Figs. 1 and 2 give a perspective view and plan of a new style of car recently adopted by the Bone-Guelma Railroad Company, and which has isolated compartments opening upon a lateral passageway. In this arrangement, which is due to Mr. Desgranges, the lateral passageway does not extend all along one side of the car, but passes through the center of the latter and then runs along the opposite side so as to form a letter S. The car consists in reality of two boxes connected beneath the transverse passageway, but having a continuous roof and flooring. The two ends are provided with platforms that are reached by means of steps, and that permit one to enter the corresponding half of the car or to pass on to the next. The length from end to end is 33 feet in the mixed cars, comprising two first-class and four second-class compartments, and 32 feet in cars of the third class, with six compartments. The width of the compartments is 5.6 and 5 feet, according to the class. The passageway is 28 inches in width in the mixed cars, and 24 in those of the third class. The roof is so arranged as to afford a circulation of cool air in the interior.
The application of the zigzag passageway has the inconvenience of slightly elongating the car, but it is advantageous to the passengers, who can thus enjoy a view of the landscape on both sides of the train.—La Nature.
FOUNDATIONS OF THE CENTRAL VIADUCT OF CLEVELAND, O.
The Central viaduct, now under construction in the city of Cleveland, is probably the longest structure of the kind devoted entirely to street traffic. The superstructure is in two distinct portions, separated by a point of high ground. The main portion, extending across the river valley from Hill street to Jennings avenue, is 2,840 feet long on the floor line, including the river bridge, a swing 233 feet in length; the other portion, crossing Walworth run from Davidson street to Abbey street, is 1,093 feet long. Add to these the earthwork and masonry approaches, 1,415 feet long, and we have a total length of 5,348 feet. The width of roadway is 40 feet, sidewalks 8 feet each. The elevation of the roadway above the water level at the river crossing is 102 feet. The superstructure is of wrought iron, mainly trapezoidal trusses, varying in length from 45 feet to 150 feet. The river piers are of first-class masonry, on pile and timber foundations. The other supports of the viaduct are wrought iron trestles on masonry piers, resting on broad concrete foundations. The pressure on the material beneath the concrete, which is plastic blue clay of varying degrees of stiffness mixed with fine sand, is about one ton per square foot.
The Cuyahoga valley, which the viaduct crosses from bluff to bluff, is composed mainly of blue clay to a depth of over 150 feet below the river level. No attempt is made to carry the foundation to the rock. White oak piles from 50 to 60 feet in length and 10 inches in diameter at small end are driven for the bridge piers either side of the river bed, and these are cut off with a circular saw 18 feet below the surface of the water. Excavation by dredging was made to a depth of 3 feet below where the piles are cut off to allow for the rising of the clay during the driving of the piles. The piles are spaced about 2 feet 5 inches each way, center to center. The grillage or platform covering the piles consists of 14 courses of white oak timber, 12 inches by 12 inches, having a few pine timbers interspersed so as to allow the mass to float during construction. The lower half of the platform was built on shore, care being taken to keep the lower surface of the mass of timber out of wind. The upper and lower surfaces of each timber were dressed in a Daniels planer, and all pieces in the same course were brought to a uniform thickness. The timbers in adjacent courses are at right angles to each other. The lower course is about 58 feet by 22 feet, the top course about 50 by 24 feet, thus allowing four steps of one foot each all around. The first course of masonry is 48 feet by 21 feet 8 inches; the first course of battered work is 41 feet 8½ inches by 16 feet 3 inches. Thus the area of the platform on the piles is 1,856 square feet, and of the first batter course of masonry 777.6 square feet, or in the ratio of 2.4 to 1. The height of the masonry is 78 feet above the timber, or 73½ feet above the water. The number of piles in each foundation is 312. The average load per pile is about 11 tons, and the estimated pressure per square inch of the timber on the heads of the piles is about 200 pounds.
To prevent the submersion of the lower courses of masonry during construction, temporary sides of timber were drift-bolted to the margin of the upper course of the timber platform, and carried high enough to be above the surface of the water when the platform was sunk to the head of the piles by the increasing weight of masonry.
The center pier is octagonal, and is built in the same general manner as to foundations as the shore piers, but the piles are cut off 22 feet below water, and there are eighteen courses of timber in the grillage. The diameter of the platform between parallel sides is 53 feet, while that of the lower course of battered masonry is but 37 feet. The areas are as 2,332 to 1,147, or as 2 to 1 nearly. The pressure per square inch of timber on the heads of the piles is about the same as stated above for the shore piers. The number of piles under the center pier is 483.
The risks and delays by this method of constructing the foundations were much less, and the cost also, than if an ordinary coffer dam had been used. Also the total weight of the piers is much less, as that portion below a point about two feet below the water adds nothing to their weight.