Buffalo Central Terminal Dedication Program
Dedicated June 22, 1929
Opened June 23, 1929
Buffalo, one of the chief railroad centers of America, already a great city and growing rapidly, now has in the New York Central passenger terminal on Curtiss Street, opened for traffic Sunday, June 23, 1929, a notable civic monument. Comfort and convenience for the traveling public have been synchronized with efficiency in railroad operation in a way worthy of the third decade of the twentieth century. The new Central Terminal is large enough to take care of the city's traffic for years to come; and provision has been made for increasing its capacity when Buffalo outgrows present facilities, as is to be expected.
The new station takes the place of the old one on Exchange Street, built in the early 1860s, when Buffalo was a frontier city of fifty thousand inhabitants and the New York Central Railroad was far from being the great system it has since become. Exchange Street Station was ample for its day; but since it was built Buffalo has grown eleven-fold in population, while the New York Central system has increased twelve-fold in mileage and much more than that in volume of traffic. To replace the old station with an adequate modern structure on the same restricted site was out of the question. Aside from that the location had become inconvenient both for the city and for the railroad. To reach the old station trains usually had to leave the main line and back into the station after going around one branch of a "Y." This was right enough in early days, for a station of that type met requirements. But the extraordinary growth of the nation and consequent change in character of the major part of passenger traffic developed a need for a station directly on the main line. For years a number of important through trains did not enter Exchange Street Station at all, merely stopping in the outer yards on the main line to change crews and receive other necessary service. Hereafter the 20th Century Limited, the Central's premier train, will stop here westbound. Furthermore, in expanding into a city of 555,000 inhabitants Buffalo had grown away from Exchange Street.
Railroad company and city were agreed on the need for a new station, yet much more was involved than the physical task of erecting a building and laying tracks. Legal rights of both the corporation and the municipality had to be safe guarded, the necessities of both had to be considered, mutual concessions made and agreements reached. Circumstances made the undertaking more complex and difficult than may appear to the uninitiated. Not until 1925 were the necessary preliminaries for the new Central Terminal settled.
New Terminal Stands Astride Curtiss Street
The new Central Terminal is on Curtiss Street - literally so, for it stands astride the thoroughfare with the main Concourse directly over it - only two and two-tenths miles from the business center of the city, but near the present center of population and on the fringe of the heavy traffic sections. Its location makes for a minimum of delay to persons using the Terminal, as wide and uncongested thoroughfares make approach to it easy. While that part of New York State is perfectly flat the visitor approaching for the first time receives the impression that the Station is situated on a small eminence. The illusion is created by a circular plaza on Lindbergh Drive, 250 feet in diameter, constituting the focus of six radiating thoroughfares. One of these, 150 feet wide and 600 feet long, sweeps up a gently sloping incline to the station plaza 150 feet by 600 feet in front of the station and level with the main floor, some twenty feet above the circular plaza. This curved, inclined driveway and plaza constitute a majestic approach unequalled by any other important railway station in America.
In this, as in all other details of Central Terminal, an imposing effect is combined with practical utility. In the first place, passengers going to and from trains traverse an overhead bridge. To save them the necessity of climbing up to the level of the bridge, as they would have to do if they reached the station entrance at ground level the driveway is carried up to the main floor, which is at the same height as the bridge. Thus there are no steps up or down. In the second place street cars arriving at the front entrance would not merely mar the effect, but their passengers would have to run the gauntlet of the ceaseless stream of taxicabs and automobiles. So a street car terminal has been provided beneath the plaza. Cars run to the East end of the building entirely out of the way of automobile traffic, enter the terminal where there is room to turn around beneath the plaza and load and unload at a separate entrance at a lower ground level.
Street cars do not require all the space beneath the plaza, so there is ample room for baggage, garage facilities and express trucks, entirely away from all passenger movements.
Designed in Modern American Style
The architects, Fellheimer & Wagner, of New York City, designed a structure strikingly original in modern American style. The principal feature is an octagonal tower the top of which is 271 feet above track level. This is no delicate affair solely for ornament, but a solid structure eighty feet in diameter housing fifteen floors of offices - utility again, you see. The solidity of the tower is accentuated by sheer vertical piers, two on each side. As the tower is stepped back toward its crowning feature the vertical piers are finished with a series of buttresses, which form the corners of the octagonal terminal. Between these buttresses is a series of arches surmounted by stone finials, giving a sturdy, graceful termination. At night these buttresses and arches are illuminated by flood lights so that the tower is visible for a radius of fifteen miles. The tower gives a sheer mass effect, an impression of sturdiness and power felicitously symbolizing the railroad corporation that built it and the city it serves.
