Engineering calculations
before the transistor.

Side View
R.D. Wood
Triple Expansion
Crank & Flywheel
Water Pumping
Steam Engine

Front View

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Surface Condenser
R.D. Wood Engines

 
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Dual Chamber Vacuum
Dashpot  

 
Stirling 4-drum
Water-Tube Boiler
with
American Underfeed Stoker
3-Steam Drums, 1-Mud Drum

 
Stirling 4-Drum
Water-Tube Boiler

 
American Underfeed Stoker

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Exhaust Heater

 
85 inch Buffalo Forge stack draught fan with direct drive Buffalo Forge engine  

 
Berryman Feed Water Heater
and grease separator for support engines  

 
Wheeler Surface Condenser fitted with a
 Mullan Valveless Air Pump
for the support engines

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H.R. Worthington
Feed Water Pump
for support engines Click to expand

One of 7 Poppet Valve Cages
40 Valves/Cage
in each of two
assemblies for each
 of three pumps

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Pump Poppet Valve Assembly
7 cages @ 40 valves/cage

 
Pump Valve Assembly  Base

 
Water Pump Poppet Valve

Camden Iron Works, Camden, NJ
Holly Mfg., Lockport, NY
E. P. Allis Co. Milwaukee, WI
Kilby Mfg. Co. Cleveland, OH

Start engine procedure:*

1. Preheat engine setting jacket steam and re-heater steam to 65 p.s.i.g.
2. Begin oil drips 10-15 minutes prior to starting.
3. Open engine drains to bypass steam traps.
4. Adjust air pressure in both the suction and the discharge force chambers.
5. Load the water pumps using the bypass source until about 65 p.s.i.g.
6. Open the main water inlet valve prior to opening main discharge valve. Later on cone valves replaced the gate valves and required verification of 200 p.s.i.g. water pressure for cone valve operation.
7. Set governor to lowest speed
   Roll engine by:
8. Charging the first receiver to 30 p.s.i.g. steam.
9. Slowly apply process steam to the HP cylinder until about -7 p.s.i.g. is achieved in the condenser and throttle back until the condenser achieves -13 p.s.i.g., and the governor has kicked in.
10. If the HP piston is at dead center for crank-end or head-end, the overhead crane is used to nudge the flywheel off dead center.
11. Close bypass to first receiver and adjust to about 22-24 p.s.i.g.
12. Close drains and check for about -5 p.s.i.g. in the second receiver.
13. Slowly bring engine to operating speed.
14. Check dashpots and valves for proper operation
15. In case of trouble or emergency, knock out the vacuum breaker and the engine will immediately stop.

Stopping the engine in normal operating conditions required skill and practice to prevent the HP cylinder from ending at TDC.

* Starting procedure from Stationary Engineer Jim Hoctor Sr. operating notes and input from Paul Kraus.

In addition, two Wheeler surface condensers each equipped with a Mullan air pump were in the boiler room to handle the exhaust steam from the ancillary engines

Pumps

Boilers

Fourteen inch pipe delivers steam to the engine room arranged to use either saturated or super-heated steam and branches into two lines with two engines taking steam from each branch.

Exhaust steam from the LP cylinder flows through the exhaust heater into the condenser. The air pump removed air, oxygen, CO2 and uncondensed steam from the condensate chamber while maintaining a near perfect vacuum (-13.8 psig) in the chamber.

Foster super-heater: is a drawn steel tube with cast iron radial fins heat shrunk onto the tubing and allows better heat transfer from boiler gases to steam than tubing without fins. The foster Super-heater added 100°F to the steam temperature and contributed another 200 HP

Auxiliary Hearer: exhaust steam from the ancillary engines flowed through a Berryman type boiler feed water heater and grease separator prior to entering the Green Economizer.

Boiler feed water originated in the hot well for the surface condenser and was collected in dual condensate storage tanks where the boiler feed pump attached to the main engine takes suction. From there water was forced by the attached feed pump through the exhaust heater, through the deaerating plant, through the auxiliary heater and through the Green economizer into the boiler. Water from the softening and deaerating plant was 92°F, increased to 142°F from the exhaust heater and left the economizer at 200°F.  Deaerating plant installed in 1922

*Oolitic dimensioned limestone = grain size .25-2mm

**Vitrified Tile is a tile is created by the Vitrification manufacturing process which has very low porosity and water absorption, making it stain-resistant and strong.

Forced draught was provided by two 8 inch by 10 inch Buffalo Forge Co. engines each direct driving an 85 inch Buffalo Forge Co. fan , nominal R.P.M., 200.

An elevated steel building supported by steel columns, 69 foot X 225 foot kept the coal dry during periods of high water and provided sufficient coal storage for periods of low river level. 7,980 tons were stored in 114 elevated pocket hoppers each holding 70 tons, and equipped with a coal spout valve leaving 6 1/2 feet of head room above the narrow gauge tracks running lengthwise underneath the pocket hoppers.

Coal was originally received by barge and occasionally by truck in the later days. A railroad siding had been extended to the coal bunkers to provide for rail delivery, but never use for that purpose.

Coal was elevated from river barges via a dual narrow gauge rail system installed from low river water level to the top of the three story coal hoisting house using a steam hoist cable pull for dual two ton capacity steel dump cars (one traveled up while the other returned to river's edge) and deposited onto a cross belt conveyor, and distributed by means of shuttle belt conveyors to the 114 pocket hoppers.

1924, an overhead rail suspended hopper system called the "Lorry" delivered coal to each stoker hopper and was supplied by a coal hoist in a new three story poured concrete lifting house at the front of the boiler house.

Built by F. H. Kirchner & Co., of Cincinnati, the circular tapered, below grade wall, is 98 feet inside diameter and 85 foot high, using circular sawed Oolitic dimensioned Bedford Limestone* fifteen feet thick at the bottom and four feet thick at the top with the inside face being plumb and fine-pointed.

The above grade masonry uses a Romanesque Revival architectural style with rock faced Oolitic dimensioned Bedford limestone, and the inside lined with Tiffney white enameled brick. Vitrified* "S" tile covers the conical roof

Three units, each consisting of a DeLaval steam turbine driving two 75 KW, 4 pole Crocker Wheeler, 230 volt direct current generators provided electricity to both river station and the filtration/treatment plant.

Warner Elevator Manufacturing Company from Cincinnati, Ohio provided a 2,500 lb. capacity, 230 Vdc motor driven elevator that traveled between the engine operating floor level and the pump pit floor level.

Two spiral stair cases extended from the pit floor to the eccentric deck. A railed staircase extends from the engine floor to the wheel deck. The railing for all stairs and elevated walkways was bright work polished brass.

From the Morgan Engineering Company, Alliance Ohio, provided a 3 motor circular traveling radial crane with a span of 49 feet 6 inches and a 30 ton lift of 110 feet. The electric motors use Morgan controllers with adjustable speed and direction controls. All motors are 230 Vdc and included a 30 HP hoisting motor, a 25 HP a bridge motor and a 5 HP trolley motor. The crane was ordered on April 26, 1901 by the Camden Iron works and shipped to the California, Ohio facility on November 18, 1903.

Design of the engine and its pumps allowed every principal part to be reached and removed by the overhead hoisting crane without disturbing any other part of the machinery.

Each eight hour shift maintained a minimum staffing of one licensed stationary engineer, four oilers, one licensed fireman, two coal-passers, and an assistant Chief Engineer. Daily staffing include a clerk, one machinist and helper, one boiler cleaner, one locomotive operator, a janitor, and three or four grounds keepers..