Ash-Handling Plant.

One of the most interesting designs of ash-handling plant now utilised is found on the Northern Railway of France. Here, ashes from locomotives are dropped into sloping ash-pits, down which they slide into water tanks between each pair of tracks. Grabs worked by over-head gantry cranes lift the cleansed ashes from the tanks and transfer them into dump-cars, from whence they pass, as a general rule, to adjacent concrete-making works. Concrete is being utilised to an ever-increasing extent on the Franch railways, the most striking development being the new Nord passenger station at Lens, in the heart of the old war zone, which is being built entirely of ferro-concrete.