STATIONS.
To afford the necessary facilities for the rapid and convenient reception and discharge of goods and passengers, as well as to provide for the neces sary renewal or increase of the motive-power required to 1110Ve the trains, stations are established. They serve, further, as convenient foci for the distribution of traffic by other modes of communication—by roads, canals, rivers, and the sea.
Classes of Stations.—According to their location, stations are distin g,mished as terminal or intermediate stations. The necessity of dividing the passenger from the freight traffic has caused suitable provision to be made at terminal stations for the management of these two forms of traffic; SO that the terminal station comprises a passenger station and a freight sta tion. Furthermore, as provision must be made for the temporary shelter and the repair of locomotives and cars, such terminal stations, and to some extent, also, the intermediate stations, in proportion to their importance, arc provided with round-houses for the locomotives, car-sheds for the hous ing and cleaning of cars, and rcpair-shops for the repair of both.
Location of Stations.—The location of passenger and freight stations will be governed largely by circumstances in which convenience and econ omy are the principal considerations; not infrequently they are situated some distance apart. The passeng-er stations at the termini of the road, providing, as they do, the natural termini, are placed necessarily on the main line, and wherever it is possible are situated near to the centre of population from which the traffic is derived. The freight station need not bc situated directly on the main line, but may be, and often is, placed on a branch, some distance beyond or short of the passenger station. To provide for extension of terminal-station facilities which the increase of passenger and freight traffic will necessitate from time to time, ample space should be set apart, when the station is planned, to permit of its expansion. In large and rapidly-growing cities, especially in the United States, such provision is imperative. Of late there has been a tendency to concentrate the terminal facilities (especially for foreign traffic) in large cities in one extensive station-building, and, where circumstances of loca tion render it convenient to do so, to provide for the exchange and transfer of freight from oue road to another by means of a " belt road " communi cating with the tracks of all the roads entering the city.
Terminal proper planning of a terminal station with reference to the convenience of arriving and departing trains and passen gers, and to the connection of tracks, by means of switches (pi. 28, figs. I, 3), to permit of the speedy shifting of assembling trains from one track to another, will exercise a very important influence on the economical and efficient despatch of the business of the road. While the plan of construc tion will differ materially according to the availability of the location, the following notes may serve to indicate the general requirements of a large station.
Arrangement of Terminal approaches and yard, or court, of passenger stations should be of g,enerous area, to permit of the entrance and egress of vehicles. The following rooms should be provided (fig. 4): a spacious hall about the centre of the building, with ticket-office (middle) and baggag,,e-room (right), and several waiting-rooms (left), witb restaurant (between the two), ladies' room and toilet-rooms (left), station-master's bureau and telegraph-offices (in the right division), and apartments for offi cials and other employes on duty. Figures 2a and 2b exhibit elevation and ground-plan of the station at Stuttgart, one of the most complete in Germany. The terminal stations are completely roofed (fig. 5); and elabo rate structures of this kind are to be found in London (fi/. 4, fig. 281, Paris, Berlin, Frankfort (fi/. 29, fig. r), and in a number of American cities; these structures are entitled to rank as architectural masterpieces (fi'gs. r-3). In Figure 2b 28) the separation of the arrival-and departure tracks by their disposition on the opposite sides of the station house is shown as a typical example.