The New York Subway Part 8

[Ill.u.s.tration: PART OF BUS BAR COMPARTMENTS--MAIN POWER STATION]

[Sidenote: _Alternators_]

The alternators closely resemble those installed by the Manhattan Railway Company (now the Manhattan division of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company) in its plant on the East River, between 74th Street and 75th Street. They differ, however, in having the stationary armature divided into seven castings instead of six, and in respect to details of the armature winding. They are three-phase machines, delivering twenty-five cycle alternating currents at an effective potential of 11,000 volts. They are 42 feet in height, the diameter of the revolving part is 32 feet, its weight, 332,000 pounds, and the aggregate weight of the machine, 889,000 pounds. The design of the engine dynamo unit eliminates the auxiliary fly wheel generally used in the construction of large direct-connected units prior to the erection of the Manhattan plant, the weight and dimensions of the revolving alternator field being such with reference to the turning moment of the engine as to secure close uniformity of rotation, while at the same time this construction results in narrowing the engine and reducing the engine shafts between bearings.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REAR VIEW OF BUS BAR COMPARTMENTS--MAIN POWER STATION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DUCT LINE ACROSS 58TH STREET 32 DUCTS]

Construction of the revolving parts of the alternators is such as to secure very great strength and consequent ability to resist the tendency to burst and fly apart in case of temporary abnormal speed through accident of any kind. The hub of the revolving field is of cast steel, and the rim is carried not by the usual spokes but by two wedges of rolled steel. The construction of the revolving field is ill.u.s.trated on pages 91 and 92. The angular velocity of the revolving field is remarkably uniform. This result is due primarily to the fact that the turning movement of the four-cylinder engine is far more uniform than is the case, for example, with an ordinary two-cylinder engine. The large fly-wheel capacity of the rotating element of the machine also contributes materially to secure uniformity of rotation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAIN CONTROLLING BOARD IN POWER STATION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONTROL AND INSTRUMENT BOARD--MAIN POWER STATION]

The alternators have forty field poles and operates at seventy-five revolutions per minute. The field magnets const.i.tute the periphery of the revolving field, the poles and rim of the field being built up by steel plates which are dovetailed to the driving spider. The heavy steel end plates are bolted together, the laminations breaking joints in the middle of the pole. The field coils are secured by copper wedges, which are subjected to shearing strains only. In the body of the poles, at intervals of approximately three inches, ventilating s.p.a.ces are provided, these s.p.a.ces registering with corresponding air ducts in the external armature. The field winding consists of copper strap on edge, one layer deep, with fibrous material cemented in place between turns, the edges of the strap being exposed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DUCTS UNDER Pa.s.sENGER STATION PLATFORM 64 DUCTS]

The armature is stationary and exterior to the field. It consists of a laminated ring with slots on its inner surface and supported by a ma.s.sive external cast-iron frame. The armature, as has been noted, comprises seven segments, the topmost segment being in the form of a small keystone. This may be removed readily, affording access to any field coil, which in this way may be easily removed and replaced. The armature winding consists of U-shaped copper bars in partially closed slots. There are four bars per slot and three slots per phase per pole. The bars in any slot may be removed from the armature without removing the frame. The alternators, of course, are separately excited, the potential of the exciting current used being 250 volts.

As regards regulation, the manufacturer's guarantee is that at 100 per cent. power factor if full rated load be thrown off the e. m. f. will rise 6 per cent. with constant speed and constant excitation. The guarantee as to efficiency is as follows: On non-inductive load, the alternators will have an efficiency of not less than 90.5 per cent. at one-quarter load; 94.75 per cent. at one-half load; 96.25 per cent. at three-quarters load; 97 per cent. at full load, and 97.25 per cent. at one and one-quarter load. These figures refer, of course, to electrical efficiency, and do not include windage and bearing friction. The machines are designed to operate under their rated full load with rise of temperature not exceeding 35 degrees C. after twenty-four hours.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THREE-CONDUCTOR NO. 000 CABLE FOR 11,000 VOLT DISTRIBUTION]

[Sidenote: _Exciters_]

To supply exciting current for the fields of the alternators and to operate motors driving auxiliary apparatus, five 250-kilowatt direct current dynamos are provided. These deliver their current at a potential of 250 volts. Two of them are driven by 400 horse-power engines of the marine type, to which they are direct-connected, while the remaining three units are direct-connected to 365 horse-power tri-phase induction motors operating at 400 volts. A storage battery capable of furnishing 3,000 amperes for one hour is used in co-operation with the dynamos provided to excite the alternators. The five direct-current dynamos are connected to the organization of switching apparatus in such a way that each unit may be connected at will either to the exciting circuits or to the circuits through which auxiliary motors are supplied.

