395 Comments for Toronto Power Company Generating Station

@ potbellynine - Thank you, fellow Dexter's Laboratory fan. Actually if I ever go on a tour of a power plant I'm gong to bring my PDA and play an audio clip of DeeDee saying that exact phrase. I will not, of course, actually be about to touch anything.

You are such a fantastic photographer. I model so I have seen the work of many, many photographers, but your photos are just so magical. Every single one is a work of art. Never stop taking pictures, you are a gift to the world.

This looks like the inside of my 1950's pinball machine.

The 1938 picture makes me think of Warehouse 13 (something I'm totally hooked on at the moment)

Wow, what a building. This looks more like a school, bank or library & not a power plant. I hope it can be saved & used for something else, as it still looks like too a nice of a building to tear down.

My next life I want to work in a power plant!

Joe - I know this is a bit late, but thanks for all the insight on these photographs and the inner working of a power plant. Being technically and electrically minded, I personally find it fascinating. Makes me wish I had chosen working at a power plant as a living.

i love that door!!!

Im interested to see how this was shot. it doesnt look like there are any windows to look out of..or even a balcony, judging from the other end of the building...

great shot!

I was sort of expecting a comment from Joe saying "You are looking at icicles...."

In playful jest, Joe :)

Otherwise, you're a mine of useful information about the generators and everything assoc. with :)

You are looking at the outside of a generator. The actual part is known as the :"STATOR". It is a very heavy cast iron frame that is accurately machined. It holds the generator "windings" (copper coils) from which the power is taken. The holes are "air holes" to allow forced air ventilation thru the stator windings. In operation, a set of fan blades on the generator rotor circulates air thru the stator and rotor to cool them.

The numer 8 simply refers to the "Unit number". Each powerplant assigns a number to each generator or "unit". If a person were referring to this particular generator they'd say something like "Toronto Power, Niagara Falls Station Unit 8".

The stator is an extremely massive casting as it has to resist the torque from the turbine as mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy. It also has to remain round and accurate to its original dimensions despite temperature changes, and magnetic fields. Plenty of good heavy cast iron insures great dimensional stability and great dampening of any slight vibrations. It is also massive to resist torque shock loads if the unit were to be tripped off line suddenly due to some electrical problem in the grid. The stator is solidly anchored to the concrete of the plant and that, I am sure, is tied to solid rock. A hydro plant has to be one of the most solidly built things.

Welcome to the world of working on hydro turbines and generators. These are smaller tools. Mechanics and millwrights used them routinely during maintainence and overhauls. Those particular wrenches were furnished with the generator and turbine as "service tools". The wrenches were forged by a blacksmith using a steam or power hammer.

The flat box wrenches laying on the plastic sheet are "slugging wrenches". they are the most basic powerplant wrench out there. Slugging wrenches are box wrenches specifically made to be struck with a sledge hammer (AKA "Beater"). Once a nut or bolt is run up tight using plain muscle power on the wrench, it often has to be "slugged up". This is where the slugging happens. The slug wrench has a softer portion of the body designed to take the blow of a steel sledge. At least a 16 lb sledge is used, sometimes a 25 lb.
Three people often are required to slug: one places the wrench on the nut or bolt head and may jam it there with the sole of their boot or with a hunk of wood. The next person has a rope tied thru a hole in the hammer handle, and pulls hard on the rope. These two people have to keep the wrench hard against the bolt or nut and "take the bounce out". When they have the wrench "solid", the third person wales it with the beater.

There are two criteria for how much slugging is needed. If it is possible, an engineer (such as myself), will calculate the "stretch" of the studbolt to produce a given clamping force. Measurements are taken with micrometers or dial indicators once the bolt is snugged. Then, it is slugged and measurements taken again until the required "stretch" is had. The other method is "ring of the wrench", how the wrench rings and how the hammer feels.

