With some interior remodeling, including additional safeguarding against fire, the Southern recently converted 16 engine stalls of its 20-stall brick- and-concrete engine house in Alexandria, Va., into a warehouse for storing the bound files and other in- frequently-consulted records of various departments of the railway which are located in Washington.

As a result, long orderly rows of shelves now stand on the filled-in engine pits where steam engines were once wheeled in for repair. The four stalls at one end are separated from the records room by a floor-to-ceiling fire wall constructed of cement block.

A former machine shop in Alexandria heretofore contained the records released for storage by the railway's departments having no immediate need for them but often bound by law to retain them permanently or for a specified number of years. Space limitations and other conditions forced the Southern to seek more spacious storage quarters and the choice fell on the nearby Alexandria engine house which was largely in disuse due to the steady replacement of steam engines by diesels.

A center aisle between the rows of shelves saves footwork, permitting shorter access to adjoining rows.

To accomplish the conversion from fireproof enginehouse to fireproof record warehouse, all engine pits were solidly filled in to floor level. All but one of the doors through which tracks led into each stall from a turntable were securely fastened with used car siding and the rails leading to and over the pits were removed. In the stall nearest the portion of the engine house still in operation the tracks were left standing to enable a box car to be rolled into the warehouse from the turntable and there be loaded with files slated for permanent storage at the Southern's "dead records" storage warehouse in Macon, Ga. Smokestacks were removed from the roof above each pit and the holes were sealed.

Of the 36 rows of 75-ft.-long shelving occupying the record warehouse, 29 are wooden, painted with a white fire resistant paint. and the balance are of steel construction. Rising to a maximum height of 12 feet, each row of shelves is anchored to the adjoining one at the top to prevent tilting.

Because the engine house is crescent-shaped with the building front toward the outside curve, the aisles between the shelves begin at about a 3 1/2-ft. width on the inside curve and increase gradually to approximately a 7-ft. width. Illumination in the warehouse is greatly aided by ample window space at the front and on one end of the building. The windows extend from a few feet above the floor to within a few feet of the ceiling.

The ends of the shelves follow the crescent-like curve of the "engine house turned warehouse."

In addition to the cement-block fire wall and fire-resistant paint already mentioned, the record warehouse's concrete and macadam floor would greatly aid in retarding a fire should one break out among the records. To complete the precautions against destruction of the records by fire, hand fire extinguishers are located at every fourth row of shelves.

Among the financial and other records compactly placed on the warehouse's shelves are those from an estimated 108 separate predecessor lines of the Southern Railway System. One well-preserved ledger lists stocks issued in 1837 by the Hiwassee Railroad Company, later reorganized as the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad Company.

Each of the departments which turns its records over to the warehouse for storing has been allotted space for existing records plus a few extra shelves to allow for expansion.

Records which must be kept for only a specified time will be destroyed at the end of the period to make room for others while those which must be kept permanently will remain at the warehouse as long as space permits and then be sent to storage in Macon.

The Interstate Commerce Commission regulates the period of retention and, designates the records that must be permanently preserved and those that can be periodically destroyed. For Southern Railway System lines, the Comptroller is the officer responsible for carrying out the ICC regulations and is the only officer of the railway authorized to permit removal or destruction of the records.