202
CHAPTER XVII.
FREIGHT-HOUSES.
FREIGHT-HOUSES on railroads can be divided into terminal freight-houses and localfreight-houses. The former are large separate buildings at important terminals of a railroad,while the latter are usually small structures at intermediate stations along the line of theroad. Terminal freight-houses, when intended for the reception and delivery of local freightto and from a railroad, are located near some prominent thoroughfare, as close to the busi-ness portion of the town as feasible. If intended for receiving and shipping of freight bywater, the freight-house is located on the water front, usually on a pier or bulkhead. Atlocal freight-houses the freight is received from and delivered to wagons. At way-stations,where the passenger and freight trade are not very heavy, and especially where the freighttraffic-is more important than the passenger business, the use of combination depots is verygenerally adopted in this country, which class of buildings is discussed in a separate chapterunder the heading of Combination Depots.
Relative to separate local freight-houses at way-stations, it can be said that the designalmost universally adopted consists of a single-story frame structure, surrounded by highfreight platforms on several or on all sides. If tracks are only on one side of the building,the station is termed a side-station, but if there are tracks on both sides of the freight-house,then it is called an island-station.
Where the business of a railroad is not very heavy, and car-load freight for a certain sta-tion is unusual, or else provided for by special car-load freight-delivery sidings, it is customaryto locate the freight-house alongside the main track. If the road is a double-track road withlight traffic, this arrangement is still feasible, as the small amount of freight passing to orfrom freight-trains on the far track can be skidded across the track nearest the freight-house,or a freight platform can be built on the opposite side of the main tracks from the freight-house, as shown in Fig. 351. At local stations considerable package freight is brought tothe station shortly before train-time, and wagons are frequently waiting to take freight awayas soon as unloaded from trains, so that very little freight would have to be transferred acrossthe main tracks between the freight-house and the freight platform on the opposite side of thetracks. The introduction therefore of a special freight platform opposite the freight-house,as shown in Fig. 351, under the conditions mentioned, is a practical solution of the ques-tion of handling freight on a double-track road at a small way-station, where it is not desiredto let the train cross from the far main track to the one next to the building, or the skid-ding of freight across the near main track to or from the train on the far main track is con-sidered too dangerous.