C.P.R. elevator at Victoria Harbor.
The Canadian Pacific Railway, which is in possession of large elevators at the head of Lake Superior, found it necessary to provide additional facilities at the eastern end of the lake haul, where its numerous grain vessels could be readily unloaded and the grain either stored or reloaded into railway cars for shipping eastward to Canadian territory. Hence it obtained a site at Victoria Harbor. Ont., at the extreme eastern end of Georgian Bay. With an island for a foundation, the company will have an ideal site for its terminal, after the extensive dredging and filling operations now under way are completed.
The new elevator plant has just been completed, consisting of two marine towers for unloading lake vessels, a 2,000,000 bush, storage house, a working house for loading cars and a 1000 k.w. power plant to supply the necessary power for operating the machinery. Each marine tower is 150 ft. in height, built of structural steel, covered with corrugated iron and mounted on 4 heavy car wheels. Steel stairs are provided from bottom to top and the roof and all the floors are of concrete. Each tower is self-propelling, travelling independently on the double track between the storage house and the slip, and can thus work to its full capacity regardless of the spacing of the hatches and different capacities of the various holds in the boats. The marine legs are specially designed so that they can enter passenger boats as well as freighters. Each marine leg will elevate 20,000 bush, of grain per hour on the dip, and a complete set of air-operated ship shovels and clean-up shovels is provided to bring the grain to the legs as rapidly and economically as possible. The marine legs deliver the grain to 1,000 bush, scales, after which it is elevated to .the top of the towers and by an arrangement of spouts and conveyors dropped into any bin of the storage or working house.
The storage house consists of 32 cylindrical reinforced concrete bins 33 ft. inside diameter and 31 interspace bins, each of which holds about a fourth of the capacity of a cylindrical bin. All the bins have hoppered bottoms, so are self-emptying. The present total capacity of the storage house is 2,000.000 bush, and the plant is so arranged that future extensions may be added to raise the capacity to 10.000,000 bush. With extension of the storage, additional marine towers are also contemplated.
The working house or shipping elevator, is also of concrete to the top of the bins and has a structural steel cupola covered with corrugated iron. All of the floors and roof are of concrete. The storage capacity of the working house is comparatively small, being about 85.000 bush., as this part of the plant is intended principally for weighing and shipping the grain to railway cars. For this purpose are provided two 2,000 bush, scale hoppers, each on a 120,000 lbs. scale. Four car-loading spouts lead to two loading tracks one on each side of the house, each running through a track shed. This house will be able to load 200 cars in a 10 hour day. When necessary the cars can also be unloaded in the working house and boats or barges can be loaded by a special boat-loading spout on one of the towers. All of the machinery in the elevator plant is driven by electric motors. The working house may be readily extended to twice the present size with double the present equipment of legs and scales; so when business increases to require faster loading the shipping house will be enlarged to supply the demand.
Canadian Pacific Ry. elevator at Victoria Habor, Ont.
To provide power for all this machinery and light for the buildings and yards, a modern power plant has been built. This is equipped with four 250 h.p. Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers which supply steam at 160 pounds pressure to two 500 k.w. Westinghouse-Parsons turbo-generators. The smokestack is of reinforced concrete 160 ft. high. A system of 750 incandescent lamps and 12 arc lamps makes the operation of the entire elevator plant as easy at night as in the day time. There are also installed a complete system of telephones, electric signal lights and bells and dust collectors. The entire plant is absolutely fireproof as with the exception of transmission ropes there is nothing combustible in it. Wire glass is used in all of the windows and the electric wiring is all in metal conduit. As an extra precaution for the protection of ears and boats, a fire pump has been provided which supplies water to a number of hydrants around the elevator. A concrete wharf 240 ft. long, carried down to a depth to provide for 25 ft. of water, was built along the front of the elevator.
In addition to the new elevator plant just completed, three-quarters .of a mile of wharf, 800 ft. of flour shed, and 700 ft. of freight shed are now under construction. The entire work of elevator plant wharves and sheds, is being done under the direction of J. G. Sullivan, Assistant Chief Engineer, C.P.R., with Resident Engineer G. G. Ommanney in general charge at Victoria Harbor. All of the work is being executed by John S. Metcalf Co., grain elevator engineers, of Montréal and Chicago. The total expenditure for this construction will be in the neighborhood of $1,100,000.