832 Comments for Westport Generating Station

Adam is right. They are the throttle valves for the steam turbine that open in a set sequence, depending on the "load" that the unit is carrying at the time. The springs help to keep the valves closed tightly and keep them from vibrating when opened and admitting steam to the turbine. There is a valve gear arrangement that would be used to open and close these valves. The setup varies with the manufacturer of the turbine, each one is different.

Hydrogen gas was put into the generator to help cool it and carry off the heat from generating electricity. The generator is normally all sealed up unlike the preceding open picture of the generator. This hydrogen gas is then cooled with heat exchangers,(hydrogen coolers), that are either in each side or end of the generator. This keeps everything cooler so the generator and all associated parts and windings don't melt down. I know that hydrogen gas is highly flammable, but in the generator casing it is kept at 99.5% purity, so it will not ignite without oxygen in it.

This is the generator stator winding end turns and the rotor is in the middle,(part that spins and is fed the DC current and breaks the lines of magnetism thereby inducing a voltage in the stator windings),(whew, a mouthful). Anyway, what you see as the black specks is old dry insulation that has deteriorated and fell off of the windings. Also, you might see some fiberglass fibers that has fallen off of the winding ties that you see that hold the windings from being loose and vibrating. The red color is the varnish insulating paint that covers the windings to insulate them. Hope this helps to explain a little more about the construction of a generator and power plant workings.

Interesting side dumping cars, Made of wood too !
Perhaps a spark reduction feature.

I DO!

Creeeeeeepy....

Yeah, it's a fire extinguisher. The skinny cylinder is a compressed air bottle. The fat red one holds water (that gets shot out by the compressed air).

This motor-generator set looks as if it might be one of the rotary frequency converters put in to allow the use of 25 Hz AC (for distribution to DC streetcar substations) on the regular grid. I used to work at the Pratt Street Station (Hard Rock Café) and everything we generated (25 Mw @ 25 Hz) got sent to the Westport "freq house" to make it usable. There should have been a few more of these in that room. No?

We're looking at the business end of a couple of what were probably some of the original boilers in this plant—since the place goes back almost to the beginning of the 20th Century. The machinery above the "pond" is the sets of stokers. These are a system of rams that push raw crushed lumps of coal into the bottom of the boiler where they are burned in a bed of fuel above a set of air grates called tuyères. You can see the chutes above them that feed fuel from the bunkers way above into the hoppers. The motor that runs the rams (they look like engine crankshaft bearings) is missing. It used to be up on what looks like a small balcony in the upper right portion of the picture. You can see the belt housing that runs down to the boiler floor and connects to another set of pulleys that run the shaft connected to the gear boxes (the rounded covers with rectangular plates facing out). I believe (but I'm not sure) that the hand wheels with the round cutouts control the speed of the rams or the depth of the pushers to regulate how fast the the fuel is admitted. As for the toxicity of the water—not very. It is algae and probably cyanobacteria making it green. If it were deep enough guppies would be happy to live there. Oh yeah, I used to work for BG&E in the 70s. I was up at the Pratt Street Station which now houses a Hard Rock Café. Thanks for the great pictures. I always wanted to see the Westport Station but never got placed there because it was on its way out even then.

... and yet another smashed light hood!

I've read a couple of comments referring to this as a rheostat, which it is... kind of. I believe this was a frequency modifier, used to "phase" the old 25 Hz system with the newer 60 Hz system. "R" and "L" would be moving the sine wave to the left or right of 360 degrees. Absolutely the best urbex stuff I've ever seen.

Low pressure hall?

About halfway down on the right of the belt; anyone else see the face in the girder plate?

@Mitch A

You'll get electrocuted

Amazing shot, this place must have been locked down pretty tight or completely forgotten for it to remain so untouched by vandals and such...

I've looked and looked, don't see anything.