STATIONS AND TERMINALS Passenger passenger station may be divided into three sections; the building which is to contain the booking and other offices necessary for the comfort of the passengers and the business of the railway staff, the platform by which the passengers enter or leave the trains, and the track lay-out at the platforms and in the yard outside the station. From the railway point of view the last is the most important, for upon it hinges the capacity of the station to deal with the maximum number of trains, especially at the hours of greatest traffic pressure. Few stations are exactly alike, and except for wayside stations, as for instance in Africa or on the Canadian prairie, no standard design can be adopted. In its simplest form the wayside station on a double track line in Great Britain, where all platforms are raised, con sists of an "island" platform placed between the two lines, or two single sided platforms each serving one line. Intercom munication is provided by a footbridge or a subway, and on one platform is a booking office, where tickets are obtained, and other essential buildings. When trains can pass through a station the latter is known as the "through" type, and may consist of any number of platforms often with "bay," or "dead end," lines at one or each end of a wide platform. Amongst the largest "through" stations in Great Britain are the Waverley, Edinburgh (L.N.E.R.), with 1,39oft. platforms; Crewe (L.M.S.R.) with a platform of 1,5o9ft.; Snow Hill, Birmingham (G.W.R.) and Clap ham Junction, London (S.R.) with 17 platforms.
The largest British stations are, however, the terminal, or "dead end," stations. In America these are often called terminals of the "stub end" design, and recent practice has tended towards a complete division of the station building with its circulating area (parcels, booking and enquiry offices, and refreshment, cloak and waiting rooms, frequently including shops) from the platforms, termed technically the "train shed"; Windsor Station, Montreal (C.P.R.), is a typical instance of this design of station. In Great Britain, where coal of a less smoky nature is used by the loco motive, the need for this division has not been so important ; thus the platforms are more closely connected with the station build ings, usually being joined in the case of modern designs by a wide concourse, with indicators showing the train departures and arrivals and newstands. Amongst the large London termini Waterloo, where reconstruction was completed in 1922, and Vic toria (S.R.), with a 1,5ooft. platform, are noteworthy in this respect, each possessing the arrangement by which a passenger arriving at the station on foot or by motor passes by way of the booking office through the circulating area, flanked by restaurant and cloak rooms, past the train indicator and timetables to the departure platforms. British railway stations are almost unique
in that the majority of large termini are so arranged as to permit taxi cabs for hire to stand along a roadway provided by the side of the arrival platforms of the long distance trains. Gradually, in order to prevent the overcrowding of platforms, and the pil ferage of luggage and parcels, the railways have extended the system of "closed" stations at all important centres, whereby access to the platforms is only permitted to those holding railway tickets or a platform ticket, for which a small charge, usually id., is made. Each platform usually accommodates only one train but where difficulty of obtaining land has elongated the station design very long platforms exist which can accommodate two trains; notable examples are Cambridge (L.N.E.R.), I,375ft. long; Perth (L.N.E.R. and L.M.S.R.) of the "through" design, and Victoria Station above mentioned.
Another characteristic feature of large British and some Con tinental European railway stations are the great metal spans with glass roofs over several platforms and lines, of which notable examples exist in London at St. Pancras (L.M.S.R.), king's Cross (L.N.E.R.), and Paddington (G.W.R.). In Germany, Leipzig, claimed as the largest station in Europe, possesses this feature in a form of six arches, and with 26 platforms has a frontage of nearly t,000ft. Hotel frontages form a further feature of British station planning in many of the more important stations. The Grand Central (1910) and Pennsylvania (1913) terminals in New York City demonstrated the advantages of electrification in permitting the development of building sights actually above the "train shed"; but the completion of the new Union Station at Chicago in 1925, serving four railways, has shown that such a development is possible even with the use of steam traction, in this latter case the station being designed to serve also as an office building. It is possible that the high land value in London may induce a similar policy there in connection with hotel develop ments. In South America one of the many fine stations is Retiro (1915), terminus of the Central Argentine at Buenos Aires, while Japan is justly proud of its Central Terminus at Tokyo, opened in 1913. It is, however, the track lay-out or design which de termines the capacity of a busy station, and in the case of termini the yard where carriages may be stored, cleaned and examined, should be as close to the station as possible and preferably, though this is hardly ever possible, between the sets of inwards and out wards lines.