Harlem Transfer Round Freighthouse. The Harlem Transfer Company was designed by Walter Berg, a design engineer for the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
The challenge at that time was to fit a functional terminal design into the extremely small property footprint of 330 feet by 540 feet, to include the float bridge, freight house and team tracks. Berg's design offered a solution to the challenge and at the same time presented a novel idea for a terminal facility.
As originally constructed in 1898, the freight house was C shaped. The loading docks for trucks were on the inside hub or alcove, and the locomotives would spot cars by the respective loading platforms on the outside hub courtesy of some very tight trackage radii.
Berg's design called for a completely circular track layout utilizing minimum track radii of 90 foot, around the now recognizable semi-oval freight house design. This packed an incredible amount of serviceability into such a compact facility and as originally designed, the freight track on the outside wall of the freighthouse could accommodate seven standard sized 36 foot freight cars of the period.
The success of this design led to it being repeated, for in addition to the Harlem Transfer; the Central Railroad of New Jersey Bronx Terminal and the Lehigh Valley Bronx Terminal facilities had circular freighthouses and concentric circular trackage as well.
The original semi-circular freighthouse was a tall (high ceiling) one story structure, 35 feet wide, with an aggregate length of 188 feet and offered 8000 square foot storage capacity on each floor. The office on the end however was two story.
Updated to be compatable with TANE
Тип: scenery