When tired of feasting his eyes on this imposing tower the observer may note that it stands guard over and forms a part of the rectangular station building, 300 feet long, 225 feet wide and 100 feet high, the outstanding features of which are Roman type arches at each end over Curtiss Street, framing windows filling nearly the whole end of the building, with a smaller arched window on the North front. Beween the tower and this window on the North are four vertical piers of the same character as those of the tower extending from ground to eaves and still further accentuating the effect of sturdiness and power. The windows within the arches are double, with passage-ways between, as in the great windows in Grand Central Terminal in New York. The main building has three floors of offices. Althogether, the new Terminal provides ample modern office room for the rather large railroad staff formerly scattered inconveniently around the city and even for forces brought in from other points.
Train Concourse is 50 Feet Wide and 450 Feet Long
There is a wing extending along Curtiss Street 60 feet wide by 350 feet long for baggage and mail rooms also with three office floors above the main floor. At the Eastern end of the main building is the Train Concourse, 50 feet wide by 450 feet long giving access to trains from seven platforms, each of which serves two tracks. A ramp and two stairways are provided for each platform, so that arriving passengers may walk comfortably up the ramps to the station level and thence to the exits without coming in contact with departing travelers, who go down the stairways. The platforms are 22 feet wide and protected by canopies from rain and snow yet affording ample light and air. The station building has a granite base with gray brick facing and limestone trimmings.
Numerous accessories are essential to a railroad station. For instance, transporation of US mail and express matter are important adjuncts of passenger business and facilities must be furnished to handle both. In addition to the mail room mentioned there is a mail yard adjacent to the station in which full car loads of mail matter will be handled. This yard is provided with a covered platform and driveway.
The American Railway Express Company has long had its main depot in Buffalo on Curtiss Street adjacent to the station. Other business handled by passenger trains was formerly accommodated in a depot on Green Street near the Exchange Street Station. Since the opening of the new Station this business from Green Street has been transferred to the Curtiss Street Depot, which has been enlarged to take care of additional buisiness. Now the Express depot consists of a two story building, 860 feet long and 60 feet wide, with 5,000 feet of covered platforms and the necessary tracks for serving them.
The power plant is in a separate building. It is equipped with boilers of 1,875 horsepower capacity, with air compressors and an electric sub-station. Electric current supplied by the Buffalo General Electric Company is transformed into the various kinds of current required. To distribute the steam, compressed air and electric current from the power house, an extensive system of pipes and ducts extends not only to the buildings, but throughout the yards for car heating, brake testing, and car lighting.
On entering the Central Terminal through the main entrance at the Northwest corner of the building, which it will be remembered, is formed by the tower, the traveler will find himself in a passage which leads past the battery of elevators in the tower in a straight line to the ticket office, which stands at the West end of the spacious main Concourse, directly in front of the great window.
Right here is the chief feature of the interior architecture, a lofty domed ceiling with groins, from the center of which depends a splended chandelier. The ticket offices with bronze and iron screens and marble counters and wainscoting give a rich, dignified and impressive finish to the West end of the Concourse. Behind the ticket windows are the latest facilities for quick and sure handling of traffic. Each ticket seller has his own personal cabinet of tickets, which he can lock up and wheel back out of the way when going off duty. This simplifies his accounting and it also permits possible errors in routing a passenger to be traced without difficulty to the man who made them.
A feature that seasoned travelers will note with pleasure is the entire absence of noise or vibration from passing trains. The lofty Concourse is as silent and serene as a cathedral. These features were achieved, first, by setting foundation pillars on "vibration mats," consisting of alternate layers of asbestos and lead, a device originated by the New York Central Railroad in building Grand Central Terminal in New York City. In addition to this the walls and domed ceiling are faced with a special type of tile, which has the property of absorbing sound. Finally, to insulate the floor against sound the concrete floor base is given a lining of cork slabs two inches thick. The floor is terrazo in designs of four colors: cedar Tennessee, pink Tennessee, Botticino and red verona. This color combination with the clouded Botticino marble of a soft grayish tan forming the fifteen foot wainscot all around the room, and the warmer tan in varying tints of the tiles of upper walls and ceiling with bronze light brackets and chandeliers dependent from panels in the domed ceiling constitute an ensemble that without exaggeration may be termined magnificent.
