The floor is completely covered on the underside with 1/4-inch asbestos transite board, while all parts of the car framing, flooring, and sheathing are covered with fire-proofing compound. In addition, all spaces above the motor truck in the floor framing, between sills and bridging, are protected by plates of No. 8 steel and 1/4-inch roll fire-felt extending from the platform end sill to the bolster.
Car Wiring
The precautions to secure safety from fire consists generally in the perfected arrangement and installation of the electrical apparatus and the wiring. For the lighting circuits a flexible steel conduit is used, and a special junction box. On the side and upper roofs, over these conduits for the lighting circuits, a strip of sheet iron is securely nailed to the roof boards before the canvas is applied. The wires under the floor are carried in ducts moulded into suitable forms of asbestos compound. Special precautions have been taken with the insulation of the wires, the specifications calling for, first, a layer of paper, next, a layer of rubber, and then a layer of cotton saturated with a weather-proof compound, and outside of this a layer of asbestos. The hangers supporting the rheostats under the car body are insulated with wooden blocks, treated by a special process, being dried out in an oven and then soaked in an insulating compound, and covered with 1/4-inch "transite" board. The rheostat boxes themselves are also insulated from the angle iron supporting them. Where the wires pass through the flooring they are hermetically sealed to prevent the admission of dust and dirt.
At the forward end of what is known as the No. 1 end of the car all the wires are carried to a slate switchboard in the motorman's cab. This board is 44 x 27 inches, and is mounted directly back of the motorman. The window space occupied by this board is ceiled up and the space back of the panels is boxed in and provided with a door of steel plate, forming a box, the cover, top, bottom, and sides of which are lined with electrobestos 1/2-inch thick. All of the switches and fuses, except the main trolley fuse and bus-line fuse, which are encased and placed under the car, are carried on this switchboard. Where the wires are carried through the floor or any partition, a steel chute, lined with electrobestos, is used to protect the wires against mechanical injury. It will be noted from the above that no power wiring, switches, or fuses are placed in the car itself, all such devices being outside in a special steel insulated compartment.
A novel feature in the construction of these cars is the motorman's compartment and vestibule, which differs essentially from that used heretofore, and the patents are owned by the Interborough Company. The cab is located on the platform, so that no space within the car is required; at the same time the entire platform space is available for ingress and egress except that on the front platform of the first car, on which the passengers would not be allowed in any case. The side of the cab is formed by a door which can be placed in three positions. When in its mid-position it encloses a part of the platform, so as to furnish a cab for the motorman, but when swung parallel to the end sills it encloses the end of the platform, and this would be its position on the rear platform of the rear car. The third position is when it is swung around to an arc of 180 degrees, when it can be locked in position against the corner vestibule post enclosing the master controller. This would be its position on all platforms except on the front of the front car or the rear of the rear car of the train.
The platforms themselves are not equipped with side gates, but with doors arranged to slide into pockets in the side framing, thereby giving up the entire platform to the passengers. These doors are closed by an overhead lever system. The sliding door on the front platform of the first car may be partly opened and secured in this position by a bar, and thus serve as an arm-rest for the motorman. The doors close against an air-cushion stop, making it impossible to clutch the clothing or limbs of passengers in closing.
INTERIOR VIEW—SKELETON FRAMING OF STEEL CAR