Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Company 1950 Annual Report
 

Your Company for many years has
gone to extraordinary precautions to
minimize the possibility of "man failure"
causing an accident on the Hudson Tubes.
One of the most important of these pre¬
cautions is the use of automatic tripping
equipment, associated with the signal
system in our tunnels.

If a motorman passes a stop signal,
his train is stopped automatically by this
tripping equipment. A tripper arm, ex¬
tending up from the tracks, sets the
brakes independently of the motorman.
And when a train stops for any reason,
other trains approaching it from behind
are automatically halted at a safe dis¬
tance behind it.

Another device which gives your rail¬
road an extra margin of safety is the cab
signal indicator with which all our joint
service trains are equipped. This is a de¬
vice in the motorman's cab which, along
certain portions of the right-of-way, auto¬
matically reproduces each trackside sig¬
nal as the train approaches it. It ensures
that the motorman will have the signal
clearly before him even in the thickest
fog or the heaviest rain. And of course
there is the customary "dead man con¬
trol," which stops a train if the motorman
loses consciousness and releases the pres¬
sure of his palm on a button.

No aspect of Hudson Tubes operation
has been considered unsafe in recent
years by either your Management or the
state and federal authorities.

New Car Shop Facilities

Additional car repair and maintenance
facilities are being provided at our Hen¬
 

derson Street car yard in Jersey City.
Construction of the new facilities has
been delayed by the current shortage of
structural steel. The excavation work and
the driving of foundation piles have been
completed, and present indications are
that erection of the steel will get under
way during June, 1951.

The car shop project entails not only
the adding of a new building to the pres¬
ent one, but extensive alterations and re¬
pairs. Major rebuilding and modemiza-
tion, as well as ordinary maintenance and
repair work, will be handled by our own
forces when the building is completed.
In addition, the existing paint shop build¬
ing is being altered to provide more store
room space and new toilet, washroom,
shower and lunchroom facilities for em¬
ployees.

The Company has replaced a substan¬
tial number of obsolete and wornout ma¬
chines and other equipment in the car
shop in order to improve the quality of
the work and the quantity of output.
Among the new items of equipment and
machinery which have been purchased
are an Elms forcing wheel press, a geared
head engine lathe, an auto turret lathe, an
axle lathe, an open side cub planer, the
rail bender mentioned elsewhere herein,
and a Smith & Mills shaper. These are
substantial machines, the cost of those
listed aggregating $108,550.

New Car Trucks

An important element in the improve¬
ment of our rolling stock is the substitu¬
tion of new one-piece cast-steel trucks for
the old-type fabricated trucks on our
cars. The new trucks not only will make