Very nice. When I started working in power plants, back in 1977, I was 17 years old and ran a Fairbanks/Morris that had 24 inch pistons and was about 12 to 14 feet tall. brings back memories. I just wish I could go back and do it all over again, operating a power plant is a great way to make a living.. Thanks, Love your videos!
Wow, thanks for making this video. I love the old power generators. I still can't get over the sound of the Fairbanks Morse engine under load. I know that no speaker can really reproduce the sound and feeling of these big engines running. I wish I could have been there to experience it first-hand. Totally amazing powerplant!
Thanks for the tour to all involved. So much goes on behind the scenes that the majority of folks have no idea about. I do hope that Bushnell is training some youngsters to run this plant one day...if Craig can get them off their cell phones....
Mr Pete, You keep outdoing yourself. We never would have been able to experience this interesting journey with out you. You definitely were born to be an instructor !
What an informative and interesting video, Lyle. One thing that surprised me was that you two could just amble in to the station, with no security interference. Always enjoy your varied educational videos.
AMAZING!! Very interesting to watch. Many thanks for this. It's sad that small plants like this will probably not survive for many more years. Thanks for documenting working history.
Thank you for sharing this video. This is a look back into the past. I find it hard to believe anyone will ever know about these machines as much as Mr. Craig. Those slight tweaks on the controls looks to be something learned from many many years of running those machines. Thank you again.
Thank You Mr. Pete. This road trip to the hammer factory then the power plant was very interesting. Even though I got into a lot of factories in my lifetime of doing mechanical contracting, there are always places I haven't seen that are extremely interesting.
Very interesting Mr. Pete, we got a natural gas pumping station not far from me that used to have some engines that ran off natural gas to run the pumps that make the emds look small, they have converted to turbines and scraped the old engines.
I've always been fascinated by things like this. Getting to see an emergency power system like this one is a real treat and I'm glad to see this second part as the first one really wet my appetite. One thing they couldn't show you is what happens when they throw those inlet breakers under load. The flash arc that occurs is something to behold. Watching one get hit by lightning is also an epic event to witness. I am both fortunate and unfortunate enough to have seen both. While amazing to watch, catastrophic events had to take place for them to be necessary. I feel compelled to say that you really don't want to witness a lightning strike in person as the concussive force is quite intense as is the arcing from the failed lightning arrestor. After the large explosion nearly knocked us senseless there was a large shower of sparks and all manor of chaos. Being a simple substation there wasn't much more to be done other than to throw the inlet breakers so that the line could be repaired. This happened back when I was a boy of 13 since I had made friends with the lineman who worked on that substation. He had been stationed there that fateful night because of the expected storm and the chance of a power failure. We had been talking when it happened. I learned a lot from Bruice and most of it even stuck. He's no longer with us as he died of old age. He would be 104 on may 20th of next year if he were till alive. He was a dear friend...
Best field trip ever. Thanks, Mr. Pete! I thought you were going to bar the FM over for us! For those interested, there is (or at least was) quite a bit of information about the Fairbanks Morse engines online. Try searching for model Y engines. At one time I even found an operator's manual. The same basic engine was used, in one to six cylinder versions, to power mills, generators, cotton gins, you name it. There was also a catastrophic story about an engine collector who thought the crankcase should be filled with oil....
All aspiring electrical engineers should spend a few days in a plant like this, learning from gentlemen like this how power generation works from first principles. Watching a computer screen control a machine you learn little, adjusting the load limit on a fly-ball governor to limit speed over shoot on run up is clever use of the available technology. Manually syncing and closing up a breaker then hearing the engine knuckle down as you wind on the load while manually adjusting the AVR in response to reactive current is something that needs to be done by hand to really appreciate the physical interaction between the governor, the AVR, and the load. Thank you for an excellent film on skills that are rapidly being lost to the computer generation, I'm lucky to be of an age where I have been exposed to both methods, I appreciate the ease of the new ways, but I understand the basic physics behind what's happening from doing it by hand. Ray
I graduated from Iowa State University in 1977 as a EE. I thoroughly enjoyed the power lab they had there, very interesting lessons. I'm not sure if they still have the lab but I think not. It had both AC and DC systems. I later worked for Iowa Southern Utilities for a couple of years, that too was very educational. I sincerely hope we still have these kind of opportunities for our younger folks, it's good knowledge. Thanks for the documentary. I was impressed with how neat and clean the facility was kept. That's a critical part of a good reliability program. THANKS
Hello Lyle, you discredited this video so much that I almost never watched it. I really enjoyed it and never saw the terrible problems you said this video had. If you wanted to nit pick then I guess you could have found problems. I do not believe that most people would find anything wrong with this video. Great video!! All the best, Edgar
Thank's for the video.A squared away engine room.The workers take pride where they work.Never worked in a power plant ,but ran diesel-electric propulsion in the Coast Guard.They used 567 series as well as Fairbanks Morris,Alco,and Cooper Bessemer.Only difference is you are rocking and rolling.LOL
Yet anouther grand slam video. THANK YOU! In 1986 i was very fortunate to replace some 480 volt 800 amp power distribution breakers built in 1927 for new ones. The old ones took up a wall space of 10 feet high by about 20 feet long. The new unit was 8' high x 4' x 4'. Sad and cool all at the same time.
