Municipal power plant

   
“Jihlava also wants to have its own tramway when even smaller towns in the monarchy can have one,” read the headline in the local Iglauer Volksblattnewspaper in 1898. At that time, Jihlava already had the Bohemian-Moravian Transversal Railway station (Böhmisch-Mährische Transversalbahn, BMTB), now called Jihlava Main Train Station (Hlavní nádraží). The Jihlava city management intended to connect the railway station with the city centre via a tram line, which would serve for passenger and freight transport. Between 1898 and 1899, Jihlava City Council discussed the first projects for the establishment of a tramway in the town. The city continued to consider the most suitable plan until 1906. It rejected, for example, a proposal for a steam railway as well as an inadequate track gauge. Projects that were too costly were also seen as inexpedient.

In 1904, newly elected mayor Vinzenz Inderka (1855–1934) took over the management of the city and decided to bring the idea of a city tramway to fruition. He approached the Viennese engineer Friedrich Ross (born1850), who specialised in the extension of electricity infrastructure in Vienna, to assess the design of the line and draw up a project for the construction of a power station to supply the branch line with electricity. Two years later, the City Council eventually approved the final project design for a single track street tramway with a narrow track gauge of 1,000 mm (for passenger transport only in the end), as well as the associated construction of a fully equipped power station building. For this purpose, the city hall received a loan of CZK 1 million from the German Savings Bank in Prague. The installation of the track and the purchase of the tram cars cost CZK 300,000, while the construction of the power station and equipment amounted to CZK 500,000.

The electric tramway lines were supplied by the Viennese AEG Union, which also installed the first two 18-seater tram cars in 1908. The track was built by Leo Arnoldi, also from Vienna.

For the new power plant, the municipality allocated a site on its land which had originally been leased to the city slaughterhouse. The architectural design was signed by the Building Authority, which at that time was headed by Johann Schlögl, the Building Authority’s chief engineer. The design of the façade was created by Kajetán Malnati. To power the power plant, the city chose the Grazer Wagonnen und Maschinenfabrikrailway carriage works and machine works from Graz, which supplied two 200HP three-cylinder diesel engines and one 130HP two-cylinder engine. The Vienna branch of Siemens-Schuckert equipped the power plant with three generators and one dynamo with an output of 32 kW, which were to be used to power the branch line. The city appointed engineer Rudolf Strickner, a former Siemens-Schuckert designer, to manage the plant. On 26 August 1909, the City Council ceremonially handed over the entire project to the public. The city commissioned not only the power plant, but also the tramway, a new tram yard with a depot, and a new reinforced concrete bridge with Art Nouveau details over the Jihlava River.

The diesel power plant powered the tramway, which was 2.7 km long, with eight stops: Severozápadní nádraží, Viadukt, Dřevěné mlýny, Jatky, Elektrické podniky (with a steep rise of 77.66 ‰), Josefské Square (now Svobody Square), Schillerova (now Komenského), and Hlavní náměstí. The line included 3.1 km of track and 10 switches. The power plant was situated 1.36 km along the track. In October 1908, the first townspeople began to receive electricity for their households. In addition to tram traffic, the power plant also supplied electricity to town houses and smaller local businesses.

The power station building had an elongated rectangular floor plan, and was made of fired bricks with a gable roof. The façade was accentuated by embossed stucco decor. Originally, the longitudinal façade was divided by six arched industrial windows in six bays, but only the hall window in the frontage has survived to this day. It is flanked by high pillars with rounded stone caps on both sides. The motif is repeated on the gable above the window. The original German inscription Städtiche Elektrizitätswerk Iglaucould also be found there. A two-storey building with a flat roof was added to the hall part of the engine room on the east side, which contained additional power plant facilities, workshops, and offices. The hall area was connected to the substation area on the ground floor. In 1931, part of the engine room was extended by another bay, and the windows of the side façade were later replaced by a door. The south façade thus lost a major part of its stucco decoration.

As more engines were purchased, the total output of the power plant continuously increased. In the 1960s, the power plant ceased operating when the town switched to the long-distance electricity grid, and the equipment was dismantled. The building now houses the headquarters of the electricity provider that supplies power to our market.

MP
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