Massive Platforms.

“The new platforms are solidly constructed to a design which has been very favourably commented upon by overseas engineers. Steel moulds, polished and oiled to prevent the concrete sticking to them, are used to give a smart profile to the outer edge of the reinforced concrete retaining walls which form the boundaries of the platforms, the space between being filled with shingle and gravel, later to have a sealed surface. These platforms will be covered from the weather by cantilever roofs on pillars, and one of the new features is that the sealing will give a drainage to the centre of the platform, the water finding its way to the storm sewers through the hollow pillars supporting the roof. The main platforms will be wider than the others, and for these there will be two rows of roof-supporting pillars instead of one.

“It is rather difficult at present for the visitor to visualise the eventual layout of the yards, except from the plans which show them as they will be in a year or two. It is not that the finished plans are not being adhered to, but that so little relation to them is apparent in some of the lines being used to-day; some of them will have to be pulled up and moved, perhaps twice. None of the permanent yard is being treated in this way, but only short lengths of permanent sidings are yet possible in many cases, and these have to be used as “dead ends,” because between them and the as yet un-constructed lines they will eventually be joined to, there lie portions of the old yard which are necessary to keep the yard open for traffic and cannot yet be taken up.