Having purchased his ticket the arriving traveler continues in a straight line from the entrance to the baggage room to check his trunks. If he now has the spare time which prudent persons allow themselves when they set out to catch a train the traveler may return to the Concourse, for a leisurely look around.
Police Signals Can Be Flashed from Information Booth
Perhaps the first feature to attract his attention may be the Information Booth in the center of the Concourse. Information Booths are common to all railroad stations, to be sure; but this one exhibits a new departure. It is surmounted by a glass globe which may turn a radiant green while the observer looks. If it does he will see a station policeman hurrying to a telephone booth. If these clues be followed up a police wagon will be seen to pull up at the Curtiss Street curb from which will debouch a welcoming committee of policemen, who will line up on a certain train platform to greet an arriving passenger. In other words, this is a device through which the New York Central Railroad Company cooperates with the authorities of cities along its lines in intercepting crooks who may attempt to escape on its trains.
The exit is at the East, or opposite, end of the Concourse. Like arrivals, departing passengers walk in a straight line from the Train Concourse, 50 feet wide and 450 feet long, to the Northeast corner of the main building where they will find taxicabs, or descend to the ground level by broad and easy stairs to the street car terminal beneath the Plaza. There need be no cross currents of traffic unless someone deliberately inconveniences himself to get in somebody else's way, and there need be no retracing of steps. Everything that ingenuity can suggest has been done to promote the comfort and convenience of the traveling public and facilitiate the work of employes.
At the North side of the Concourse which, it may be mentioned for the benefit of the statistically inclined, is 300 feet long and 66 feet wide, while its arched ceiling is almost 60 feet above the floor, is the dining room, 100 feet long and 56 feet wide. The dining room is sumptuously finished with wainscot of black and gold marble, plastered walls, ceiling decorated in modernist style, in colors, gold and silver leaf. In the center of the room are lunch counters for the hasty, while on either side of the lunch counters and separated from them by ornamental iron grilles and glass are tables.
On the opposite side of the Concourse is the waiting room, 105 feet long and 56 feet wide with a wainscoting of dark Botticino marble. Walls above the wainscoting and the ceiling are panelled somewhat in the Spanish style. End walls are adorned with bisymmetrical medallions, the ones on the West wall representing, (1) the statue of Liberty; (2) West Point; (3) at the East end, Niagara Falls; (4) a locomotive symbolizing transportation. The terrazo floor, which is of the same colors as in the Concourse, has a border of designs in cloisson. The walls are panelled with plate glass mirrors about four feet wide by six feet high. On the South side are two handsome drinking fountains, while at the Southwest corner is the ladies' rest room, and at the Southeast corner the men's smoking room.
First Circulating Library for Rail Travelers
In various nooks here and there around the building are to be found the usual small shops, soda fountains and news-stands. In the latter a new departure for the pleasure of the traveling public may be found. This is nothing less than a circulating library from which for a small fee the traveler may borrow a book to be read on his journey and returned at a corresponding booth at his destination.
Another unusual convenience will be a watchmaker's shop opening off the main Concourse, where decrepit watches may be rejuvenated. Of course there are a barber shop and ladies' hair dressing parlor, drug store, haberdashery, flower and fruit shop and an ample supply of telephones, all automatic and equipped with the latest improvements. There will also be a Travel Booth, at which inquirers may receive information and advice in planning trips throughout the country.
Interesting as all this is, the building represents but a third of the total cost of the Terminal. One other item was the building of thirty miles of new track. Of this total 14,960 feet, or 2.83 miles, alongside the platforms, is constructed of open hearth steel rails weighing 127 pounds to the yard, spiked to wooden blocks set in concrete slabs 22 inches thick at the edges and sloping to 17 inches at the center, thus forming a trough to allow the tracks to be flushed. This extremely heavy construction makes smooth riding. The platforms are nine inches in height from the top of the rail to the top of the floor. This height was fixed as the most convenient to facilitate inspection, which all trains must undergo.
To safeguard trains and facilitate their movement an up-to-the-minute signal system has been installed in the extensive railroad yards. Two all-electric interlocking towers operate the switches and signals. Tower No. 48 is East of the Station, No. 49 is 3,250 feet father West at the other end of the Station. These two towers are so interlocked as to constitute a single plant with a total of 928 levers, the largest interlocking plant in the world. Each switch and signal is double locked - mechanically and electrically - so that it would be wholly impossible to make a false movement. As the towers must be continuously in service they are operated by three eight hour shifts consisting of three lever men in charge of a director in each tower, or a total force of 24 men.
