New York Subway Tours

attached to it a flexible wire which can be connected to the shoe-hanger of the truck or to the end plug of the car, so that the cars can be moved around in the shops by means of their own motors. In the north bay, where the pits are very shallow, the conductor is carried overhead and consists of an 8-pound T-rail supported from the roof girders. The middle bay is provided with a 50-ton electric crane, which spans all of the tracks in this shop and is so arranged that it can serve any one of the thirty cars on the five tracks, and can deliver the trucks, wheels, motors, and other repair parts at either end of the shops, where they can be transferred to the telpherage hoist. [Sidenote: _The Telpherage System_] One of the most interesting features of the shops is the electric telpherage system. This system runs the entire length of the north and south bays crossing the middle bay or erection shop at each end, so that the telpherage hoist can pick up in the main room any wheels, trucks, or other apparatus which may be required, and can take them either into the north bay for painting, or into the south bay or machine shop for machine-tool work. The telpherage system extends across the transfer table pit at the west end of the shops and into the storehouse and blacksmith shop at the Seventh Avenue end of the grounds. The traveling telpherage hoist has a capacity of 6,000 pounds. The girders upon which it runs consist of 12-inch I-beams, which are hung from the roof trusses. The car has a weight of one ton and is supported by and runs on the I-beam girders by means of four 9-inch diameter wheels, one on each side. The hoist is equipped with two motors. The driving motor of two horse power is geared by double reduction gearing to the driving wheels at one end of the hoist. The hoist motor is of eight horse power, and is connected by worm gearing and then by triple reduction gearing to the hoist drum. The motors are controlled by rheostatic controllers, one for each motor. The hoist motor is also fitted with an electric brake by which, when the power is cut off, a band b