam
den station, important improvements are
being rapidly pushed to completion. The
foundation is now being built for a 60
horsepower plant for a Greene-Corliss en-
gine, direct coupled to a general electric
500 kllowatt proof generator. This Is the
NTH engine of this type to be erected In
this power house, and will add greatly to
the power plant. 1t will be used in pulling
the trains through the tunnel as well as in
the general power work of the station.
1t VIII be remembered, as has heretofore
been stated in The Star, that in addition TO
furnishing the power for the tunnel mo-
tors. this plant also operates nearly 2UU
street cars Of the Baltimore Traction Com
pany, and also several small motors that
are used by the railroad company in
switching cars at ferry slips. The total
horsepower of the power plant will be B.
15O when the new engine is Installed and ii
Is expected that 1t will be in working order
In couple of weeks. In the lighting plant
which Is In the same station with the DOW
er plant, there Is being erected a 25O horse
power Armington-Sims engine belt-coupIed
to one 80 kilowatts alternating general
electric generator.
Lighting Plant.
The management is also replacing two
II degree kilowatts alternating generators
by two $50 kilowatts general electric gen.
orators. The lighting plant now has a
horsepower of 1, $50 and furnishes the cur
rent for the light at Locust Point all the
Baltimore yards. Camden station and num-
erous ferry slips and freight houses, be-
sides lighting the tunnel and the Mount
Royal passenger station
There has just been installed In this plant
Van Bressof oiling system at a cost of