Nowadays, slugging and using heavy "cheaters" (pipe extensions) on wrench handles is vanishing. Hydraulic wrenching systems make "breaking" or "making up" big bolting an easy and consistent proposition. I've worked many tubine overhauls where we slugged, and it wore out even the strongest people. We used to rotate the three people, so each took a turn holding the rope while the next person took a turn swinging the sledge. I've seen mechanics and millwrights of all shapes and sizes take their turn slugging. On one turbine overhaul, we had millwrights whose average age was over 65. I was in my 40's at the time. As engineer running the job, I was not supposed to handle the tools. I saw the older men wearing themselves out, so I used to take a turn slugging to give them a rest.

Turbine work is special- the parts are huge, but the degree of accuracy is quite tight. Even those old units would be built to tolerances down in the thousandths of an inch. A human hair is about 0.0015", paper is about 0.,004", so big as those parts are, that is how accurate the work is. A misplace blow of the sledgte can do untold harm when you are working on the turbine or generator, massive as they may be.

You've seen some of the wrenches, but you've not seen the "rigging" to take a unit apart and put it together. The cable slings and shackles even for these smaller old units are bigger than what most people might be used to. Makes the wire rope and hook on a tow truck winch look like a light fishing line.

The desk is the chief operator or shift supervisor's desk. The instrument with the white dial and single pointer sticking out from the switchboard face is the "synchroscope". It was used to "synchronize" a generator to "parallel" it into the grid. AC power makes a sine wave, and if the sine wave of the power made by a generator does not line up with the sine wave made by the grid power, the generator is "out of phase" with the grid. The grid would try to force the generator into phase and usually destroy the generator and alot more in the process. Synching a unit required adjusting the governor so the unit was in phase- the synchroscope needle would linger at "12:00" when in phase. Youa lways made sure the needle on the 'scope was moving in a "fast" direction ( it has a slow and fast direction). This insured no reverse current from the grid would try to motorize the generator when you closed the generator breaker. Done it a number of times, and you have to be quick. You have one hand on the speed control switch (which works a small motor down on the governor to raise or lower speed), one hand on the breaker, and you also adjust generator field voltage. Once the unit is "on line", you load it from right at the "board".

In any powerplant, you never just walk up and touch any controls. You assume all circuits are live and all equipment can move or start unless you see that it has been locked/tagged out and electrical equipment and conductors have to have grounding cables hung. If you are in someone else;'s plant, unless you have some specific work to do, you touch nothing short of maybe doorknobs and perhaps the water cooler or a cup of coffee. Just because some piece of equipment looks dead, in a running plant, there is a chance of induced voltages, so you treat everything as if it were "live".

I know when I go into the control room at our plant, following an overhaul, to "give back the unit" (release it for return to service), I stand at attention and shake the senior operator's hand. It's a kind of tradition that when an engineer "gives back the unit", you stand at attention and shake hands with the operators and thank them. You "release" your clearance (the formal lock out /tag out), go over the record of all the grounds , and all other records of the clearance. The grounds are cables temporarily place on the electrical equipment and out in the switchyard to groudn things so no stray currents or induced voltages can find their way into the equipment while people are working on it or literally in it. When you and the senior operator are done with that last verification, you have "given back the unit". The senior stands up and shakes your hand and thanks you for a good overhaul. You go "down below" to the crew and tell them you've released your clearance and you thank them- they thank you as well. When you are an engineer in a hydro plant and you are assigned to "hold a clearance", you are responsible for the lives and safety of anyone working on the equipment within your clearance. You rely on the senior operator and he sends out operators from the control room to do the switiching and tag things out. You check each tag and you check with the senior operator steadily. Usually, an overhaul finishes late at night, when the senior can get permission to bring a unit into the grid for testing. It seems like you've finished a journey when you walk into the control room to "give back the unit". You feel a little lost, as for the past period of time, your whole work has been the overhaul and the clearance and it had taken on a life of it's own. When you go to the control to give back the unit, no matter how many times you've done it, it carries a nice weight to it. Seeing this old control room makes me realize power plant people are a strict and proud lot, bound by a sense of responsibility that touches people at the furthest reaches of the grid.

Thank you for all the information about the machinery - the amount of ingenuity, precision, and reverence put into these old generating stations is astounding.