Great video. Very interesting. The last generator motor and I were both built in "55". I seem to be showing my age a lot more than it is! Thanks Mr. Pete
Boy it would be a treat to sit down with Greg and bend his ear with a thousand questions on how it all works. I'm an electronics design engineer but power distribution is a whole other fascinating technology with a rich history.
Craig a man with so much knowledge sadly when he retires.all that knowledge will be lost Just like so many other good men this is the way of the future sad to say
Your videos never disappoint, Even when I find an older one I havent watched, Thanks so much for sharing, B4 the lawyers got involved we could ask plant personnel so take us on tours like this. What fun, Your sharing things most ppl have no idea about. :-)
I talk to Craig just yesterday at the power plant. They had a big repair job on the two large EMD engine. I will be returning there this summer for more shots. Also to the hammer plant to see their Dasco punch manufacturing set up.
Great mix of mechanical, analog and digital. The sure don't build them like that any more. I was on a rebuild team. We rebuilt 4, 12 cylinder 1939 GM Diesels with 600 Volt DC generators.
Fantastic , thank you for another great road trip long may you continue to make them. The subject matter is always spot on and as a non American even the country side is fascinating we are lucky that you have the time and financial ability to make these videos.
This brings back memories, I use to work at the LaGrange assemble plant as an engine tester from 1977 to 1987. I tested many a EMD engine back in the day. Thank you for the video, it's a shame that EMD is basically out of business today. Those engines will last more than a lifetime if you care for them.
Our small town used to generate its own power of course now we are on the national grid and the cost has increased by 1000s of percent .even today they announced the closure of the biggest coal generator in VICTORIA 350 jobs gone.ALL TRANSFERING TO EXPENSIVE solar Australia just like USA is stuffed.imho. Thanks lyle .
I love those EMD's and they're the same cubic inch is the one I use, except the one I run is a 16 cylinder 645 @ 2000 HP in a 1954 GP9 SP 3194 at the Golden gate railroad Museum
Wooo Hooo Brown Boveri AB4 rolling sector Voltage regulators 2:35, made in Switzerland by watchmakers. Am I the last BBC rolling sector service Engineer?
@@janvisser2223 Hello Jan did you work with them? They were industry standard in europe in their day. I went to some that were falling apart but still working!
@@worker611 No, I never worked with these. But when studying marine engineering 47 years ago, I paid attention and still remembered them from the books. Probably due to the fact that I liked their design and the craftmanship to built them. And by the way, those EMD’s are truly impressive engines.
@@janvisser2223 They were built in Switzerland so thats were the craftsmanship came from. I went to a few that were on ships or tugs and small vessels, they were usually the smaller ones with a single rolling sector I think they were called JC1. I was a marine service Engineer with the British Brown Boveri from 1974, by that tme they were coming to the end of there servicable life as electonics was taking over. They were great to work on as you could see if they were faulty without needing any instruments. Best wishes and Happy New Year from UK. Bill.
@@worker611 None of the ships I sailed on, had these voltage regulators installed. I suppose, the rheostats were the parts that needed the most attention? And also for you Bill and your family a happy new year from the other side of the North Sea (🇱🇺)
Fairbanks Morse equipment never wore out. My parents had an FM freezer that ran for over 50 years, and was still working when they finally retired it. I guess that's why they ultimately went out of business in their consumer product lines.
I spent 2 months at a power station owned by the company that employed me, they are very interesting places. 8 large steam boilers, feeding 3 stage turbines, with a total output of 1280 MW. Used to be a base load station here in South Australia, but was working as a peaking plant when I was there. Due to the shut down of a coal fired plant, I believe it is now running again, as base load.
