Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-09-23
officers will be settled after the muster
ing out Of general and staff officers mas
been determined.
The Biggest Railroad station.
(New York Sun,


The city of St. Louis now possesses the
distinction of having the largest pas
senger railway station in the United
States. 1t Is 60 feet long and 600 feet
wide and has thirty tracks. enough to
handle ten incoming and ten outgoing
trains simultaneously. II is known as
the Union Station, and the territory
owned by the company operating 1t covers
twenty-seven acres.
The city of Boston has the next TO the
largest station for passenger service IN
the country. The Union Station In bos-
ton, on the North Side, has length OF
500 feet. a width of 400 feet and twenty
three tracks.
Both OF these huge stations are to De
surpassed by the new Southern Union
Station in Boston, upon which work was
begun in January. 1897. and which is now
nearing completion. 1t Is designed to be
the biggest railroad station I'm the United
States The walls are built, the steel
work is in place, and the material Is on
the ground for the completion OF the
structure.
The length Of the Southern Union Sta
ton. In Boston. is 10 be 10 feet and the
width $50 feet When 1t is completed
there are TO be tracks for thirty trains,
and the waiting room Is TO be 265 feet
long The station is TO be lighted oy
electricity, and there will be steam heat
a compressed air plant. ice-making ma
chinery, ventilating apparatus, ana
clr-heating plant, together with ten
steam boilers and electric engines, capa-
bic of furnishing / 500 horse power. the
interior walls and ceilings of the Boston
station are 10 be of white enamelled brick.
and the road-bed of the tracks Is TO be
laid on concrete flooring which Is
watertight
The prominence of Boston as railroad
centre, as shown by the size or It's pas
senger stations, must be surprise 70
many. for the territory served by Bos'
ton is practically limited to New England
and in much of IL there Is very little
growth of population. The city or Cni-
cago, on the other hand, is entered by
railroads representing mileage OF %'"o
Nearly 300 through and more than Cos
local trains arrive there daily in the pas
senger service, and there are thirty-nVe
companies having terminus there; but
the business is divided among eight sta
tions. none of which is large enough tc
be compared with either of those I'm Bos'
ton. The central Depot. so-called, N
Chicago. has an area of $50 by 600 feet
and is used by the Illinois Central, th'
Michigan Central, and the Big Four roads
What Is known as the Dearborn-Stree
Station is not so large. but IL fills the re-
auirements of eight railroads.
There are two very large railroad sta
tions in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania
and the Reading. OF these the Reading
is the longer and the Pennsylvania the
broader; and as width rather than length
regulates the number of trains that car
be handled, the Pennsylvania station Is
practically the more serviceable.
The alterations now under way at the
Grand Central station I'm this city Will
enable the New York Central TO be com.
pared favorably with many other roads
in respect to the passenger accommoda'
tons afforded.