Tower No. 48, essentially a duplicate of No. 49, is 21 feet wide by 109 feet long. Above the banks of levers are illuminated charts the lights on which show the condition of all tracks so that the signalman has a complete picture of the station yard before his eyes at all times. The elaborate mechanism is arranged for easy access to all parts. Duplicate parts for replacement are disposed for quick change if needed, while if through any possibile accident electric current should be shut off temporarily a dynamo is arranged to cut in automatically so that operation may go on without interruption.
Towers Nos. 48 and 49 are connected with three other signal towers in the Buffalo area by loud speaking telephones. Any one of the operators may converse with all the other four in ordinary tones without the trouble of making telephone connections, as readily as if all were in one room together. Every word spoken by one is heard by all the rest.
To make this possible the towers had to be made sound proof. This was accomplished by suspending the ceilings instead of affixing them directly to joists, and lining the inner face of ceilings and walls as well with a material made from cane fibre and perforated with holes about a quarter of an inch apart. These small holes allow noises to penetrate into the interior of fibres of the tile, where they are absorbed. Each noise is absorbed as quickly as it is made, so that a series of sounds is not able to pile up on one another as is the case in a room finished with ordinary hard sound-repelling surfaces, such as plaster, wood, glass and the like. To one who has never been in an acoustically treated room the quiet prevailing is really astonishing. In spite of all the racket that may be made by passing trains or switch engines these signal towers are as quiet as the proverbial graveyard.
Similar ceilings have also been installed in the Pullman reservation room, telephone information bureau, telephone room No. 2, the telegraph room and the chief dispatcher's room, in all of which places quiet is essential to efficiency.
An essential part of the new Terminal's facilities is a coach yard with a capacity of 100 cars North of Tower No. 48, where cars may be stored and cleaned. Here, also, cars are watered, iced, batteries charged, kept warm in winter by steam connections with the pipe system from the power house and air reservoirs are charged. There are platforms between each pair of tracks so that cars may be serviced in the shortest possible time. Here, also, is a coach shop, with a capacity of four cars, where running repairs may be made. Part of the equipment is wheel-changing apparatus in duplicate so that if necessary and desirable two cars that had the misfortune to develop flat wheels could be run in and served at the same time with new wheels and with the minimum of delay.
To sum up this brief description it can be said that Buffalo Central Terminal is the last word in comfort, convenience and even luxury for passengers and in mechanical facilities for the expeditious and economical handling of traffic.
Facts About Buffalo Terminal
Main building is six stories in height and the main body is roughly 250 feet by 300 feet.
At west corner is tower eighty feet square and twenty stories in height.
Passenger Concourse is sixty-six feet wide; 300 feet long, the domes at each end are 64 feet high and the vault between 59 feet high.
Train Concourse is 50 feet wide and 450 feet long.
Ramps and steps lead from train Concourse to seven double passenger platforms beneath. These platforms have a total length of 7,480 feet.
Beneath the fourteen station tracks, which are set in concrete, is a baggage subway, which extends 660 feet beyond the main building.
To build the Terminal 9,725,000 brick, 12,750 tons of steel and 80,000 cubic yards of concrete were required.
Connected with the Terminal are a five-story mail and baggage building, 60x350 feet, a two-story express depot, 60x860 feet, and a power plant building.
Trackage in station and yards, 30 miles.
Architects - Fellheimer & Wagner, New York.
Contractors - Walsh Construction Company.
Construction under supervison of New York Central Engineering Department, F.B. Freeman, Chief Engineer; W.F. Jordan, Principal Assistant Engineer; F.B. Hank, Assistant Designing Engineer.
Agreement with Grade Crossing and Terminal Commission, negotiated by, and project executed under the general direction of R.E. Dougherty, Engineering Assistant to President. Local Counsel, W.S. Rann.
Grade Crossing and Terminal Station Comission of the City of Buffalo
William H. Fitzpatrick - Chairman
William E. Robertson - Vice-Chairman
Alfred A. Berrick, William J. Conners, William H. Crosby, Henry M. Gerrans, Elmer E. Harris, Harry D. Kirkover, William P. Northrup, William W. Reilley, William T. Roberts, John W. Robinson, William H. Ryan, Paul E. Streich, William F. Schwartz - Ex-officio , James Smith, Frank X. Schwab - Ex-officio, George H, Norton - Cheif Engineer, DeWitt Clinton - Attorney, Daniel J. McKenzie - Secretary.
The Council of the City of Buffalo
Frank X. Schwab, Mayor
Ross Graves, Frank C. Perkins, James P. Moore, William F. Schwartz