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Supercharger - Hamilton, TX
- Thread starter Seyed
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Ok, I'll bite. What's worth seeing in Hamilton?I'm hopeful that its a quick install like the last DFW one
It is a prefab after all
(any excuse to stop in Hamilton!)
We drive through there frequently as it's between Arlington and San Antonio, but have never stopped for more than gas and a Blizzard.
nothing much, it’s just a neat little town. For us it’s always been the right place to stop for our journeys.
Somehow Bush’s seems just that bit more authentic than Chick-fil-A, especially in small towns.
Something definitely not available outside of this area is Storms
XHabjab
TSLA Bull
Storm's. Awesome burger place.
Also the Dutch Pantry (?) or whatever its called, just north of town. We drive there now and then for lunch. Check out the tubular bells.
Hamilton would be the perfect Supercharger spot for our longer sojourns to Stephenville for chicken fried steak and (original!) waffle fries at Jake and Dorothy's. There is not quite enough range on our Model Y to make the round trip from home. A charging stop in Hamilton would be just right. As it is now, we have to detour over to I-35 to pick up Waco, Temple or (perhaps now) Jarrell. I haven't tried it to Jarrell yet.
tonybelding
Active Member
Uhhh. . . Really? I wonder how accurate that arrow marker is really intended to be.
The corner that it's pointing to is empty, unpaved parking lot often used by semi trucks. But it's also the closest corner to the substation, and I have recently seen a crew doing some work right across the street from there. I'll have to take a closer look. It's not what I would have thought of. . . but they could possibly make it nice. And it's definitely out-of-the-way from the rest of the traffic coming and going through the forecourt.
If they do use that corner, it would be good news for Giovanni's. It would be a closer walk than the Cefco itself.
tonybelding
Active Member
Dutchman's Hidden Valley. The owner, Kara, is an old school friend of mine. Her papa (now retired) founded the store, and their whole family have spread out with food businesses. Kara's brother has Wenzel's Lonestar Meat (with great sandwiches!), just a short walk from the Cefco, and her other brother has the Wiseman House Chocolates in Hico.
I have talked with Kara about putting in charging there at Hidden Valley. She says that many years ago they had gas pumps, but they were taken out because the regulations (leaky tank cleanup, etc.) became too costly. She was very interested in getting charging but didn't know who to contact.
I might have another confab with her sometime, now that everything is going to NACS, and it's possible to get charging stations with their own battery packs (to avoid crazy demand charges from the electric company). IMHO Hidden Valley would be a great place to stop and easily spend twenty minutes when traveling. To me that would be a much better stop than the Cefco, when Hidden Valley is open. (Because Cefco is 24/7.)
tonybelding
Active Member
It begins.
Attached is a look at the electric company's recent work around that corner and street intersection. You'll notice the new transformer with meter not yet attached, which is diagonally across the intersection from Cefco's lot. (This transformer doesn't look to me like it would power an eight-stall Supercharger station directly, but it could easily power a battery-buffered installation.) You'll also notice the brand new (pale) pole erected at the corner of the Cefco lot, with wires running to it, but nothing hooked up.
In that wide shot you can see the electric company's yard (with all the transformers) on the left, Giovanni's (orange building) at the right, the new transformer with the yellow protective cage in the background, and Cefco itself would have been roughly behind me as I took the photo.
Attached is a look at the electric company's recent work around that corner and street intersection. You'll notice the new transformer with meter not yet attached, which is diagonally across the intersection from Cefco's lot. (This transformer doesn't look to me like it would power an eight-stall Supercharger station directly, but it could easily power a battery-buffered installation.) You'll also notice the brand new (pale) pole erected at the corner of the Cefco lot, with wires running to it, but nothing hooked up.
In that wide shot you can see the electric company's yard (with all the transformers) on the left, Giovanni's (orange building) at the right, the new transformer with the yellow protective cage in the background, and Cefco itself would have been roughly behind me as I took the photo.
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doeandjon
Member
That might be a good place to plug in your vacuum cleaner, but that's not a feed for a supercharger. Maybe somebody wanted a temporary power tap for construction? My guess is that is has nothing to do with the SC, but time will tell.
Edit: I just noticed the last picture of the new pole. Given the location in the lot behind the store, that would make sense for an SC. In Google's ground-level photos, that used to be a pole with a low voltage run from a transformer across the street. Now it carries 3 phase power at the distribution voltage level. That puts much more capacity on the site. Good eyes, Tony.
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tonybelding
Active Member
I was wondering the same. It does have a couple of what look like 20 amp, 125 volt outlets at the base which would be perfect for running power tools. But there's nothing there! There's no building. Maybe somebody wants to put up a building, and this was the first step?
The comment I made about a battery-buffered Supercharger was just because yesterday I was watching some video about the FreeWire Boost Charger units. Their whole selling point is the integrated battery pack, and they can be installed almost anywhere without having to pay-and-wait for high current lines run to the site, and they avoid high demand charges too. So that was very much on my mind, even though I don't know whether Tesla ever do anything similar to that.
OTOH, this location being, you know, around 50 yards from the town's electrical substation sort of makes it seem redundant! You can actually see a little bit of the substation equipment poking up in the background of that one photo, behind that rusty old Minneapolis-Moline shack.
tonybelding
Active Member
More signs of life today. . .
I asked the lady inside what was up, and she confirmed that this equipment is for Supercharger site construction.
I asked the lady inside what was up, and she confirmed that this equipment is for Supercharger site construction.
Yay. Glad to see this coming finally. It may be up in time for my next trip to Central Texas.
San Angelo is pretty far along and hopefully Early (Brownwood) is not far behind.
San Angelo is pretty far along and hopefully Early (Brownwood) is not far behind.
tonybelding
Active Member
Thanks for pointing those out. I hadn't been aware of them. It seems like the awkward gaps in the network are being closed up pretty quickly. Next on my wish list would be a site on US-281 northward from Hamilton. . . either Mineral Wells or perhaps the US-281 × I-20 crossing.
Well then, I have some really good news then for you... lol. There is a permit for a Supercharger in Santo, TX at the I-20 and US-281 crossing
tonybelding
Active Member
And ground is broken!
Note the fairly large work area that has been fenced off.
Note the fairly large work area that has been fenced off.
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