The alternators for which the new Interborough Power House are designed will deliver to the bus bars 100,000 electrical horse power.

The current delivered by these alternators reverses its direction fifty times per second and in connecting dynamos just coming into service with those already in operation the allowable difference in phase relation at the instant the circuit is completed is, of course, but a fraction of the fiftieth of a second. Where the power to be controlled is so great, the potential so high, and the speed requirements in respect to synchronous operation so exacting, it is obvious that the perfection of control attained in some of our modern plants is not their least characteristic.

[Sidenote: _Switching Apparatus_]

The switch used for the 11,000 volt circuits is so constructed that the circuits are made and broken under oil, the switch being electrically operated. Two complete and independent sets of bus bars are used, and the connections are such that each alternator and each feeder may be connected to either of these sets of bus bars at the will of the operator. From alternators to bus bars the current pa.s.ses, first, through the alternator switch, and then alternatively through one or the other of two selector switches which are connected, respectively, to the two sets of bus bars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INSIDE WALL OF TUNNEL SHOWING 64 DUCTS]

Provision is made for an ultimate total of twelve sub-stations, to each of which as many as eight feeders may be installed if the development of the company's business should require that number. But eight sub-stations are required at present, and to some of these not more than three feeders each are necessary. The aggregate number of feeders installed for the initial operation of the subway system is thirty-four.

Each feeder circuit is provided with a type H-oil switch arranged to be open and closed at will by the operator, and also to open automatically in the case of abnormal flow of current through the feeder. The feeders are arranged in groups, each group being supplied from a set of auxiliary bus bars, which in turn receives its supply from one or the other of the two sets of main bus bars; means for selection being provided as in the case of the alternator circuits by a pair of selector switches, in this case designated as group switches. The diagram on page 93 ill.u.s.trates the essential features of the organization and connections of the 11,000 volt circuits in the power house.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MANHOLES IN SIDE WALL OF SUBWAY]

Any and every switch can be opened or closed at will by the operator standing at the control board described. The alternator switches are provided also with automatic overload and reversed current relays, and the feeder switches, as above mentioned, are provided with automatic overload relays. These overload relays have a time attachment which can be set to open the switch at the expiration of a predetermined time ranging from .3 of a second to 5 seconds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONVERTER FLOOR PLAN SUB-STATION NO. 14]

The type H-oil switch is operated by an electric motor through the intervention of a mechanism comprising powerful springs which open and close the switch with great speed. This switch when opened introduces in each of the three sides of the circuit two breaks which are in series with each other. Each side of the circuit is separated from the others by its location in an enclosed compartment, the walls of which are brick and soapstone. The general construction of the switch is ill.u.s.trated by the photograph on page 94.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CROSS SECTION SUB-STATION NO. 14]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF SUB-STATION NO. 11]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LONGITUDINAL SECTION SUB-STATION NO. 14]

Like all current-carrying parts of the switches, the bus bars are enclosed in separate compartments. These are constructed of brick, small doors for inspection and maintenance being provided opposite all points where the bus bars are supported upon insulators. The photographs on pages 95 and 96 are views of a part of the bus bar and switch compartments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO GROUPS OF TRANSFORMERS]

The oil switches and group bus bars are located upon the main floor and extend along the 59th Street wall of the engine room a distance of about 600 feet. The main bus bars are arranged in two lines of brick compartments, which are placed below the engine-room floor. These bus bars are arranged vertically and are placed directly beneath the rows of oil switches located upon the main floor of the power house. Above these rows of oil switches and the group bus bars, galleries are constructed which extend the entire length of the power house, and upon the first of these galleries at a point opposite the middle of the power house are located the control board and instrument board, by means of which the operator in charge regulates and directs the entire output of the plant, maintaining a supply of power at all times adequate to the demands of the transportation service.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOTOR-GENERATORS AND BATTERY BOARD FOR CONTROL CIRCUITS--SUB-STATION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 1,500 K. W. ROTARY CONVERTER]

