Oil and Lantern House Oil requirements at the terminal calling for thirtry stalls averaging, say, four engines per stall for a 24-hour period, are so great that a separate oil house with an attendant located at a point convenient to the engine house and machine shop is recommended. At a terminal where the oil requirements are light, this oil house may be made a part of the store house, but separated from it by fire walls. Power House The power house is central with the 30-stall terminal requirements as well as for the future development. It has to be located near the coaling station so that one track hopper, elevating and conveying equipment can deliver coal to both. This also saves switching coal to two points. An overhead ash hopper and bins are shown over the track which passes through the machine shop. Underground concrete pipe ducts from the power house to the various buildings are contemplated for the installation of steam, hot water and air. Boiler Wash and Fan Room The boiler washing plant which has become an essential part of engine terminal equipment in bad water districts, together with a fan room having in mind a hot blast heating system, are installed in the same building, but separated from the engine house. This is done to place both of these facilities central with the engine house or where the maximum demand for hot air and hot water occurs. The building is placed at least fifteen feet away from the back of the engine house proper so that it will not obstruct daylight in the rear of the stalls at this point. Wash and Locker Facilities A separate wash and locker building for the terminal repair force is provided at a central point. These facilities for the crews are provided in the office and locker building beside all inspection pits. Conclusions Your Committee, in its study of this subject, has agreed that there are so many special considerations on an engine terminal layout, that it is impossible to lay out anything but a typical one, showing a desirable arrangement and sequence of facilities. It, therefore, presents this as a progress report for your information and asks for definite suggestions and criticisms. With these and several other typical layouts, providing for certain conditions, a final report on this branch of the subject should be possible next year. DESIGN OF CAR SHOPS Report on Passenger Car Repair Shops L. K. SILLCOX, Chairman; L. L. TALLYN, Sub-Committee. So many passenger car repair shops throughout the country today have a fifty-year old nucleus, with piece-meal additions, in which the shopmen are making the most of what their shops possess, and are struggling along as best they can to keep modern equipment in repair and serviceable, that it seems proper that careful study and consideration be given to the subject of repair shops, with the view of improving facilities and developing plants that are as modern as the equipment to be maintained. If each workman in a shop, where 1,000 men are employed, saved five cents for the railroad company each day, the sum saved in one year, of 300 working days, would amount to $15,000.00, an amount which is equivalent to five per cent interest on a capital of $300,000.00. Yet in most, if not all, railroad shops it is indeed conservative to estimate that each man wastes five cents worth of his time daily due to poor shop layouts, poor arrangement of facilities, antiquated tools and machinery, or old-fashioned methods of handling work, conditions over which neither he nor his immediate supervisors have any control. Harrington Emerson, in his book, "The Twelve Principles of Efficiency," says "The railroad that dispatches its 'crack' trains with ninetynine per cent of time accuracy has either no dispatch system or a very crude one for work, either big or small, through its shop; therefore, in some cases it fails to realize an efficiency of even one per cent, and on the big average of all shop work fails to realize either a time or cost efficiency of more than forty per cent. * "It is interesting to note in the matter of repairs the great superiority of marine repair dispatching over locomotive repair dispatching. A vessel will be put in dry dock * * *, and be completely scrapped, repainted, new propeller and rudder fitted, new plates inserted, in perhaps three days. * "A fifteen-day schedule for general repairs to a locomotive is considered fast time and the average is nearly thirty, but if the time for each item is separately entered. in the summary, it is hard to discover why three days would not be enough." Considering the importance of these facts, this report is written with an object to obtaining high efficiency fully as much as to gain mechanical excellence. However, the two are co-ordinate, for high efficiency bears with it mechanical perfection. In laying out a passenger car shop, or any other, no better advice can be given than that offered by Herbert Kaufmann, when he said, "Make your chart before you start. Know what you're after before you start out for it." Your Committee in submitting this report has endeavored to cover only what seems to be best in layouts and treat the subject so that it will be of most assistance to the greatest number. Most railroad shops of today are operated on the hourly basis, and it is therefore on arrangement, organization and supervision that efficiency, output and workmanship depend. Furthermore, when it is remembered that organization and supervision are in a large measure dependent on layout of plant and facilities the importance of the first factor is appreciated. The shop, yards, buildings, and machinery should be arranged so that the various operations follow through in a logical sequence; the bad order equipment should pass in at one point, progress by various steps, without hindrance, or delay from congestion or awkward movements, over a predetermined circuit to the point of release and emerge as a finished product. In general repair work, a car will enter the shop, be unwheeled and stripped, after which the car, trucks and trimmings will progress through the shops, each over a different route, and will finally meet at some point for trimming, assembly and release. The older shops are generally situated within the limits of some city, with the result that now the cities have grown around them, hemming them in and forbidding their further development. It is hopeless to attempt the development of a modern plant in cramped quarters. Therefore, a location must be sought elsewhere even though the shop crews are well established and the labor conditions favorable at the old point, but in the selection of the new site, while it may be true that labor will follow the job, the importance of selecting a location with a suitable labor market must not be neglected. Topographic and climatic conditions must not be lost sight of, and in laying out a plant, nature must not be forgotten. A careful study of the forces of nature must be made