June 1916, No. 220 | Canadian Railway and Marine World (Toronto) | Page 239, col. 2 |
Portable substation on Lake Erie and Northern Railway.
The Lake Erie & Northern Ry., which has been in operation for some little time between Galt and Brantford, Ont., and is now completed to Port Dover, has put in operation a portable substation for high voltage direct current generation, two illustrations of which are given herewith. The substation is built on a standard steel, 42 ft. flat car, of 60,000 lbs. capacity. The 555 k-va, three phase transformer is of the outdoor type, self cooled, and is mounted in the open. The primary of the transformer is arranged for a supply of 25 cycle energy at 6,600, 13,200 or 26,400 volts. The secondary leads are carried in conduit. The interior view shows the main oil switch and oil switch operating panel, together with the series relays; the high tensions a.c. portion of the apparatus being separated from the rest of the cab by a wire screen. The starting switch for the rotary converter is shown to the right of the illustration, and the rotary converter panel is shown at the left of the photo.
Portable substation, Lake Erie & Northern Railway.
The converter is 500 kw. capacity, 1,500 volts d.c. As it is a commutating pole rotary converter, the brushes are all raised during starting, with the exception of two narrow pilot brushes. There is, on the left of the frame of the rotary converter, a lever for raising and lowering the brushes, and a small semaphore at the top of the frame indicates the position of the brushes, so that the operator can tell at a glance whether the brushes are raised or down. The field break up switch is mounted, for convenience, as the bearing pedestal. The complete rotary converter is mounted on an adjustable base, which permits of ready adjustment for levelling in case the portable substation is standing on a grade.
Interior of portable substation, Lake Erie & Northern Railway.
The portable substation was built by Canadian General Electric Co. at Peterboorugh, Ont. When it was completed the railway company was not ready to take delivery and it was necessary to leave it standing outside during extremely cold weather. Although no attempt was made to supply excitation to the outdoor transformer during that period, it was found to be in excellent condition when instructions were received for shipment.
Railways: L.E. & N.Ry.