Augusta Railway Company, West Power Station, Fifteenth & Greene Streets, Augusta Canal, Augusta

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA,123-AUG,43-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The first generators of hydroelectric power on the Augusta Canal, The company, in addition to operating a street railway, sold electric power to domestic and industrial consumers, including Augusta Textile Mills. The final owners, the Georgia Power Co., used the site to generate hydroelectric power until c.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA,123-AUG,43-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Alan J. Steiner, September It is understood that access to the material rests on the condition that should any of it be used in any form or by any means, the author of such material and the Historic American Engineering Record of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service at all times be given proper credit. Augusta Railway Co. HAER GA-20 (Page 2) ORGANIZATION The Augusta Railway Company received its charter on 13 November A group of investors known as the Jarvis-Conhein Syndicate controlled this company, as well as the Augusta Electric Light and Motor Company. Colonel D. B. Dyer, an ex-U. S. Indian Agent and first mayor of Guthrie, Oklahoma, was the originator and president of both enterprises.

He also was in charge of the syndicate's real estate interests in the Augusta area, and no doubt planned to make a bundle when the street railway permitted the Augusta working population to creep out to the suburbs. Dyer had rolled into Augusta fresh from previous electric street railway triumphs in Kansas City. The Colonel brought with him management 2 personnel and a number of his employees from the Midwestern city. In Augusta, Dyer purchased the new electric plant of the Augusta and Summerville Railway, three new and three old electric cars, and all the rails, lines and street railway franchises of the company. Dyer planned to move the Augusta and Summerville's electric plant to his company's 3 4 power house. On 15 June the company began operations. POWER The Augusta Railway Co.

purchased a site between the first and third level of the Augusta Canal, applied for a power grant from the City of Augusta and began construction of a powerhouse around In this brick 84 foot x 200 foot building, later known as the West Plant, the company operated both water and steam generating equipment. The company obtained a total fall of 35 feet at the site. Water flowed Augusta Railway Co. HAER GA-20 (Page 3) from the canal to three turbines via a short, nine foot penstock. The Victor horizontal turbines, manufactured by the Stilwell-Bierce Company of Dayton, Ohio, sat in two casings. One casing contained two 350 horsepower wheels on one shaft. The second casing housed a 125 horspower wheel on a second independent shaft.

The water for this third turbine flowed from the first casing to the second through a small penstock. The power from the three wheels was transmitted by belts to a 150-foot long countershaft, set ten feet above the floor on brick pedestals. The company's auxiliary steam plant consisted of three 250 horsepower Eabcock & Wilcox boilers and an 800 horsepower Corliss engine belted to the same countershaft. The company's generators ran off belts from this shaft. Three Edison 100 kilowatt generators and one Thomson-Houston generator of the same capacity provided the current for the street railway. The West Power Station also operated its own dynamo to run the plant's electric lights.

Business History

In June the Augusta Railway Co. combined with the Augusta Light Co. and the local Thomson-Houston Co. to form the Augusta Railway and Electric Company. The company ran cars in Augusta only until when the Augusta and Aiken Railway, an electric interurban, began operations. The Augusta Railway and Electric Company soon combined with this company under New Jersey laws and formed the Augusta and Aiken 9 Railway and Electric Co. In December the Georgia Power Co. purchased the company's railway and electric light properties. The electric company had little interest in managing the railway and Augusta Railway Co. HAER GA-20 (Page 4) discontinued the interurban operation in and the city operation 10 in The Georgia Power Co.

continued to use the plant to generate both steam electric and hydroelectric power until the late nineteen-sixties or early seventies. At that time, the power company finally decided that the plant was to uneconomical to operate, compared with the cost of electricity, generated at large-scale steam and hydroelectric plants, which fed into a southeastern superpower 11 network. LATER POWER EQUIPMENT F. A. "Goat"' Saxon, who began, to work at the Augusta and Aiken Railway and Electric Company in and became Division Engineer, recalled that the plant at that time included 2 vertical turbins which drove two 400 kilowatt A.C. generators and one horizontal 500 kilowatt generator that supplied the railway with current. In an adjacent building, Georgia Power late installed a kilowatt steam turbine.

The power company eventually removed the D. C. generator, since it no longer operated the railway, and replaced it with another A. C. generator. Georgia Power never installed any new turbines or generators, aside from replacing one D. C. generator with an A. C., following the 12 discontinuation of railway operation. Georgia Power Co. tore down West Power Station building in the early The only remaining evidence of the plant are the gates which once controlled the flow of water from the Augusta Canal to the company's turbines. Augusta Railway Co. HAER GA-20 (Page 5) FOOTNOTES 1. Albert M. Langley, Jr.^and Mary L. Langley, Trolleys in the Valley ( ), p. 1. Hereafter referred to as Langleys, Trolleys. 2.

"Editorial Correspondence - Part II - Augusta, Ga.", The Street Railway Journal 10 (March, p. Hereafter referred to as "Augusta" Street Journal. 3. Augusta Chronicle, June 24, p. 5. 4. Langleys, Trolleys, p. 1. 5. According to "List of Water Powers Granted on First Level, Augusta Canal", the A&A Railway West Plant was granted 300 hp in Increases in the power grant occurred in April October January January and April The list hangs on a wall in the office of Sonny Anderson, Maintenance Division, Steam Plant, Sibley Mill, Augusta, Georgia. 6. Other structures at the site in included car houses, 90 x 120 feet, and repair shops, 50 x 100 feet. "Augusta", Street Journal, p. 177 7. "Augusta", Street Journal, p.

The Industrial Advantages of Augusta, Georgia, in listed the company's waterpower at 750 hp and the steam power, from several engines, at 900 hp. Overall, the company ran 9 dynamos, four of which were railway generators. The rest were part of the electric light plant of the associated Augusta Electric Light and Motor Company. Augusta Exchange Club, compiler, The Industrial Advantages of Augusta, Ga The water.wheels had hand governors. An attendant constantly stood at the valve wheel to adjust the water flow and thus the generation of electricity, based on readings from a voltmeter and speed recorder. "Augusta", Street Journal, p. 8. Langleys, Trolleys, p. 1. 9. Langleys, Trolleys, p. 2. In J. G.

White Engineering Corporation, 43 Exchange Place, >!ew York City, New York, which built the Stevens Creek Hydro-Electric Plant, on the Savannah River, 8 miles from Augusta, owned the A&A Railway. T. J. Hamilton, "The Georgia-Carolina Fair for The Augustan 1 (Augusta p. 7. 10. Langleys, Trolleys, p. 2. Augusta Railway Co. HAER GA-20 (Page 6) 11. Phone conversation with F. A. Saxon, 1 September 12. Phone conversation with F. A. Saxon, 1 September Augusta Railway Co. HAER GA-20 (Page 7)

Bibliography

Books Augusta Exchange Club, compiler, The Industrial"Advantages of Augusta, Georgia, August pp. discusses the Augusta Railway Company and Augusta Electric Light and Motor Company. Bagby, W. H. , Reminiscences of the Old Street Car Days of the Yesterdays, to undated, Memories. Langley, Albert and Vera, Trolleys in the Valley. History by trolley buffs. Newspaper Augusta Chronicle, Articles concerning inauguration of company's electric railway service. Periodical Articles "Editorial Correspondence - Part II - Augusta, Ga.," The Street Railway Journal 10 (March pp Description of power plant equipment and arrangement. Telephone Interview With F. A. Saxon, 1 September Mr. Saxon began to work at the A&A Railway and Electric Co.

in was a Division Engineer, and retired from Georgia Power in He provided information on power plant equipment and on the termination of the operation at the West Power Station.