I knew about the Fisk Generating Station because it was an early one built by ComEd, and Samuel Insull pushed General Electric to build a turbine that was significantly bigger than any they had built so far (5000hp). The fact that it is still standing is another reason I know about it. ComEd built their fourth plant about 6 miles northwest of downtown.
(Update: see Avondale Yard for more information on how ComEd interchanged coal cars with C&NW.)
Only the left (south) half of the planned complex was built. It had three units, each with a 20,000hp turbine. The north part of the property appears to have been used for an office building that still exists (street view).
Near the lower-left corner of the above 1938 photo, we see an overpass over Elston Avenue. This is the beginning of a double-track elevated railroad that ComEd built west to the C&NW railroad. It was an electrified railroad that used 500v DC (600v according to another source). It had a yard on the west side to store incoming coal and equipment cars and outbound ash cars. It "took its own medicine" by buying its DC electricity from the nearby Chicago Railways power plant. [RailwayPreservation-Railroad] 60-ton locomotive #4 is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.
Brian Morgan posted two images with the comment:
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| 1910 rendering showing option for second generating plant. Illustration from "Central Station Electric Service: its Commercial Development and Economic Significance as Set Forth in the Public Addresses of Samuel Insull", from RailwayPreservation |
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
Electric Railroad
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| 1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP |
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| The map no longer exists |
Brian Morgan posted two images with the comment:
Commonwealth Edison RailroadBrief History:Chicago's only electric railroad with underrunning third rail was a sister of the other third rail lines: It was owned by the Commonwealth Edison Company, keystone of the Insull empire. The railroad--for freight only--supplied an electric generating station on the city's Northwest Side. Edison operated the railroad with its own employees.The third rail was modeled after the Grand Central Terminal electrification of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad at New York city. Specially shaped rail was supported by brackets and shielded from contact by a wooden cover. Spring-loaded third rail shoes ran along the bottom surface of the rail.Although near an existing power plant of the streetcar system, the Northwest generating station was a new, state-of-the-art facility when the railroad opened. But electric utility technology continually changes. The plant, by then obsolescent, was closed about 1970. The tracks (but not the third rail) remained in the mid-1980s. Today the trestle over Kimball Avenue carries the tail track of a Union Pacific Railroad freight yard; all the line's other track has been removed.The electric locomotives picked up cars of coal (occasionally other material) from the Chicago & North Western Railway near there, took them to the generating station, and switched them inside the fence. If you took the Chicago Motor Coach to Cubs games, you may have seen them from the top deck of Addison Street buses.The Edison railroad added its last electric locomotive in 1948 with the purchase of a small steeple-cab from the North Shore Line.Built to last, steel bridges carried the railroad over all the intersecting streets (including Kedzie and Elston with car lines) and even over all the alleys. Ironically, the surviving bridge was the only "temporary" one. In later years a single public grade crossing was created when the city cut California Avenue through the grounds of the plant.With no 500v dc supply initially, the Edison company bought power from the Chicago Railways Company! Later, Edison installed a substation to supply the railroad but still maintained connections for standby use of streetcar power.Quick Facts:When it ran: 1912-circa 1970Miles of line: 1Number of electric locomotives (1948): 4
Jeff Delhaye: ComEd 4 has been at IRM for many years.
Junior Farmer: ComEd donated the rail and bridges of that plant to the Illinois Railway Museum for us to use in a trade to a scrap company for the Chicago and North Western wrecking crane 6363 that they were going to scrap .
Andre Kristopans: By 60s used an SW1 to haul coal from dock across California to coal pile. Rest inactive with lots of vegetation.
Daniel Boylan: Andre Kristopans IRM has that SW-1 also
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| Steven Cobb commented on Brian's post Map of railway |
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| Steven Cobb commented on Brian's post 1912 Photo |
Excitation Current
Steam Piston Driven Auxiliaries
The condenser of each unit is fed by a 36-in centrifugal pump, which is driven at 120 rpm by a 20-in x 30-in Corliss engine. The pump can circulate 40,000 gallons of cooling water per minute against a 20-ft head. The water is drawn from the North Branch and discharged 450 ft. downstream. I normally would not bother to discuss a pump, but note that in a plant full of General Electric equipment they are using a 19th Century era piston driven steam engine. Of course, this engine does have a lot of steam power available with 10 boilers generating steam for the primary turbine.
