The New York Subway, Its Construction and EquipmentInterborough Rapid Transit Company
History
The New York Subway, Its Construction and Equipment
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
Local transit -- New York (State) -- New York; Subways -- New York (State) -- New York
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: MOTOR-GENERATORS AND BATTERY BOARD FOR CONTROL
CIRCUITS--SUB-STATION]
[Illustration: 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 assembled upon the control bench board in
conjunction with dummy bus bars and other apparent (but not real)
metallic connections, the whole constituting 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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