Large grain elevators have been erected at many points. Among these are Buffalo, Quebec, Montreal, New York, New Orleans. In fact, most of the American ports are equipped with such reservoirs. The grain is sucked out of the ship or cars and deposited on conveyors, passing through the drier to the bins. The loading of ships or cars is done by gravity, the grain flowing through chutes leading to the hold or car. Floating elevators are used in many harbours to transfer the grain directly from the barges to ships. The airveyor installed in many terminals han dles certain bulk cargoes most efficiently and economically. Suc tion produced by a partial vacuum raises the material from the ship to receiver and separator, whence it is deposited in the bins.
The storage of oil, crude or manufactured, is of extreme importance. Increasing use of oil-burning ships and internal com bustion engines necessitates the establishment of oil terminals. These are usually located in some outlying district where a fire will do little to shipping. Huge tanks containing 55,000 bbl. and more are erected, leaving sufficient space between them to erect a fire wall around each unit to prevent the spread of the burning oil. In case of a fire, adjoining tanks are immediately pumped out into others further away, and the oil in the burning tank is transferred as far as possible to minimize the loss. The fire hazard is great and at times considerable losses are experienced although they are not as great as one might expect. The oil is pumped from the wells directly to the oil plant on the seaboard or brought in tankers. It is distributed to the ships by means of steam barges, to the factories in oil trucks or cars.
Direct connection with the railroads is essential to a modern water terminal; a belt line connecting the various water front units is required. Such connecting links have been installed in many cities. In New York, the Bush Terminal, American Dock Company and Pouch Terminal have installed tracks as part of their systems. These local tracks have direct connections with the railroad feeding that part of the harbour. The belt lines are used to collect freight, which is then hauled to the classification yard and there made up into trains. As it is frequently required to handle heavy pieces and other bulky freight, locomotive cranes of various types are used to load the cars. For a discussion of Air Terminals see TRANSPORT BY AIR; AERODROME, AIR PORT or AIR STATION.
of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. army ; Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers ; Minutes of Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, London ; World Ports, American Association of Port Authorities ; Books and Reports of Wm.
H. Burr, Elmer Corthell, G. S. Greene, Jr., L. M. Cox, Elihu C. Church, Brysson Cunningham (London) ; Luigi Luiggi (Rome). See also McElwee, Ports and Terminal Facilities.
D.; X.) To furnish transportation and to provide for all the require ments governing the handling of traffic it is necessary, among other things, for railroads to maintain various and distinct designs of freight and passenger cars for revenue-producing service and equipment for its own use. The prosperity of a railroad depends to a great extent upon the efficiency and condition of its rolling stock. Regular service is dependent upon the number and types of cars and the proper maintenance of this equipment.
The outstanding developments in railway rolling stock during the past few years have been the increased size of cars, both freight and passenger, the gradual substitution of steel and alu minium for wood as the chief material of construction, the use of roller-bearing journals, air-conditioning, the rapid advances made in the use of high-speed light-weight streamlined trains and con tainer cars.
In America the long hauls and the interstate commerce require for most economical service that freight be moved in large units, making it necessary to provide cars of large cubical capacity. Modern cars range in load capacity up to 70 tons or more. This increase in size and weight of freight cars with an accompanying increase in the size and weight of passenger cars and of the loco motives required to haul them, has called for heavier construction.
Heavy rolling stock has also required improvements in the con struction and maintenance of road bed, track and bridges.
Passenger train equipment is defined as rolling stock suitably constructed to operate at high speeds in passenger trains ; its general characteristics being passenger type of truck, passenger type of brake, air signal, steam heat equip
and interior arrangement to suit the class of
for which it
intended. Passenger train car equipment in America includes coaches, observation, sleeping, dining, buffet, cafe, club, parlor and business cars for carrying passengers and baggage, express and postal cars for handling baggage, merchandise and mail in passen ger trains. At the end of 1936 there were over 70,000 passenger train cars owned by the railways of the United States, Canada and Mexico. This includes over 8,5oo Pullman owned cars and a number of privately owned cars.