if only NYC Subway had held onto those massive rotary-converters

[danny burstein]

[IEEE Spectrum]

To Free the Baltic Grid, Old Technology Is New Again

Spinning megamachines will safeguard the Baltic power grid as it
desynchronizes from the Russian grid
...
A technical lynchpin to their planned escape from the Moscow-controlled
synchronous AC power zone is a constellation of synchronous condensers:
free-­spinning and fuel-free electrical generators whose sole purpose is
to stabilize and protect power grids.
=======
rest, which includes pictures of Big Machines which give me
flashbacks to the NYC Tranist Authority substations:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/baltic-power-grid

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

[John Levine]

According to danny burstein <dan...@panix.com>:

>[IEEE Spectrum]
>
> To Free the Baltic Grid, Old Technology Is New Again
>
>Spinning megamachines will safeguard the Baltic power grid as it
>desynchronizes from the Russian grid ...

>rest, which includes pictures of Big Machines which give me

>flashbacks to the NYC Transit Authority substations:

Those were AC-DC to provide 600V DC power. Similar design but wired
quite differently. Ditto the ones under GCT to power the 750VDC third
rail NYC lines.
--
Regards,
John Levine, jo...@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 11:05:44 AM UTC-5, John Levine wrote:
> According to danny burstein <dan...@panix.com>:

> >[IEEE Spectrum]
> > To Free the Baltic Grid, Old Technology Is New Again
> >Spinning megamachines will safeguard the Baltic power grid as it
> >desynchronizes from the Russian grid ...
> >rest, which includes pictures of Big Machines which give me
> >flashbacks to the NYC Transit Authority substations:
>
> Those were AC-DC to provide 600V DC power. Similar design but wired
> quite differently. Ditto the ones under GCT to power the 750VDC third
> rail NYC lines.

Y'all might recall that the subway stopped generating its own power
and got hooked up to the grid shortly before the Great Blackout, which
occurred 58 years and 5 days ago at 5:28 pm. I was on the 110tj St. /
Broadway northbound platform, so I didn't get to be evacuated along
the tracks.

[danny burstein]

In <c94c43c8-57f3-4eb5...@googlegroups.com> "Peter T. Daniels" <petert...@gmail.com> writes:

[snip]

>Y'all might recall that the subway stopped generating its own power=20
>and got hooked up to the grid shortly before the Great Blackout, which=20
>occurred 58 years and 5 days ago at 5:28 pm. I was on the 110tj St. /=20
>Broadway northbound platform, so I didn't get to be evacuated along=20
>the tracks.

AHhhhhhhh!!!

Trust me on this picture. Alas, I've lost the negatives
so this is a scan from a contact sheet.

ok, so it's from 1977 and not 1965.

http://www.dburstein.com/images/subway-blackout.png

Eyup. The _train_ had power. The station, not so much...



--

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 10:42:27 AM UTC-5, danny burstein wrote:
> In <c94c43c8-57f3-4eb5...@googlegroups.com> "Peter T. Daniels" <petert...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> [snip]
>
> >Y'all might recall that the subway stopped generating its own power=20
> >and got hooked up to the grid shortly before the Great Blackout, which=20
> >occurred 58 years and 5 days ago at 5:28 pm. I was on the 110tj St. /=20
> >Broadway northbound platform, so I didn't get to be evacuated along=20
> >the tracks.
>
> AHhhhhhhh!!!
>
> Trust me on this picture. Alas, I've lost the negatives
> so this is a scan from a contact sheet.
>
> ok, so it's from 1977 and not 1965.

I was in Chicago then. "Blackout? What blackout?"

> http://www.dburstein.com/images/subway-blackout.png
>
> Eyup. The _train_ had power. The station, not so much...

But for the most recent one, I was in the GCT Tramsit Museum
Annex, the lights flickered and went out, but it was daytime and
I waked over to Madison where an express bus to Spuyten Duyvil
juzt happened to be, and I even had a seat all the way,

When was that? 2003?

Oh, yesterday afternoon there was a power interruption for about
1 minute. That sometimes happens during a thunderstorm, so maybe
PSE&G was doing some sort of fair-weather servicing for a moment.

[General Kireiko]

Peter T. Daniels <petert...@gmail.com> wrote:
: But for the most recent one, I was in the GCT Tramsit Museum

: Annex, the lights flickered and went out, but it was daytime and
: I waked over to Madison where an express bus to Spuyten Duyvil
: juzt happened to be, and I even had a seat all the way,

: When was that? 2003?

Yes. I was in my office in midtown. Power went out. We all starting
chatting / calling people. I turned on my Walkman. 1010 WINS announced
they were running on generators / backup power. Maybe ten minutes
later, they announced that the power was out in Toronto and Cleveland, too.
At that point, I knew it wasn't coming back any time soon, so made my
way home before it got dark.

I wish I had a digital camera with me. I remember walking over the 59th
St bridge, and people who walked on the upper level were climbing down
the trusswork to avoid the long ramps...

Q1043 (Pat St John, IIRC) played "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety.

-Doug
--
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made a mistake, a red light went on and 18,000 people started
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