The turbine is mounted vertically with the generator on top. The end of the shaft holding almost 100 tons of rotating mass rests on an oil bearing. The oil is supplied "under a pressure of 1200 lb. per square inch by a pair of duplex double-acting steam driven pumps, 12-in x 3-in x 18-in of 30-gallon capacity."
[RailwayPrservation-Station]
High-Voltage Testing
A very important part of the auxiliary electrical equipment is the high-voltage testing set. It consists of a 200-hp, 220v, three-phase motor with compensator starter, driving a 500kva, 300v, three-phase generator with a 12-kw exciter and a 500kva transformer for raising the voltage to 20,0000, 40,000 or 60,000. There is also a bank of three resistors, each of 5.4 ohms resistance and 1012 amp capacity, and three variable-resistance shunts. The testing set is used for locating cable faults [RailwayPrservation-Station]
Two things caught my eye. Were the piston-driven steam engines needed for the pumps because they required more than 200hp? The voltages are low by today's standards, but this 1912 plant was delivering just 9,000v from the regular transformers. It also raises the question of how do you locate cable faults with voltages up to almost 7 times the designed voltage? Increase the voltage until the problem area melts and then the problem becomes obvious?
Update:
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| Terry Pawelko posted [Riverview Park] I loved the Shoots Christine Opalecky Commonwealth Edison generating Station in background |
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| 1952 It is interesting how the size and number of smokestacks changes over the years. |
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| MWRD posted The North Branch of the Chicago River, looking north from the west side of the Belmont Avenue Bridge, showing boats and a ship repair yard on May 27, 1920. Charles M. LaBow: Also, in the distance, the smokestacks of the Commonwealth Edison, Northwestern Generating Station and the lift structure of the Shoot-the-Chutes at Riverview Park. |
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| MWRD posted The North Branch of the Chicago River, looking north from the west side of the Belmont Avenue bridge showing a shipyard and boats on October 8, 1925. [The Grebe Shipyard is along the left bank.] |
Paul Musselman posted four photos with the comment: "Some shots of the Com Ed line that used to run from the CNW down to the plant on California and Addison."
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| 1 Wooden trestle over Kimball Ave......main CNW line to right, CNW yard in distance.... |
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| 2 Just at the point where this track curves right, there was a switch going left, which went along an embankment east, and ended up at the Com Ed. yard on California... |
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| 3 The wooden trestle over Kimball.... Junior Farmer: This bridge had wood bents and Stringer approaches with the center being made from 2 tall I beams with wood bridge stringers sitting on their bottom flanges Ninety Degrees to the tracks. When I stood on the walkway as an engine went over it back and forth switching ,the walkway would raise up and down like waves with every Stringer flexing quite a bit under the wheels of the engine. Even though I was with Bridge and Building at the time, it was quite disturbing . |
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| 4 This is the point where the line came down and went into the Com Ed yard...there was a lead going across California to the east yard when the tracks were being used....also a line running along Addison at one point...I always thought this was an overhead trolley system, but it seems it was a third rail collection system. |
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| Bob Kalal commented on Photo 2 1999 |
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| Harold J. Krewer commented on Paul's comment on Photo 4 Yes, it was all third rail. The ComEd 4 steeplecab at IRM was one of two motors (4 and 5) assigned to this plant. Here is her builder's photo at GE, fitted with a pantograph for testing. She still has all the piping and appliances to operate a pantograph if desired. Photo from the John Smatlak collection. Scott Greig: One of only three GE steeplecabs like this, with the articulated trucks. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Paul's post Brian A Morgan has posted a history of the underrunning third rail electric railroad that ComEd built to the C&NW as part of their plant: This overview map is from that post. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Paul's post Steven Cobb provided a detailed map as a comment on Brian's post. |
About High Voltage cable testing. I used an old TAKK test set when I worked for GE. I would test in 2 to 5 KV steps and read the leakage current. If current too high, I would stop the test before damaging the cable, the customer could still use the cable but plan to replace it. I rescued the test set when GE closed our shop in 94. Here is a link to it in operation https://youtu.be/i5J2GKnERgI
ReplyDeleteinteresting plant with it's short line railroad.
ReplyDelete