ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Unusual Electrical Signs

Must be some REALLY nasty stuff behind the screen at the end of the switchboard!!

I wonder what the sign on the screen says, too...?

Great Picture. I'm gonna use it as wallpaper on my computer.

Mike (mamills)

mike—

Uhmm, er... Pay No Attention to that Man Behind The Curtain!!

We all know about deadfront switchboards…Well, this is just the opposite. Probably 250 {or possibly 500} volts.

**Your very own {cropped-for-wallpaper} ~200KB jpeg is: franken

I'll bet there's a lot of AVA wire on the back of that board. ["A" means asbestos..."V" means varnished cambric.] It was usual to make the yard-square panels out of slate or occasionally marble.


Note the ~2½-foot broomstick-looking thing with sort of a {cupped} semi-closed ‘hand’ at the top end—just below dead center of the image leaning against a switch pole. I wonder if that was some sort of insulated safety device (very early homemade hotstick?) for operating bigger knife switches?


Should you find that you are indeed nuts {like me} there is a ~17MB tiff version at: frankentif   It’s well beyond 5000x5000 pixels, though.

Fair notice—you can spend months noodling at: memory.loc.gov  It Is Massive.

 

 

[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 07-01-2002).]

Hi, Lance: Thanks for blowing up the signs for us. Pretty neat operation, being able to do that . I'm afraid I'm not quite that computer literate.

Bjarney: Saw that stick, too. Betcha dollars to doughnuts that's what it's for. When they open or close one of those jumbo switches, it probably looks like fireworks time on July 4!

Thanks for inluding the links...hope to get to look at them in the next day or so.

Mike (mamills)

Loove big switchgear, something very satisfying about a whacking big switch. The caption on this picture says the Juniata shops, Which tells me that it is the Pennsylvania Railroad power house. The really really big power house. I have seen pictures taken in that place that show a still steaming locomotive (your talking over 100 tons!) dangling from a crane enroute to a different area of the shop. They pulled the pin out of the drawbar,left the tender behind, and carried away the locomotive.

We should have some other pictures of that place here somewhere, I will root.

Trainwire

Lance—

Briliant work!

You may take $200 out of petty cash.

{Not sure about the photo date: "1888-1925"}

More at: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=hhphoto&fileName=pa/pa2600/pa2688/photos/browse.db&action=browse&recNum=0&title2=Juniata%20Shops,Power%20Plant%20%26%20Boiler%20House,%2 [/URL] 0E.%20of%20Fourth%20Ave.%20at%20Second%20St.,%20ALTOONA,%20Blair%20County,%20PA&displayType=1&itemLink=D?hh:21:./temp/~ammem_WuCD::

Parent directory at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml/hhhome.html

[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 07-02-2002).]

Showing off my ignorance again...(I'm good at that), What are the devices that are arranged along the top of the switchboard? From where I'm sitting, they look kinda like enormous open-frame circuit breakers...(with operating handles and what appear to be some type of arc chute).

Any ideas?

Mike (mamills)

Mike (mamills)—I agree with you. The top row of "handles" look like each may have a pair of <several square-inch> contacts at the very top—not sure. Look at the first two [closest/left side] switches—the first/largest appears to be open, and the one to the right looks more like it may be closed.

[These sorta’ remind me of crude bolted-pressure-contact switches, maybe?]

Also—The top row of switches look to be "ON" {closed} when the handles are in the DOWN position...and maybe "OFF" {open} with the handles are the UP position. Compare the left’s “wide open” upper gap versus the right’s “closed” gap. The open faces look like they may be contact surfaces, but—as adjacent pairs—seem too close together to be opposite DC-poles.

Or am I nuts again?

Wow, I've seen some things slightly similar to this before. How many volts run through those switches? And, if they're exposed, wouldn't it be extremely dangerous to operate them? (I wouldn't be surprised if operators switching these things got killed every once and awhile.)

Joe-
This one is for the odd signs thread. Found this pad mount transformer in Glendale, CA. A very small building for "Admittance"!
Bob

Reminds me of my days in the power house and compensating starters we had the industrial plant I used to work in. The "stick" is used to close or open those switches like the ones at the top of the panel. It helps keep you out of harms way should you close on short circuit or try to open on a locked rotor condition. Believe me I've seen the doors blown off when 480v. was closed on a shorted circuit. It can make for a good mess.