In 1957 and 1958, after graduating from Kenmore High School, near Buffalo, I was a turbine operator at Niagara Mohawk's Charles R. Huntley Steam station in Tonawanda, on the Niagara River. We were still operating units 25 hz 24, 25 and 26 and a reversable frequency changer. Total cap. was abt. 200 MW, alongside 1000 MW of 60 Hz power in the newer sections of the plant. Operation varied with the business climate, from full bore 24/7 to daily startup/ shutdown, occasionally with only one unit. Interesting work ... I got to do the throttle ups and enjoy the synchrozation process during startup. It could get dicey with our 30-50 year old equipment and synchroscope like a giant clock up on the wall. Equally exciting were sudden power dumps as happened during severe weather. Big building quake, followed by opening of steam safety valves atop the adjoining boiler house.
While there I saw tail end of demo. of three older 25 hz units 21-23 with new installation of turbine and generator units 67 & 68, in their place in the existing building shell along with two enormous B&W boilers in a new bldg. I resigned in Nov '58 to enter engineering school in U of FL, but worked at the electric bldg downtown two summers in 61 and 62. To my knowledge the 25hz units were still running in '62.
John Bachtel Lilburn, GA de NR4JB
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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All the articles in this issue of the Digest have been re-dated to Friday, March 03, to accomodate Usenet which has a habit of tossing things with stale dates (i.e. more than two or three days old) on them. I also used the first two or three issues today to mostly accomodate my paying customers (the newsletters, etc), knowing that the rest of you would probably stick around a while anyway, and be more understanding. And thanks, John, for your interesting reminisence with Niagara Power Company. PAT]