Power Plant Tour, Sidney, Nebraska
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- #Powerplant#DieselPower
I get a tour of the Sidney, Nebraska power plant. The power plant was first started in 1906 using a Steam Engine generating DC power. Then it was converted to Diesel and AC generation. The newest Engine is a Nordberg installed in about 1956. They have two Fairbanks Morse, two Nordberg and a Fulton Iron Works engines. The plant is used for emergency power now. They are capable of starting from a complete black out. For additional photos check out the city website, www.cityofsidne...
Enjoy the short tour.
Thanks to the City of Sidney, Nebraska, Mike Palmer and Jeff Thompson. The Tour was wonderful and I hope to visit again.
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I was a electronics major in college but joining the Air Force they put me in power production. Worked in a Titan I underground missile site in South Dakota. Our site had 4 Nordburg diesels 1000 hp each driving a 2800V generator. Took care, maintained and overhauled these diesels. What I most like about these engines is that all parts were huge. Head bolts were 4" and we had a hyd press to loosen them. Each head was removed via an overhead crane. Was quite an experience. We had lots of problems with the water composition in So Dakota. Thanks for the video.
I can hear the sweet sound of a Detroit in the background some where.
👍👍👍
I could spend all day in a place like that, love all those vintage motors, nothing is built as redundant as those were , thanks for sharing
I love the FM diesel I run a locomotive with one in it, an H-12-44 built for the US army in 1953 at the Golden gate railroad
Fascinating, thanks for the tour. I ran a pair of FM 12 cly OP's in Alaska for a while, Very reliable. My father also announced the Sydney Rodeo for many years but I never new there was a powerhouse in town.
Thank you Jack glad you enjoyed.
If they decide to get rid of that first FM motor I would take it. That would be fun to use for 3 phase power for my shop, no limit to the size electric motors I could run then! :-)
I will have to let them know. You couldn't afford the fuel bill.
Covert it to natural gas and it's cheaper. Still make parts for them
Randy Richard In The Shop He could run it on corn whiskey....
Thanks for the excellent tour-----!"
No problem it was fun.
Very cool , kid's in school should be watching these videos , so they can appreciate what it takes to charge their tablets and keep the TV running !
Oh yeah. Very few realize how the major part of all power is generated.
Reminds me of my career in the Air Force from 1970-1990 where for 10 of those years I managed, operated and maintained Diesel-electric power plants at Vandenberg AFB,CA; Minuteman Missile sites in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming; Sparrevohn AFS, AK; Pirinclik AFS, Diyarbakir Turkey; and Levkas AFS , Greece.
nice. Yep for sure, plugs in and and it can be nap time. Thanks Ken.
In the 70s many off those older engines were still in use back from the 1920s - there still some Fairbanks 32s in service in this country - many 1000s were sold to contractors that set them up on islands and down in south America - I had worked for Colt at one time they make FM engines -
New steam plant turbines and gas Turbines only have a 3;1 or 4:1fuel effficency we're as the older 2 cycle 32s had a 20:1 fuel effficency - some of the 4 cycle slow speed engines had a 27:1 effficency - they used oil as a coolant and ran at 250° - they run far more efficient at high tempeture's - at 277 RPMs there is time to burn all the fuel
Between the high tempeture's and speed there very efficient
Hey Randy, great tour. I worked on superior and cooper bessemers mostly. also a lot of fairbanks opposed piston . Its somethng to see the size of these engines . now there 1/4 the size per H.P.. But I absolutely loved the slow speed direct reversibles I worked on as a young towboat engineer . I remember well flowing the old jerk injection pumps on the superiors to time them. they looked just like the nordberg pumps you were showing. good memories. If you ever run slow speed diesel youll never enjoy running high speed stuff. different world. But those days are long gone . I can still remember running up the ohio river going to sleep to the rythm of them great old engines. boo hoo think im gonna cry. lol thanks again Mr. Richards for all you do to teach us dummies. Dennis Lee : chief engineer on towboats for 25 years then got neuropathy. fun fun fun
Dennis, Thank you for watching. You got all that right. I think you are the only one I know of who has done something similar and the same as I did in our previous life. That watch and at least comments.
