(4) Cleaning of locomotive fires on line of road is often an operating necessity, though it involves some risk to traffic unless ashes receive proper attention. Such fire cleaning should be prohibited, except at designated locations between fixed limits where proper attention can be given to the removal of the ashes. Such locations should be suitably distant from switches and highway grade crossings.

(5) Where only a few engines are handled daily, many small ash pit arrangements may be suitable, but consideration should be given to the use of a shallow pit constructed of non-combustible material and located between the rails.

(6) The depressed track pit, with ashes removed to cars by hand, has given fairly satisfactory service throughout the country for many years at terminals handling from a few up to a hundred or more engines. per day. With modern labor conditions and operating requirements, the general use of this type of pit is not recommended, though under favorable labor conditions, and under conditions not favorable to the use of machinery, such pits will probably continue in satisfactory service at some terminals.

Where such pits are to be used, it is recommended that they generally embody the following features:

(a) Concrete should be of a dense and rich mixture, with preferably slag or trap rock used for the aggregate.

(b) For safety and economical maintenance, both rails should be supported on cast iron or cast steel pedestals even though a continuous curtain wall be used under one rail.

(c) Pavement should be of vitrified or fire brick on a concrete base. (d) The distance from base of rail to pavement should be not less than three, nor over four feet.

(e) To prevent the washing of ashes down onto the depressed track, the retaining wall should project slightly above the paving, with drain holes through it.

(f) Vertical distance from top of rail of depressed track to edge of shoveling platform should be not less than four feet six inches and usually not over five feet six inches, based upon easy shoveling into cars of ordinary height and possible shoveling into cars nearly eleven feet high.

(4) The Robertson and N. & W. type ash-handling plants are essentially similar and in comparison with other types of ash pits, are recommended more particularly for terminals handling from 10 to 60 engines per day. For larger terminals up to those handling 100 engines per day, this type may compete in economy with other ash pits; however, as the number of units employed increases, a large area is required for a proper track layout and dependability of operation is much less than with shallow and deep water pits, so far as abnormal conditions are concerned.

The Robertson conveyor is installed in single and double units, the double unit being required to receive the ashes from locomotives having two to three hoppers. Each track opening is about five feet long and each

skip holds about 11⁄2 cubic yards. The single unit should be used only in exceptional cases, where it is known that its ash capacity is equal to the local demand.

The N. & W. type conveyor is usually installed as a single unit. Its hopper is 8 feet long and the skip has a capacity of about three cubic yards. To care for some engines, a double unit would be needed.

With these two types of pits, the track layout should be carefully checked for engine and ash car movements. Ash-handling units in the same engine track should be spaced, at least, the length of three ash cars, to allow the placing of two cars to the unit and the dropping down of a loaded car without interference with the cars placed at the next unit. Ash handling units on separate engine tracks preferably should discharge into the same ash car, provided the track connections are such that all ash cars do not have to be switched simultaneously. All overhead and side construction should allow unrestricted use of all tracks by any engine or car.

(5) Deep water pits are recommended for use where 60 or more engines are handled daily, provided the engine terminal layout is so fixed that the ash pit investment may be considered reasonably permanent, and provided that the climate is not so cold that great trouble is apt to be experienced in unloading frozen ash cars. For terminals handling 60 to 100 engines per day, such pits are probably slightly more expensive in real cost per engine than some other types; however, this greater cost is often or may be justified by the greater dependability of operation. For terminals handling over 100 engines daily the cost per engine is probably as low as for any other type, and the dependability greater.

It is recommended that such pits embody the following features or ideas:

(a) Ashes should be removed to cars with clam shell buckets operated by locomotive, gantry or overhead cranes. At double pits, if the use of a locomotive crane is required for more than two or three hours per day, then dependability of operation will begin to be affected and overhead crane should be installed. (b) Engine and ash car tracks should be spaced far enough from adjacent tracks to afford suitable clearances for the future construction of an overhead crane runway.

(c) The smaller layouts should provide at least two engine tracks, or consist of two separate, single engine pits in the same track, with suitable crossovers to a running track and with an independent ash car track, this latter arrangement being recommended only where local conditions make the usual two-engine pit undesirable.

(d) The larger layouts should provide at least two engine tracks and one or more independent ash car track, all spanned or served by a crane. Where the extra cost involved can be justified, complete non-interference between the work of loading ashes and the cleaning and handling of engines can be obtained by locating the ash track between the engine tracks.

(e) Distance center to center of engine tracks over pits should be not less than eighteen feet, and correspondingly increased if sidewalks are provided. Depth of pit and the slope of the side walls should be such that ashes will slide freely to the middle, where they can readily be reached by the bucket. Ashes will not flow freely on a slope less than one to one.

(f) Such rails as do not bear on side walls, should be supported on pedestals spaced relatively close together in order to permit the use of shallow beams and reduce maintenance cost in the replacement of these beams. Spare bearing beams should be kept in stock at all times so that prompt replacement of defective beams can be made. The use of bare beams probably will be safer and cheaper than to attempt to protect such beams from rust and warping from the heat.

(g) The bottom of the pit should be protected with old rails or otherwise to guard against blows and scraping action of the clam shell bucket.

(h) Special attention should be given to the use of catch basins and other arrangements to keep cinders from filling up drain pipes. (i) Consideration should be given to safeguards against accidents resulting from men falling into the pit. Good protection is afforded by inner sidewalks with railings. These can be installed only when so provided in the original design, and even then at a decided increase in cost on account of increased track centers and depth of pit for equal ash storage.

(6) Shallow water pits are recommended for use under about the same conditions as are deep water pits. In all cases, the ashes should be handled by overhead crane. Comparing these two types, it may be said for equal lengths, the shallow water pit will be cheaper construction, and therefore more economical in fixed charges. If, however, on account of the reduced ash storage the length of the pits be increased, then the advantage of economy may be partly or wholly lost. With the larger terminals, the ash storage is usually such that the ash removal requires five to eight hours' work of a craneman and usually a helper. At smaller terminals, two to four hours' work is all that is required, and the same force may also work hoisting coal. To a certain extent, the shallow ash pit is less dependable in operation than the deep water pit, because its ash storage is less, but practically, the difference is very slight. Such pits should embody the following features:

(a) Engine tracks and ash car tracks should alternate in either a
three or five track unit under one crane.

(b) Pits should be as wide between the rails as they can be con-
structed. The side walls and bottom of the pit should be pro-
tected against rubbing by clam shell bucket, which should be
extra long to obtain good capacity. Height of pit walls should
not be less than four feet or more than four feet six inches.
(c) Between tracks a water shedding pavement should be provided
so sloped as to drain to the pits.

Ash-handling plants may be developed in the future, which will be more economical and satisfactory than those above recommended, but most of the many other arrangements now in use fail to show any particular advantages other than adaptation to either local conditions or operating needs. The type which has a transverse chamber under the tracks. is well adapted to handle ashes from engines on line of road or in terminals where four or more tracks are used under a combined coaling and ash-handling plant. In the latter case, some of the tracks may be used inbound or outbound, according to requirements.

In conclusion, it should be recognized that unsatisfactory service from common types of ash pits will generally reflect either insufficient or poorly supervised operating forces or else a plant which is overworked or inadequate in its physical capacity to properly meet the terminal requirements. It is of vital interest to railroad managements to see that ash-pit layouts are carefully and liberally designed for local needs and to see that proper terminal operation and train dispatching, as a whole, are not handicapped by insufficient ash-pit force to properly meet the rush-hour demands as they change from day to day and year to year.

Exhibit "A"