Andy Frazer wrote...
That looks like an amazing room! I like the red light on the spokey wheel.

lens flare wrote...
Great lighting of this very cool scene.

Sean wrote...
This is an awesome looking room

Robert or you can call me Bob wrote...
Oh man !!!!!!!! This is just too much for me ! Man I love this shot ! Nothing beats good old machinery ;-)

Jonathan Haeber wrote...
HA HA. Thanks Bob, Sean, Steve, and Andy. I'm getting this name thing down quickly, eh?

lens flare wrote...
Yeah, but you've revealed our true identities! :-)

David Semon wrote...
Interesting shot!! This was my first duty station out of USAF tech school in Jan. 1973. I have worked many 8 hour shifts here and can tell some stories about this power plant in the year and a half I worked here before transfering to Pisa, Italy

Jonathan Haeber wrote...
dpsemon: I would LOVE to hear the stories!

David Semon wrote...
Unit #4 (the orange "spokey wheel" pulley) Some years before I arrived had a crankcase explosion. I was told the on duty operator went out to the unit to do a pre-start checkout - check oil level, water level, leaks, etc., opened the blowoff valves on the cylinder heads, hit start in the control room and let the engine turn over about 4 times, then hit stop (to clear the cylinders of any liquid (fuel) that might have leaked in while shutdown). Closed the blowoff valves, and did a normal startup, let the engine run about 10 minutes and put it online with the other generator that was already running to share the load. He went outside the control room to do another check - walked around the unit, walked back inside the control room then BOOM! Oil had sprayed everywhere around the unit. Rocker cover on cylinder 3 & 4 were blown across the plant, 2 & 5 were nearby and 1 & 6 were bent but still on top of the unit. The repair team found main bearing #4 (middle of crankshaft) had shifted out of position causing oil flow to be cut off and the bearing to overheat and ignite the crankcase vapor. Unit 4 was repaired but still had issues and was never used again, evidenced by the silver paint still on the exhaust silencer (muffler) outside

upshift wrote...
Awsome story! So that's the reason why it's so clean! BTW, I photographed the AAFS Reunion back in Sept, 2006. Were you there? I have photos for you if you weren't.

David Semon wrote...
I wish I could have been there but I didn't know about it and work commitments would have kept me here anyway. I signed up as alumni for Almaden AFS and Key West NAS Radar site (fantastic sunsets) on radomes.org. I would appreciate the pics, I also have a recording of unit #2 starting and stopping as an mp3 file 866kb 2 minutes long if you might be interested

David Semon wrote...
For those that don't know how generators work, the engine of course turns the alternator (in this case 514 RPM) and the large orange pulley. Belts in turn drive the smaller pulley on the excitor (the motor looking thing, actually a DC generator) that with a Silverstat Regulator controls electric current fed to the main rotor. The rotating magnetic field induces 4,160 volts 3 phase power at up to 800,000 watts. High tech for 1957 - no electronics, all mechanical controls.

upshift wrote...
Having some EE classes under my belt (got 9 classes away from graduating before switching majors in college), I can truly apprecaite the sheer enormity of that power for 1957 standards. Did they ever update that technology in any way over the years? (seeing how it was 23 years that the station was in operation)

David Semon wrote...
I think the plant stayed the same the whole time it was operational. It was very reliable, and if it works, don't fix it. Now days by the time your home computer gets on the shelf, it's already out of date before you buy it. With EE background you can understand what is in the plant, but you have to think in mid 1950's terms. The plant controls ran off of 130 VDC from the battery bank to the left of the office (got pic) and was the only power we had when we had a dead plant condition (no engines running)

Runner wrote...
This brilliant photo is like a shooting star, extraordinary! SHINING☆STAR - Post 1- Invite 1- Give 5 Stars Please consider posting this picture into this group, thanks!!