BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES OF AMERICAN RAILROADS.

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In all cases it is preferable to have the floor-level flush willi the tup of the rails of the house,so that trucking can be done through the house more conveniently. For small houses acinder floor will answer, although it has the objection that trucking cannot be done readilythrough the house, and the cinder will get into the pits and help clog the drains. Wheretimber is cheap, a rough plank floor, two or three inches thick, laid on mud-sills, bedded in thecinder, will prove preferable. For a large engine-house, a stone slab, cement, or asphalt flooris preferable. The main objection to the asphalt flooring is, that heavy trucking and the useof hydraulic jacks, unless proper care is taken, will wear ruts and holes which are not veryreadily repaired. While a cement floor has similar objections, repairs can be made moreeasily and, what is of a further advantage, they can be made by the ordinary help connectedwith the engine-house. In sections of the country where stone slabs are cheap and easilyobtainable, it will be found that they make an excellent floor, requiring very few repairs.Except on newly made ground, the use of plank floors on joists is not to be recommended,unless, possibly, in sections of the country where timber as a building material predominates.In all cases the floor should be properly dished, so as to allow drainage of the floor into thepits or into gutters. Cleanliness of an engine-house floor is an essential feature of goodmanagement, and flooring materials that will allow the floor to be frequently flushed withwater, without detriment, should have the preference.

The drainage of an engine-house should be first-class, as all the elements which contributeto the rapid deterioration or the easy blocking of a sewer are present in the drain leading froman engine-house. The best method to drain the pits is to allow them to discharge at thelower end through a grating into a properly designed cesspool, which in turn overflows into abox-sew'er, running around the house, between the ends of the pits and the wall of the build-ing. The gradients of the drains should be ample, if possible, to allow water to run easily, andthe box-sewer mentioned should be large enough to allow a man to enter and clean it out, byproviding man-holes at proper places. If the closed sewer is not made large enough for a manto enter, then it should be an open box-drain, covered with timber or stone slabs in such away as to be easily accessible without having to tear up the floor of the house in the vicinityof the sewer. For small engine-houses, of a few stalls only, and where the drain is short,pipes can be used, as they can be either flushed with water or else a swab introduced and runthrough. The roof water is usually drained through down-conductors inside the house intothe pits or into the main sewer.

Engine-houses are heated by stoves or by steam-pipes. The former method is all rightfor small houses and for houses where a special steam plant for supplying steam for heatingpurposes only would not pay. Large round cast-iron stoves are usually employed for thispurpose, set between two pits, the stove-pipe being generally led into the smoke-stack overone of the adjacent pits. For large houses, where feasible, steam heat is preferable, as itreduces the danger from fire and does not occupy floor-space. The main steam supply-pipeis usually carried through the house overhead, hung from the roof; but where an open box-drain exists, it will be found convenient to carry water and steam pipes on brackets in theupper part of the drain, as they are thus out of the way and yet readily accessible for inspec-tion and repairs. As to the proper location of the steam-coils, considerable difference can benoted in practice. The placing of the steam-coils along the sides of the engine-pits has the