so as to offset or reduce any hindrance from this source and at the same time secure any benefits that may be derived. Too often, in order to take advantage of cheap real estate, ease and simplicity in providing drainage and other things, shops are located in valleys adjacent to water courses which cannot be controlled, with the consequence of much damage from floors and severe losses from delay and interruptions to operations, the cost of which offsets the savings in first cost many times over. It is useless to attempt, in an ideal layout, to fix definite dimensions and proportions. These must be left to be determined for each particular case from the policies, practices, and conditions prevailing. It is the policy with some railroads to thoroughly overhaul the trucks of every car passing through the shops; therefore, for them an elaborate truck repair shop is required. At other shops a large portion, or all of the equipment may be steel cars requiring extensive steel working machinery and but small wood mill equipment. Roads, not operating their own sleeping cars, do not require the space for upholstery work demanded by those that do. Where the climate is mild a great deal of work may be done out of doors, and so there are a great many factors to be considered. It is our object to offer something that can be used as a guide. The Committee's submission, therefore, is laid out so that ali operations can be taken care of indoors and those using it as a guide need subtract rather than extend. All buildings should be substantially built, of fireproof construction, well lighted, comfortably heated, and have good ventilation. The last three requirements, together with large sanitary lockers, wash and toilet rooms, go a long way in keeping up the morale of the employes and will produce returns on investment in the form of efficiency, quality and quantity of the work produced. For the passenger car work, buildings with transverse tracks served by transfer tables undoubtedly give the best operation. Passenger coaches, which are handled singly, can be placed or shifted about must more expeditiously and with better provision in a transverse layout than in any other. Frequently, the Transportation Department requests that preference be given certain cars after they have been placed in the shops, making it necessary to shift their position. The plant should, therefore, be flexible for the moving of individual cars. On the other hand, the reverse is true of freight car shops. Freight cars are handled in groups; therefore, a better operation is to be had from a longtitudinal layout. Your Committee wishes to make the following general comments and recommendations for the various subdivisions which make up a large passenger shop layout. Coach Paint Shop The Paint Shop should be of fireproof construction, light, airy, roomy, free from dirt and dust, and should be well heated in cold weather. The most economical operation as to first cost and production is obtained with a building of sufficient width to hold two cars on each transverse track with ample aisle room on either side and in the middle. With more than two cars per track awkward conditions arise in moving the center car. Each track should run through and be served by a transfer table on either side of the building. The tracks should be 25 ft. from center to center. The floor should be concrete and should pitch to floor drains to allow for scrubbings and quick drying after. Traveling cranes and supply tracks are not needed. Permanent scaffolds should be provided. They should be adjustable and easily operated, preferably suspended from overhead so they can be pushed up out of the way when not in use. Ample space should be allotted for storing and mixing paints. This should be located at the center of the building, for so large a plant as this, so as to be equally accessible from the extreme ends of the shop. Ample toilets, wash and locker rooms should be provided. Some places may require baking ovens, in which case they may be provided for across the transfer table or a few stalls of the paint shop may be converted for this purpose. Coach Repair Shop The same width and track arrangement is recommended as for the paint shop. The building should be divided into two main bays, one on either side with a center aisle about twenty feet wide in which should be installed a fifteen-ton traveling crane. This should be operated from the floor so that the operator can hook on his own loads or do other tasks at such times as the crane is not in use. The floor should be wood block substantially constructed to withstand the severe wear from the handling of heavy parts. Permanent scaffolds should be provided of the same constructions as that recommended for the paint shop. The shop should be piped for compressed air, steam, water, and acetylene, and ample electric connections should be provided. If cars are all placed on dollies before they are taken to the repair shop, pits are not necessary. However, as the probabilities are that not all cars will be unwheeled, a portion of the stalls should be provided with pits. Some tools and machinery are necessary in connection with this shop, although it may be the intentions to do the greater portion of the work in the main machine and blacksmith shop; therefore, a certain space should be set aside for this purpose. The pipe shop, air room, and tin shop should be annexed to this building, if possible, as the greater portion of that work comes from and goes back to the cars while in this shop. As with the paint shop, the best operation will develop from this shop being served on both sides by a transfer table. Wash House At most shops the cars are washed on the same track on which they are painted, or on tracks in the paint shop especially set aside for this purpose. At some places the washing and stripping is done on the same tracks. In view of the continual dampness resulting and the hindrance which it produces on the paint work, the Committee recommends that a separate department be assigned and be properly equipped for this work. Certain stripping such as the removal of air equipment can be advantageously taken off here. The wash house should be well lighted, heated and ventilated so the cars will dry quickly. It should have a concrete floor, properly pitched, with frequent floor drains to give good drainage. Gutters in the floor between tracks or so located as to catch the drip from the sides of the car will greatly assist in keeping the floor dry. Scaffolds should also be provided and the shop should have water and steam connections. Floor space should be provided in a convenient location for the preparation of soap and acid solutions. Stripping and Trimming Shop A very logical and economical grouping of operations can be accomplished by providing a place for stripping cars of sash, doors, upholstery, and fixtures as they pass into the shops and another for trimming them as |