PANAMA COALING STATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1917, Page 8

PANAMA COALING STATION.

LARGEST PLANT IN THE WORLD. STORAGE CAPACITY OF -185,000 TONS The Panama Canal coaling station at Cristobal (Atlantic end of the canal) is now in. operation, while that at Balboa (Pacific end) is expected to be ready to a few months. The steamer Otaki, of 12.000 tons, owned by the New Zealand .Shipping Company, was the first vessel to receive coal directly from the reloaders at the wharf of the Cristobal coaling station. She took 50 tons of coal on August SO, while on a voyage from Liverpool via Norfolk to New Zealand. The contract for building this station was awarded about three years ago to a New .lersey contractor. This coaling station is said to be the largest single coal receiving and distributing plant in the world. It is 1,800 feet long by 400 feefc wide, and covers nearly 20 acres. The offshore end 1 is excavated to the 1 depth of 27 feet below the water line for I a distance of 500 feet for the wet storage of 100,000 tons of coal. Over this wetstorage space coal will be piled to the. depth of 35 feet, and over the remaining 1200 feet will be stacked to the depth of 33 feet. The dry-storage capacity of the station is 3Ss„ooo)tons, and the wetstorage 100,000 tons, making a total of 485.000; tons of coal, exclusive of a 1500-ton wharf bunker. This large station is intended to receive and store water-borne rim-of-mine coal and deliver it- to colliers, barges, railway cars, and into the deck hatches of all types of steamships using the canal. For convey-"* ing the coal there is built all around the pile a steel viaduct 20 feet high, on which are two separate loops of electric railway 3 feet. wide. To operate the plant to its full capacity of 2000 'tons an hour, 88 steel conveyer cars are required for use on this viaduct. For reloading coal there are four steel towers of skeleton steeple type, each having a grab bucket of 2-1 tons capacity, operated by a hoisting and trolly engine, supported on 18 wheels running on two 3ft gauge tracks, 34ft Gin from centre to centre. These four unloaded dig coal from colliers and oihei vessels at a combined rate of 1000 ton? an hour, and discharge it into the converei cars. The coal pile is spanned by two steel stocking and reclaiming bridges, each having a stocking capacity of 1000 t6r.s an hour and an equal reclaiming capacity, making a joint capacity of 2000 tons an hour. The bridges are 315 ft long, and weigh with equipment MOO tons each. These bridges, which have tracks for receiving cars from and delivering them to the viaduct tracks, are supported at each end' on 32 33in steel car wheels, on which Ihe bridges may be moved along the entire length of the storage space in order to enable the cars to discharge coal on any part of the storage pile. Coal is reclaimed from storage by means of one or more of four bridge diggers, two of which are mounted on each of the stocking and reclaiming bridges, and so arranged as to move along the upper chord of. the bridges and reclaim coal from any part of the storage pile by means of fi|e-ton grab buckets operated by a two-motor hoist, which discharges the cpal into the conveyer ears. The novmul capacity of each digger is 5Ut, tons. The four reloaders or delivery machines are pyramidal steel towers, supported on 10 wheels running on two 3ft gauge tracks, 2flit from centre. Each delivery machine has an inclined belt conveyer parallel to tlio quay wall, ano leading up from a trailing hopper truck, which receives coal from the cars dumping through the viaduct. This inclined belt feeds another belt conveyer carried in a hinged boom which extc/:us out at right angles to the wharf'about 30ft over the water, and discharges over the end through a telesceope chute into the vessel. liy means of electric motors the operator in charge moves the tower along the wharf and controls the position of the conveyer boom and the telescope chute The rubber com ever belts, 4£t, wide, run upwards, supported on wooden rollers so arranged as to shape the 'jelt into a concave form in order to hold tin coal. The feeder can be regulated t operate at six different sliced', giving n capacity of rom 50 to 000 tons an hoy.' for each reloader. With the exception of the unloading towers, which are operated by steam, the station uses elec trie power to operate all its machinerv conveyer cars, etc. The transformer sfa. tion receives the current at. 2300 volt= three-phase, 25 cycles, from the Gatun spillway hydro-electric power statior about six miles south, and transform; ' to 440 volts for power and 110 volts i ■■ lighting. The cost of lmildinsr the ion! ing statioiigat Cristobal is estimated to be £OOO,OOO. The Balboa station, wh; '< is being built by the si me contractor, wi'l have about one-half the eap.icity ni the Cristobal plant.—-Shipping Illustra ed.