The Washington herald., 1906-12-10
BUILD new CAR BARN
Capital Traction Gets Shed
Half as Big as Capitol.
WILL SHELTER $50 MOTORS
Supplied with Ample Facilities for
Repair Work and to Have Modern
Fire Protection and Lighting Ar
rangementS-Structu to BE Conn
pIeted by March 1, 1907.

| A car barn, half as big as the Capitol
| is what Richardson & Burgess are build
/ ing for the Capital Traction Company at
Fourteenth and Decatur streets north
west. The site is about half mile from
the end of the line on the Fourteenth
street extension, and the building is in
tended as storage barn for the entire
system.
j. was specially designed for the COM
pany by the architects. Wood, Dom &
Deming. after Chief Engineer CARL had
worked out the problem of the needs of
the system for storage of cars, repairs
cleaning, painting, and other necessary
work incident to the care Of the rolling
stock when not in actual use
The new car barn, when completed, will
stand 55S feet by 20S feet. fronting on
Fourteenth street. At the northwest cor
ner of the building will stand two-story
Office. provided for the division superin-
tendent and his assistants. with apart
ments for the conductors and motormen
while OF duty on the line About this
building the tracks Of the line form a loop
.
of the building and go OUT at another
without switching or making use of a
tUTn-table. While the Office building is, in
a sense. separate from the other large
compartments of the structure. it is a
part Of it, and so connected as to make
| it easily accessible from all parts of the
! building.
Has Ample Fire Protection.
| is a tower which will contain a huge
tank 10 be filled with water to feed the
/ sprinkliEg system, with which the build
ing is to be equipped to guard against
/ fire. This tank Will contain about 5000
/ gallons Of water. which will be fed by
pipes to all parts Of the car shed, and
the several compartments will be furnish
ed with perforated conductors into which
/ the water viii flow IN case Of fire and
| flood any particular part Of the structure
where flames may break out The system
/ is supplied with automatic valves which
viii act as soon as there is heat suffi-
cient TO turn them.
The apparatus is similar 10 that used
! in stores in the automatic fire-alarm sery-
| ice The barn is further fortified against
materials. and is divided into three
large compartments by heavy brick
walls running through it, which serve
the double purpose Of supports to the
roofing and fire walls
The material used in the construction
is pressed brick for the outside walls,
fortified by steel strengthened concrete
The rods for fortfying the concrete are
known as the Johnson corrugated steel
bars.
The framework of the barn is steel,
and no wood is used in the construction.
except the floors and room raIlings in
the office portion Of the building. The
roof will be of steel and slate.
Modern Power Transfer Tables.
The ground floor Of the barn is ar
ranged in a manner to facilitate the hand
ling of ears and storing them away az
the least expense of time and energy.
From the loop, about which the trip cars
turn after reaching the barn, two tracks
lead into the parking portions Of the
building Dividing the sheds laterally are
two transfer tables. each about One-third
Of the distance from either end Of the
barn. They operate over deep pits, where
the mechanism Of the cars can be eX-
amineG and minor repairs made. II c-e
end of the pits are arrangements for
more extensive repairs, such as do not
require the sending OF the car 10 the re-
pair shop. Each OF the transfer tables
is operated by specially designed motors
which move them by the turning Of a
switch. The transfer tables move past
the tracks leading into the compartments
for storage Five sections are planned
for storing the cars. In running to the
transfer tables the ears are operated by
their own power, and the several pieces
of installation are 50 arranged that zone
man can take a car from the loop to
any part OF the barn or bring II from
any location back into service at the
loop The storage capacity of the barn
is 80 cars.
Lighting Facilities a Feature.
one of the chief features of the build
ing is the arrangement for lighting it.
In the roof is to be built large skylight
over each section of the storage system.
These skylights will be arranged longi-
tudinally along the roof structure. Over
each transfer table also viii be a sky
| light to afford light in the daytime TO
that portion of the building. BY night
| the building will be lighted by electricity,
and can be made as light as day. Switch
es will be placed at convenient points,
where the car men can light their way
to any part of the sheds as they leave
the office Returning, the lights can be
extinguished in the same manner.
Power to operate the line and the
current for the lights are brought from
| the central electric station of the COM
pany at Thirty-secOnd and Grace streets,
| Georgetown.
With favorable weather conditions the
| contractors expect to finish the structure
| bv March 1 1857