In order to be able to continue concreting during the winter, when neither sand nor stone could be obtained by water, practically all the space under the loading platforms in the South Shaft yards not occupied by the blacksmith shop was filled with these materials, which were placed in storage in the late fall.
_Intermediate-Shaft Plant._--The air-compressing plant was located at the rear of the 33d Street Intermediate Shaft, and supplied air for driving the tunnels east and west from the Intermediate Shafts on both 32d and 33d Streets. Two compressors, the same as the large Laidlaw-Dunn-Gordon machine at First Avenue, were installed here, with a similar water-cooling tower.
Both shafts were on private property, owned by the Railroad Company, on the north side of the streets, and each was equipped with two telphers supported on timber trestles, similar to those at First Avenue. Here, however, the buckets were placed on wagons standing at the curb, as shown by Fig. 3, Plate LVIII.
Blowers for ventilation were installed at each shaft, as at First Avenue, and, after the excavation had proceeded some distance, small blacksmith shops, for sharpening drill steel and making minor repairs, were located in the tunnels near the shafts.
The concrete plant in each shaft was similar in arrangement to those at First Avenue, but the storage bins had wooden walls made of 2 by 4-in. and 2 by 6-in. scantling nailed flat on each other.
The contractor's office on 33d Street backed up against the 32d Street shaft site, and the basement was used as a storeroom for supplies for both shafts.
After the decision to do part of the work between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in open cut, an 8-in. air main was laid in 33d Street to the West Shafts, and air was supplied from the Intermediate Shaft for work on both streets in that neighborhood.
_West-Shaft Plant._--West of Sixth Avenue, between 32d and 33d Streets and adjacent to the open-cut sections, the Railroad Company obtained from the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company the use of a large area from which the buildings had recently been removed, and gave the use of it to the contractor. This was of great value in prosecuting the west end of the work. The two West Shafts were located in the streets and were supplied with short timber trestles similar to those at the Intermediate Shafts. One telpher was taken from each of the Intermediate Shafts to operate at each of the West Shafts. In addition, a number of stiff-leg derricks were set up along the open-cut section, and were operated by Lidgerwood or Lambert air hoisting engines, or by electric motors, as circumstances dictated. A 15-ton Bay City locomotive crane was also used along part of the open-cut work on 32d Street.