I worked on EMD's when serving my Apprentice ship . beautifully simple engines and a triumph of design ,originally by Winton.I still have my barring over key, which is used to open the cocks on each cylinder prior to starting to makwe sure no water has condensed in the cylinders over noght. And yes ,a lot of water would come out in humid weather.
All of those recent videos wer verey interesting. I worked at Salem Harbor Station in Salem Massachusetts for 26 years. Steam boilers to steam turbone Generators. We also had 6 EMD units in Gloucester and Newburyport for Auiliarry power. Each unit was 13 mega watts a piece. The plant I worked in is now dismanteled. It was replaced by 2 gas and oil fired units putting out 650 megawatts of power. They are made by General Electric and are combined cycle units. Pretty snazzy. :-)
I work at a power plant in Kansas, my dad has worked at another one for over 35 year’s. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far, it’s that you have to take all the information and knowledge you can from people like Greg, because once those people go, those power plants are sometimes not far behind. I’ve learned a lot from my dad and love what I do, it feels good to know the Lost Trade. There’s just something about this job that makes it so addicting, like the adrenaline running through you during a black start. It’s what makes those old guys tick. LONG LIVE THE SMALL TOWN POWER PLANTS!!!! P.S: This brotherhood doesn’t require a monthly payment...
Yes, Greg is a great and knowledgeable man. I talk to him on the phone from time to time. They had a little movie theater in his town when he was a teenager. He told me he spent all his time in the projection booth, helping with the sound equipment. He still remembers the number on everyone of the vacuum tubes.
Hallo Engineer can you help me I have problems for spefic fuel of consumption rate of Engine EMD 645/20 cylinders in acatloge 0 .24 L/kwh while in actual is 0.30L/Kwh What is the procedure to do to decrease s.f.c Max loads 1600kw i cant loading more because the temperature exhaust go to high
Hallo Engineer can you help me I have problems for spefic fuel of consumption rate of Engine EMD 645/20 cylinders in acatloge 0 .24 L/kwh while in actual is 0.30L/Kwh What is the procedure to do to decrease s.f.c Max loads 1600kw i cant loading more because the temperature exhaust go to high
My dad worked at Horse Mesa Dam for Salt River Power Users in AZ and I visited the power plant several times. The original equipment was installed in the early years of the nineteenth century and looked antique compared to this plant. It was a lot noisier too.
An SD45 motor. And the same size air cylinders we use in rail yards to supply air to the freight cars for the mechanical department to perform pre-trip air brake inspections on trains.
The lack of explanation that the generating station plays in connection to the grid leaves one to wonder.... what is it there for? With nothing running, it could be only for back up when the grid can not supply the town's demand. Too bad the question was not asked. Interesting to see the old equipment still serviceable.
I believe it may have been decided that since they had so much invested in the power plant, that it seemed wasteful to scrap it; particularly because power consumption was forecast to increase in the future, and before the proper infrastructure can be built, having a good stand-by plant just made sense.
This video is a series of 3 videos, one is a tour of a hammer factory, 2 and 3 are a tour of a backup power plant (mentioned in the first video) in the same town. What it's there for is in case it's needed. They keep the coolant and oil warmed up so they're ready to go.
I wonder if when his dad brought him to the last EMD unit installed in the video that he saw being installed while in the third grade was Mr. Craig's awakening moment in his life as far as his "What I want to be moment"?
Never knew the turbochargers were gear driven on start up then exhaust gas driven.Always though that they were permanently geared to the crank on those two strokers.
Now that lasts engine is identical to what's in our locomotive including the ruse blower equipment behind it looks like it came straight out of a locomotive
Wonder if one of those big EMD prime movers came out of a Southern SD45...🤔 Would like to have heard one of them running, even if it was the old school 567C engine. You hear one 2 stroke EMD you want to hear them all.
The EMD 20-645 engine was developed for the model SD45 by adding four cylinders to the 16-645 used in the SD40, adding 600 horsepower. The initial version had problems with a weak crankshaft, couldn't handle the additional torque, but they eventually got it right. In case you were wondering, here's the very first SD45 being started up: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Flp0scZWk2s.html The other one, the 16-567C, was used in the SD9, among other models: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0EfowMMknXQ.html
Great videos. We have two of those exact EMD 645’s at the now defunct Oyster Creek Generating Station. It also has the ‘creepy crank’ to prevent hydraulic lock except they are battery driven. They are Cadillacs because they are very easy to start and they run fantastic.
