New-York tribune., 1908-01-19

north of the present shed or an area about
twice the size OF Mt Morris Park in Harlem.
and containing about forty acres. II will COM
pletey house all of the o21 trains which daily
T2ss through the Park avenue tunnel.
Although the engineers call the shed
Temporary" 1t viii be built with much per-
manency; for it must stand several years. When
the work the new Central terminal Is COM
pleted in the place of the single level OF tracks
entering the old shed. there will be three
different levels. two of them below the surface.
or street. level
The work on the different levels on the Lex
ingtOn avenue side OF what is to be the new
terminal has been in progress for n long time.
and Section. or Bite No j. as the engineers
cali it. is now nearly finished far the work
on the tracks is concerned. Already work on
Bite" No. >. as the second middle section of
tracks is STYLED by the engineers. has been
started, but in this and Bite" No. the work
Of building the tracks at the different levels
must proceed probably much more slowly than
in Bite No. l. There. after the buildings had
been cleared away, the track builders had a
comparatively clear field, Bite" No. lies
right in the heart OF the track area Trains
passing in and out on average OF one
every sixty seconds. and the orders are explicit
that nothing must interfere with schedule time.
At the best it will be years before the work
can be finished. The estimated total cost of all
improvements about the big terminal is placed
az $70O00.00O.
The difficulties which the track builders are
experiencing in prosecuting this great work for
a long time puzzled the engineers charged with
the removal Of the present train shed OF the
total number of trains passing daily through
the Park avenue tunnel Goo pass in and out OF
the old shed. This is an average OF twenty y-fve
trains an hour or nearly one every two minutes
How TO get the old shed down without inter
fering with this traffic became a problem Of no
mean proportions. Its final solution is an in
teresting Into the northern end of the old
shed the engineers built a false end of great
timbers The general form of this traveller"
as it is called, is that OF semi-circe support
ed on great stilt-lille legs extending nearly TO
the level of the tracks. where they on great
iron wheels or rollers not unlike the wheels on
roller skates This structure reaches the entire
height of the she'd and the upper portion Is
divided into several different working levels to
each Of which adequate fire protection is af-
forded by two big stand pipes running up
through the work.
The supports of the traveller, which is 900
feet across at the base, rest between the tracks
entering the shed, and the work advances
the structure is rolled ahead. 1t really forms a
great moving end for the gradually shortening
train shed. and affords real protection against
inclement weather, because It's inner or southern
end is covered with metal sheeting. to about
the same depth from the roof. the origi-
nal end of the station.
The entire month of December required
for the building Of the big traveller. which
tains 100000 feet of timber, and the cost of its
construction with the cost Of tearing down the
shed is placed at $4,000.
Although the old shed may be nothing much to
look at, the contractors the job of tearing it
down testify to the fact that 1t solidly put
together. 1t is 100 feet high and $40 feet long
Its arches and trusses contained 1850 tons OF
iron and steel, and in Its walls about 100000
bricks.
For time officers Of the road thought seri
ousy OF taking the old shed carefully to pieces
and erecting 1t at some other point the line.
but this idea has been definitely abandoned, and
last week the engineers began the work of
ducing the big train shed TO scrap-iron.