Farm coal wharf electric service

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Abram,

Mr. Gordon's images reveal clues that may address some of your 
questions, and as far as I know:

Yes, generally, the N&W distribution line was 4.4kV, 60Hz, 3-phase, 
carried on #4 copper. Service step-down transformers provided 220V for 
pneumatic switch machine compressors and 110V for signal and track 
circuits. I don't know time frame or details, but power was initially 
"home-made," augmented, then replaced by utility feeds. From Mason 
Cooper's /Norfolk & Western Electrics/, the Bluestone powerhouse had a 
separate steam turbine/generator to supply 4.4kV, 60Hz for the pole line.

Regarding the hoist motor and utility feeds, note in the 2177 shot the 
pole line coming from the right edge to a pole between the wharf and 
white shed, and ending at a pole between the near and distant signals. A 
tighter shot of this scene without the train reveals details that would 
suggest this is an APCo distribution line of probably 12kV – 14kV. At 
the last pole is a platform of three single-phase, step-down 
transformers with breakers on the primaries. The APCo line voltage would 
be stepped down to 4.4kV on the secondaries, then wye immediately into 
two legs: one up to the top of the hoist house, presumably stepped down 
to 440V and then to the hoist motor control; the other leg off the left 
edge of the frame, presumably to supply the pole line.

The insulators atop the pole to the left of the engine appear to include 
a loadbreak switch in the distribution line, three switches ganged 
together by that horizontal metal bar, to isolate Farm from the next 
power district to the east.

Spoke with a lineman who hired in 1940 and transferred to the Car Dept 
in Bluefield when the electrification was scrapped in 1950. An aside, he 
confirmed accounts of runaways out of Bluefield Yard. The yard profile 
looks like this /\ and the strays would derail east at Jug Neck or west 
at Flat Top.

Grant Carpenter

On 9/4/2023 11:51 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
> Redux that nice photograph of a Y6 at the Farm Coal Wharf, posted by Cardinal O'Dalton...
>
> Check out that pole line showing immediately to the left of the engine. It sports a top cross arm with three large insulators on it. I surmise that arm is carrying 440 Volt 3-Phase for the electric motor(s?) on the coal elevator. Was that juice bought from the electric utility, or home-made?
>
> It would be interesting to know if the N&W powerhouses along the Pokie Div were equipped to turn out 60 cycle current for applications like this one (electric motors,) or whether they churned out only 25 cycle (okay, "Hertz" for modern people) electric traction current.
>
> We know the N&W hung AC power on much of the pole line across its system, not for motoring current but for track circuits and signal lighting. I think that was juice for the signal system, although it would certainly have been useable for station lighting, when transformed down. What voltage was carried on the pole line distribution for that current (220v ?) and what wire size was used (#0 or #00 Copper, perhaps ?)  Think Big:  one certain railroad, a few hundred miles north of the N&W, shipped 6,600 v AC along its R/W to drive motor generator ("MG") sets every 40 miles or so, and the output of the MG sets powered the track circuits, signal lighting, electro-mechanical interlocking plants, and drove the compressors which provided air for the operation of its pneumatic switch machines.  That particular railroad's theory was to divorce itself from dependence on any public utility as much as possible.
>
> I also have to wonder what happened to all the N&W's ET (electric traction) staff and workers when the N&W "de-juiceified" its catenary wires...
>
> Until the 1860s, experimenters and scientists called this stuff "the Galvanic Fluid," which is probably the source of our term "juice" for electricity.
>
> So many questions for which answers were easily obtainable 60 years ago, but I, for one, never thought to ask.  Or more probably, most of us just did not yet have sufficient cognitive context even to think of the questions.  Ten year olds do not think theoretically, or about causation.  Too late now, ain't it... ?
>
>          -- Abram MacBurnit,
> of the Scottish Highland Turnip Clan
>
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