Found at the farm

I thought this was kind of neat. I have walked under this thing for almost 50 years, couple of months ago I notice the marking on the bottom. Thought it kind of cool to have another piece of AC stuff. One I didn't even have to buy!

The pic JW posted is a Voltage regulator. It steps voltage up or down as load on the line increases or decreases.
On the cross arm above it there are 3 switches, source(in) load(out) and a bypass(one that is open in the middle) To bypass the regulator it MUST be stepped up or down into the neutral position. Meaning the voltage incoming is the same as voltage outgoing.
If it is not in neutral when bypassed it will explode..... The round item just above and left of the AC symbol is a dial that you watch when you step the device up or down to zero. A light in the panel then comes on along with the dial being on N indicating neutral...
Just a little useless info to pass along.

I love seeing all the AC stuff still out there working today.
It's good equipment..

JW in MO wrote: Well get a load of this, I snapped this picture North of Newton KS.

AC used to be the biggest supplier of these units in the country.... so I'm told. Used to see them all over my area but then the ice storm of '91 hit and took most out. There are a very few still left here.

How is this for a little AC horsepower...
Just a little over 39,000

Craig are your control box's mounted to the reg like in that picture. Ours aren't, we don't want the line man fooling w/ it. lol  Tim

Take the 39000hp at 90rpm if you want to talk torque!!!

It's been a while since I looked at those turbines. There were 3 AC turbines in the hydro plant. The shaft was feet in diameter but don't know how many.

Tim our regulators are mounted on a plaform between poles. A few on the pole itself. Most panels are mounted eye level when standing on the ground. Eye level for most. There are a couple of shortys in the workforce....lol
I have worked on some regs that had a small can on the side. You unlatched it,turned the knob and watched balance beams line up to get it to neutral. That was some really old stuff.

a few years ago on a tour of the cement plant in Mason City, Ia. I seen the bearings that the kiln rides on were AC. They're 3 feet in Diameter and the kiln at the time was a foot away from them because it was cold. When heated up and running it swells out to them.
If I remember right the main bearing of the Queen Mary prop. shaft is AC.

DaveKamp wrote: Mike said: 2500 HP at 112 rpms, that is some serious torque!   - 117232 ft-lbs.  Bagnal dam has eight generators with a maximum capacity of 215 megawatts... that's 288319hp... or 36,039hp per generator... so the turbine you're noting is clearly just a little auxiliary power turbine (for powering lighting and controls, not feeding the grid).   Bagnal has 90ft of hydraulic head, that's 38psi...  how fast do the 8 MAIN turbines spin?  we can calculate a whole lot from that... Steve said: Take the 39000hp at 90rpm if you want to talk torque!!!    -That's 2281702ft-lbs.  At 49ft head, that means 21.2psi water pressure on 750 square feet of turbine surface area.

Dave I’m sure your right about Bagnal. I didn’t remember the hp but I can tell you with certainty that it was 112 rpm. I don’t know why I remember that and not the hp but I guess that’s the way it goes. It’s probably been 12 years since I was there.

Edited by wekracer - 18 Aug 2019 at 10:45am

That business made Allis serious money back in the day , there was an Allis on ground transformer thing down in the bottom by Rich Fountain , last year they brought an 80 ton crane in and special under slung trailer to load it and haul it out,, must have been a heavy rascal