Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-06

While virtually forming part of the walt
ing room. the ticket and baggage lobby
serves also as passageway for entrance to
or exit from the carriage porch. This close
grouping of baggage. tickets and carriage
porch is an unusual arrangement in larger
American stations. and 1t will be convenient
in operation. permitting the beIated passen-
ger to buy tickets and check baggage with
the utmost dispatch 1t has been made
possible by the ingenious device of dou-
bIe-deCk baggage room, whereby the pas
senger standing I'm gallery on the wait
ing room level is able to look down into an
extensive baggage room on 4 somewhat
lower level. Owing to differences in street
grades which permit carriages to approach
either main or basement floor. baggage will
be delivered by wagon the low level bag
gage room floor. whence after checking in
plain view of the passenger, 1t can be at
once distributed automobile trucks
through low level runwdys, beneath the
tracks. to elevators at heads of trains. In
this way, it Is believed. conflict between
passenger and baggage currents will be
avoided and baggage is delivered to trains
with only one use of elevator service. There
is no lost motion or lost time. The prin-
Ciple of avoiding conflict between baggage
and passengers has been further carried out
by providing Independent train platforms
devoted exclusively to the handling of bag
gage.
Large. cheerful apartments thirty by
elghtN-iiVe feet and twenty-efght feet high.
with windows looking out the plaza,
have been provided for the smoking room
and the womens waiting rooms The din
ing room, eighty by one hundred feet and
ihirtN-ftve feet high. will be treated in
Pompeian style. Its kitchen for the sake
of preventing odors. will be in the second
story.
Passenger Lobby.
According to the plans the passenger
concourse or train lobby will be 1870 feet
wide, $50 feet long and covered by an
archcd ceiling in single span, decorated
with panels, part of which will transmit
the light AS the figures indicate. this
hall far exceeds in size anything ever built
for similar purpose. 1t Is intended to be
equal to any demands on the entrance to
the capital of the country. The concourse
Is divided by the usual fence. so as to al
low width of - feet. instead of the Gus
tomary 80 or 90 feet, for handling the out
going passengers. and II width of - feet
between the fence and the tracks for ham
ding passengers arriving on trains The
Concourse will open into the waiting room
by fifteen doors. and in addition it has
exit to the carriage porch and several 9TH
er entrances opening dire :tly on the plaza.
In all there are twenty-nine tracks, of
which eighteen are stub tracks the
same level as the waiting room and consti-
tute terminal" station. The manning
eleven tracks are depressed tw onty feet
below the waiting room cr street level and
six of them continue under the building
into Il tunnel leading southwark and con-
stitute a through station. With the eX-
Ception of the stairs leading to the de-
pressed tracks, there are no steps any
where in the station. From the plaza side
walk the passenger can pass to any part
of the station building or train sheds with
out enCountering a single step. Five of
the depressed tracks are to be used for
handling United States mail and for Stor-
age until future expansion makes neceS-
sary their utilization for passenger serv-
ice.
The Washington station will have no
large span train sheds. The great sheds
have not justified their enormous cost-so
railway men now argue-for they are al
WAYS dark. dirty and at best only an I'M
satisfactory protection from snow and rain
Furthermore. in this particular case an
enormous train-shed roof so near the Capt.
toll would dwarf the dome of the most nota-
bile building in Washington and mar the
beauty of the city The type of shed adopt
ed is Il development of the ordinary plat
form shelter shed, which will. however be
wide enough partially to overlap the trains
and furnish protection from the weather.
In a climate as mild that of Washington
IL IS believed that the shelter shed will offer
the most satisfactory solution of the prob