The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-12-14
RAILROAD NEWS.
Santa Fe Shops at La Junta Are
Completed.
Will Be Open for Use on
February l.
COST HALF MILLION.
viii Furnish Employment to
500 Additional Men.
Gossip and Matters of Interest
Gossip and Matters of Interest
in Railroad Circles.

The new shops of the Santa Fe rail-
road at La Junta, Colorado, have been
completed. The construction of the
shops was under the direction of c. A.
Fellows of Topeka, who had the con-
tract for their erection. The improve
ments have cost in the neighborhood of
round half million dollars.
The machinery is now being installed
in the various buildings by the railroad
company, and it is announced that the
shops will be opened for business on
February l. when the fire will first be
lighted under the three new 60O-horse-
power boilers.
The new shops will prove a great
thing for the town of La Junta. The
principal industry of the town is the
Santa Fe railroad shop work and the
population of the town is placed at
about 5000. The opening of the new
shops will increase the payroll at that
point by the addition of about 800 or
more skilled and unskilled workmen.
The construction of the new building
was begun in March of this year. The
group of buildings make a fine appear
ance. The new machine shop is built
with an entire steel frame with brick
although it is constructed as a one story
building. It is 16S feet wide and 400 feet
long.
The blacksmith shop is also of brick
and steel and is IS feet wide and 14S
feet long.
A lavatory building of brick is built
to also provide a locker for each en-
ploye. 1t is 25 feet wide and IS feet
long.
The power plant, brick building, is
built in the shape of an L. The smaller
of the two wings is the boiler room,
40x60 feet where the three new 500 horse
power boilers are installed The other
wing which is 40xS0 feet in size contains
the dynamos which will generate the
power of the motors to run the ma
chinery of the shops and to light the
also contain the apparatus for COM
pressing air for use in operating the
compressed air machinery in use in the
shops.
The smoke stack, also of brick, is 160
feet tall.
An 8-staIl addition to the round house
was also built as a part Of the general
Improvement.
stalls was but IS feet. The eight new
stalls were built 80 feet in length to
accommodate the big engines which are
gradually coming into use on the Santa
Fe.
The store house and the oil house are
both brick buildings. The oil house
stands near the store house and a big
platform is built the whole distance be-
tween and around the two buildings and
it faces on spur railway track. The
store house is 60x210 feet in size and the
oil house is 40x5O feet and is absolutely
fire proof.
An excellent system of sewerage has
been installed and the shops and the
grounds adjoining the shops will be
kept in a most excellent and sanitary
condition.
The transfer table is 4ox41o feet in
size.
The foundations for all the buildings
are from to IL feet deep. The shops
were built upon a twenty-acre plot of
land which was originally a gentle slope
like a hillside. At an enormous expense
the whole area of the twenty acres has
been covered with 100000 cubic yards
of gravel secured at a nearby gravel
bed At the point farthest from the
railroad track the land is II feet lower
than it is at the highest point. Conse-
quently the gravel is IL feet deep at
that point to make that portion of the
yards as high as the other parts of
the yard. The foundation of the build
ings was built from the ground up to
the point to which the gravel was filed
In.