DC Power for Philadephia

By Stephen Bobb; posted March 7, 2023

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Philadelphia Rapid Transit powerhouse on Delaware Avenue, and the Electric Traction Company's old engine house, at right, next to it is the Philadelphia Rapid Transit powerhouse four-stack successor, Photo was taken on July 31st, 1931. | Source: Free Library of Philadelphia. In the early 1890s, the Electric Traction Company–along with the People's Passenger Railway Company, Philadelphia Traction Company, and Heston, Mantua, and Fairmount Passenger Railway Company–ran the entire system of electric trolley lines in Philadelphia. The electrical needs of the ETC's 130-mile line was demanding, causing the company to invest in innovative solutions to efficiently run their operation. In 1895, ETC finished their second power-generating station, a technological marvel of its time.

The original form of the structure was comprised of two buildings–an engine house (the section still standing) and a slightly wider boiler room, which has since been demolished. Coal, straight from the company's pier across the street, was loaded onto conveyor belts and ashes were hauled away in the same containers. The coal was distributed between two, 80-ton steel hoppers that, in turn, fed six large boilers. The boilers powered four 1,200 horsepower engines, each powering a separate 800-kilowatt generator, and one 350-horsepower engine that powered a 200-kilowatt generator. The water supply for the power station came from a 400-foot suction pipe that drew its source from the Delaware River.

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