Home signals, 354
Dwarf signals, 150
Distant signals, 187
          
                                                  ——­
     Total, 691
     Total number of switches, 224

It will be noted that in the case of the City Hall Station three separate plants are required, all of considerable size, and intended for constant use for a multiplicity of movements.  It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that all the mechanism of these important interlocking plants is of the most substantial character and provided with all the necessary safety appliances and means for rapidly setting up the various combinations.  The interlocking machines are housed in steel concrete “towers,” so that the operators may be properly protected and isolated in the performance of their duties.

CHAPTER X

SUBWAY DRAINAGE

The employment of water-proofing to the exterior surfaces of the masonry shell of the tunnel, which is applied to the masonry, almost without a break along the entire subway construction, has made it unnecessary to provide an extensive system of drains, or sump pits, of any magnitude, for the collection and removal of water from the interior of the tunnel.

On the other hand, however, at each depression or point where water could collect from any cause, such as by leakage through a cable manhole cover or by the breaking of an adjacent water pipe, or the like, a sump pit or drain has been provided for carrying the water away from the interior of the tunnel.

For all locations, where such drains, or sump pits, are located above the line of the adjacent sewer, the carrying of the water away has been easy to accomplish by employing a drain pipe in connection with suitable traps and valves.

In other cases, however, where it is necessary to elevate the water, the problem has been of a different character.  In such cases, where possible, at each depression where water is liable to collect, a well, or sump pit, has been constructed just outside the shell of the tunnel.  The bottom of the well has been placed lower than the floor of the tunnel, so that the water can flow into the well through a drain connecting to the tunnel.

Each well is then provided with a pumping outfit; but in the case of these wells and in other locations where it is necessary to maintain pumping devices, it has not been possible to employ a uniform design of pumping equipment, as the various locations offer different conditions, each employing apparatus best suited to the requirements.

In no case, except two, is an electric pump employed, as the employment of compressed air was considered more reliable.