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

Excerpt

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.—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 (), 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....