1907 - New Power Station Plans

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Roanoke Times - Feb 24, 1907

NEW POWER STATION PLANS

Railway and Electric Co. Ready to Begin Building Quarter Million Dollar Plant

    Architects and engineers in the employ of the Roanoke Railway and 
Electric Company have nearly completed the plans and specifications 
for the new central power station which the company is to build on 
the site south of Walnut avenue and between the Roanoke River and the 
Winston-Salem track of the Norfolk and Western, which the company 
bought from the Norfolk and Western Railway Company about one week 
ago. Such good progress has been made with the plans for the new 
plant said the general manager of the company last night, that the 
actual work of construction will begin in a few days, if the weather permits.
    This new power station, as has already been told in The Times, 
will cost in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars, and 
will be a model plant of its kind -- being built of concrete, and 
being equipped with brand new machinery throughout of the latest and 
bext design for the generation of electricity.
    The clever advertising of the Roanoke Railway and Electric 
Company continues to attract attention to Roanoke in various parts of 
the country and to advertise the progressive character of this city. 
The last issue of The Manufacturers' Record, a weekly Southern 
industrial, railroad, and financial journal, published at Baltimore, 
gives space to the following announcement of the new power station of 
the Roanoke Railway and Electric Company:
    "Roanoke Railway & Electric Co. has purchased site on which to 
erect a central power station at a cost of $225,000. The building 
will be 100 by 150 feet, constructed entirely of reinforced concrete, 
including the roof, and will be equipped in the beginning with five 
boilers, each of 400 horse-power capacity, and three electric 
generating units, each composed of a steam turbine engine set up with 
and directly connected to an electric generator or dynamo. One of 
these machines will be what is known as a 1600-kilowatt generator, 
and each of the others will be a 500-kilowatt generator. This will 
mean a total constant production of electrical energy equivalent to 
3300 horse-power. The station will be a steam plant, and the building 
will be so constructed to be added to when necessary. J. W. Hancock 
is general manager."