178 ANNUAL REPORT 
the anchor bolts. The whole tie is 7 feet, 8 inches long, 8 inches thick 
and 5 inches wide on top and 8 inches wide at the bottom. It weighs 
complete, 300 pounds. 
Quite a number of railroads are testing what can be accomplished 
with concrete ties, but as yet no road has definitely determined the 
durability of such construction. Figure 116 shows concrete ties in 
use on a German road. 
Trestle Bents—In the yards of the American Smelting and Refining 
Company, Perth Amboy, N. J., the railway tracks run over the coal and 
ore bins. Concrete trestle bents or walls support the tracks, forming 
the dividing walls for the ore bins. The bents are erected upon pile 
foundations, are 12 feet apart, 6 feet, 9 inches high and 12 inches thick at 
the top and 16 inches at ground level. At the bottom, the bent spreads 
out to form a footing 24 inches thick which rests upon four 13 inch 
piles driven 25 feet to a firm bearing. Vertical 3@ inch rods are imbedded 
in the concrete in two planes 8 inches apart, the rods being 18 inches 
apart in the plane. The forms were made of dressed lumber and 
allowed to remain in place 48 hours after the placing of the concrete. 
The concrete was a mixture of I part cement, 2 sand and 4 parts slag. 
_ The cost was reported to be about the same as equivalent wooden 
bents with mud-sills. 
Turntables and Ashpits.—A number of railroads have used concrete 
walls for turntables and ashpits. In the latter, especially, concrete is giver 
a severe test. Hot cinders and ashes fill the pit and then after the walis 
lave become heated, cold water is thrown in to quench the ashes. The 
sudden changes from heat to cold are very severe upon materials 
so unelastic as stone or concrete. Acids are also formed from the 
sulphurous coal ashes, yet with all of these tests, concrete has proved 
quite satisfactory. 
At Bureat,, Uilsathe: Gooke kc Peratlroad maace constmucreamal tiie 
-stall round house of concrete. The walls are 18 inches thick. After 
the forms were removed, the outside was washed with a cement 
washing, the inside was left as it came from the forms. 
ELECTRIC FOUNTAINS. 
The electric fountain at Willow Grove, Philadelphia, is con- 
structed of concrete. It has been in operation for six years or more 
and seems in a fair state of preservation. One or two contraction 
cracks and a few places in the floor of the water basin that sounded 
hollow, indicated that the surface coating had not made a good union 
with the body of concrete. The superintendent said that no repairs 
had been made in the three years in which he had been in charge. 
The conditions are such as to give concrete a very severe test. Dry 
and wet, heat and cold, expansion and contraction, weathering and 
freezing all uniting to work destruction. 