[Sidenote: _The Control Board_]

The control board is shown in the photograph on page 97. Every alternator switch, every selector switch, every group switch, and every feeder switch upon the main floor is here represented by a small switch. The small switch is connected into a control circuit which receives its supply of energy at 110 volts from a small motor generator set and storage battery. The motors which actuate the large oil switches upon the main floor are driven by this 110 volt control current, and thus in the hands of the operator the control switches make or break the relatively feeble control currents, which, in turn, close or open the switches in the main power circuits. The control switches are systematically a.s.sembled upon the control bench board in conjunction with dummy bus bars and other apparent (but not real) metallic connections, the whole const.i.tuting at all times a correct diagram of the existing connections of the main power circuits. Every time the operator changes a connection by opening or closing one of the main switches, he necessarily changes his diagram so that it represents the new conditions established by opening or closing the main switch. In connection with each control switch two small bull's-eye lamps are used, one red, to indicate that the corresponding main switch is closed, the other green, to indicate that it is open.

These lamps are lighted when the moving part of the main switch reaches approximately the end of its travel. If for any reason, therefore, the movement of the control switch should fail to actuate the main switch, the indicator lamp will not be lighted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOTOR-GENERATOR SET SUPPLYING ALTERNATING CURRENT FOR BLOCK SIGNALS AND MOTOR-GENERATOR STARTING SET]

The control board is divided into two parts--one for the connections of the alternators to the bus bars and the other for the connection of feeders to bus bars. The drawing on page 97 shows in plain view the essential features of the control boards.

[Sidenote: _The Instrument Board_]

A front view of the Instrument Board is shown on page 97. This board contains all indicating instruments for alternators and feeders.

It also carries standardizing instruments and a clock. In the ill.u.s.tration the alternator panels are shown at the left and the feeder panels at the right. For the alternator panels, instruments of the vertical edgewise type are used. Each vertical row comprises the measuring instruments for an alternator. Beginning at the top and enumerating them in order these instruments are: Three ammeters, one for each phase, a volumeter, an indicating wattmeter, a power factor indicator and a field ammeter. The round dial instrument shown at the bottom of each row of instruments is a three-phase recording wattmeter.

A panel located near the center of the board between alternator panels and feeder panels carries standard instruments used for convenient calibration of the alternator and feeder instruments. Provision is made on the back of the board for convenient connection of the standard instruments in series with the instruments to be compared.

The panel which carries the standard instruments also carries ammeters used to measure current to auxiliary circuits in the power house.

For the feeder board, instruments of the round dial pattern are used, and for each feeder a single instrument is provided, viz., an ammeter.

Each vertical row comprises the ammeters belonging to the feeders which supply a given sub-station, and from left to right these are in order sub-stations Nos. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18; blank s.p.a.ces are left for four additional sub-stations. Each horizontal row comprises the ammeter belonging to feeders which are supplied through a given group switch.

This arrangement in vertical and horizontal lines, indicating respectively feeders to given sub-stations and feeders connected to the several group switches, is intended to facilitate the work of the operator. A glance down a vertical row without stopping to reach the scales of the instruments will tell him whether the feeders are dividing with approximate equality the load to a given sub-station.

Feeders to different sub-stations usually carry different loads and, generally speaking, a glance along a horizontal row will convey no information of especial importance. If, however, for any reason the operator should desire to know the approximate aggregate load upon a group of feeders this systematic arrangement of the instruments is of use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SWITCHBOARD FOR ALTERNATING CURRENT BLOCK SIGNAL CIRCUITS--IN SUB-STATION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXTERIOR OF SUB-STATION NO. 18]

[Sidenote: _Alternating Current Distribution to Sub-Stations Power House Ducts and Cables_]

From alternators to alternator switches the 11,000 volt alternating currents are conveyed through single conductor cables, insulated by oil cambric, the thickness of the wall being 12/32 of an inch. These conductors are installed in vitrified clay ducts. From dynamo switches to bus bars and from bus bars to group and feeder switches, vulcanized rubber insulation containing 30 per cent. pure Para rubber is employed. The thickness of insulating wall is 9/32 of an inch and the conductors are supported upon porcelain insulators.

[Sidenote: _Conduit System for Distribution_]