The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The New York Tunnel Extension
of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Transactions of the American Society
of
Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910, by E. B. Temple This eBook
is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol.
LXVIII, Sept. 1910 The New York Tunnel Extension of the
Pennsylvania Railroad. Meadows Division and Harrison Transfer Yard.
Paper No. 1153
Author: E. B. Temple
Release Date: March 18, 2006 [EBook #18012]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sigal Alon and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS
INSTITUTED 1852
TRANSACTIONS
Paper No. 1153
THE NEW YORK TUNNEL EXTENSION OF THE
PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.
MEADOWS DIVISION AND HARRISON TRANSFER YARD.[A]
BY E. B. TEMPLE, M. AM. SOC. C. E.

The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad
diverges from the New York Division in the Town of Harrison, N. J.,
and, ascending on a 0.5% grade, crosses over the tracks of the New
York Division and the main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western Railroad. Thence it continues, with light undulating grades,
across the Hackensack Meadows to a point just east of the Northern
Railroad of New Jersey and the New York, Susquehanna and Western
Railroad, where it descends to the tunnels under Bergen Hill and the
North River. (Plate XVI.)
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.--Plan and Profile of the Pennsylvania
Tunnel & Terminal R. R., from Harrison, N. J., to the Hudson River]
That portion of the line lying west of the portals of the Bergen Hill
Tunnels has been divided into two sections: First, the most westerly,
known as the Harrison Transfer Station and Yard (Plate XVII), which
is located on the southern side of the New York Division, Pennsylvania
Railroad, and extends from the connection with the New York Division
tracks at grade up to the point of crossing the same, where the
Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad has its beginning; second,

the Meadows Division of the Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal
Railroad, which is a double-track railroad, 5.08 miles long, extending
from a point just west of the bridge over the New York Division to a
point 300 ft. west of the western portals of the Bergen Hill Tunnels.
Harrison Transfer Station and Yard.--The necessities for the Harrison
improvements are two-fold: First, as a place to change motive power
from steam to electric, and vice versa; second, as a transfer for
passengers from trains destined to the new Station at Seventh Avenue
and 33d Street, New York City, to steam or rapid transit trains destined
to the present Jersey City Station, or to the lower part of New York
City via the Hudson and Manhattan Tunnels, and vice versa.
All steam trains from Philadelphia, the South, and the West, from New
Jersey seashore resorts, and local trains on the New York Division
bound for the new Pennsylvania Station, will change their motive
power from steam to electric engines at the Harrison Transfer Station.
Likewise, all trains from the Tunnel Line will change from electric to
steam motive power there, and passengers coming from Jersey City and
the southern section of New York City can take through trains at the
Harrison Transfer platforms. It is estimated that the time required to
make this change of motive power, or to transfer passengers, will not
exceed 3-1/2 min.
The plan at Harrison provides at present for two platforms, each 1,100
ft. long and 28 ft. wide, and having ample shelters and waiting rooms,
connected by a 12-ft. tunnel under the tracks, provision being made for
two additional platforms when necessity requires their construction.
The platforms are supported on walls of reinforced concrete, with an
overhang to provide a refuge for employees from passing trains. The
concrete walls are supported on wooden piles, prevented from
spreading by 7/8-in. tie-rods at 10-ft. intervals, and embedded in
concrete under the paving of the platform. As the elevation of the top of
the platform is +21.83, and the top of the piles is +14.54 above mean
tide, the piles will, of course, decay; but, as the embankment has been
completed for some time and is well packed and settled, the concrete
being deposited directly on the embankment, very little trouble from

settlement is anticipated when the piles decay. The surface of the
platforms, with the exception of the edges, is to be of brick, on a
concrete base; and, if settlement occurs, the bricks can be taken up and
re-surfaced.