I would watch the big tow boats pushing rafts of barges up the Big Miss, as we sat and discharged and loaded at the Exxon, Baton Rouge dock. It was great back then but the world sure has changed. Thank you again for the great comment.
I relate.
As I work on Waukesha VHP, F18 and Cooper superiors. 27 years so far. Still running
Excellent tour of a Midwest power plant.Have seen similar plants in Yankton,S.Dak,Vermillion,S.Dak.Those plants are now used for peaking.The switchgear panels are the circuit breakers for each genset.I work at a VOA Greenville,NC transmitter site-short wave 250-500Kw transmitters.Site runs from commercial power.The overseas VOA plants run from Diesel generator plants like what you showed.Nordberg is a common engine they used along with new Catrerpillar.The breaker panels at our site are now new-sued to be GE. Now Powell Electric.They control power to each transmitter-those run from 4160V.The plant you showed would just barely run the site I am in .Imagine the town of Sidney is on a grid and they may need more power than what this can provide.Again a good cloesup tour!
Thank you Rex.
thanks for the tour randy. I can almost smell that place, and hear the old guys footsteps on the tiles.
Yes I agree. I wish they still had the steam engine. fun Tour.
Nice, informative tour! In our town, we have a similar backup system, which I got a brief tour of one day during their annual open house...The front (of the bldg.) engines featured a 1941 ex-submarine Fairbanks-Morse 38D8-1/8, running on diesel, two more modern F-M "Enviro-Tech" 12-cylinders, natural gas-fueled, but using a diesel "pilot" combustion chamber (I think), instead of spark ignition; these were turbocharged. Also, a V-12 Waukesha gas-fueled, w/ spark ignition. In the rear of the bldg. were two F-M 31A18s, one 10-cyl., one 12, burning diesel, and scavenged by similar electric blowers as your Nordberg, mounted in the bsmt. These monsters turn at 277 RPM, requiring an unusual alternator to get 60 cycle power. In between these was a 4-stroke, V-16, turbocharged Cooper Bessemer diesel. None were running that day, of course, but I've been by the bldg. when they were up and running; the loudest seemed to be the turbocharged "Envirotechs", while the big ones at the back produce an almost-ground-shaking rumble. The exhausts are clean, owing to soot traps/scrubbers.
I asked about how long it takes to get the plant on-line and supplying power, in case of a city-wide outage; the engineer there explained it took about five hours to isolate the city from the main grid before this plant could be brought on line. I think one of the main reasons it's still there, and active, is we have a major FAA ATC facility in town...
Fascinating stuff; great video!
Thank you Craig. Nice tour you had. Sidney uses their plant as a backup if the grid goes down also.
Many of those smaller Z engines are still in service on private small bore wells the 25 hp z engines have been changed out with arrow or Ajax heavy engines
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Our GP9 uses a Woodward governor also
In the navy I worked on mostly Cooper Bessemer diesels maybe in Grove City Pa. Good reliable engines.The best were six cylinder in lines that made about 600 Hp. At 300 Rpm.
Nice, Thanks.
Excellent video! Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Nordberg, K & T, Bucyrus Erie, Harnishfeger... a lot ob big stuff came out of Milwaukee. Nice video.
Lots of great engines.
Thanks for the tour. I grew up in a small town not far from the city diesel plant. At night when things were quiet you could hear those massive engines working, definitely the sound of power! They repurposed the building and sold the engines off some time ago, I wish I had been able to tour it before that. It's great that you recorded this site, who knows how much longer it'll be around. Hopefully you can go back sometime when they have them running.
Thanks Ron. Great tour. I hope to get to see them run one day, I plan on staying in contact so that can happen.
Nice video. A lot of small towns all had generators at one time. I can hear the trains passing in the back ground.
Thank you Leigh, fun tour, lots of trains pass through Sidney.
In the 70s there were still 1000s of small town power plants in the US that used large stationery generators -:
That was a pretty cool tour. Wonderful machines. Thank you very much!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Randy,
Interesting to see all of this great old machinery... well, kind of old.
Hope the new baby is doing well.
Go Big Red.
Joe
Thanks Joe. No baby yet, Monday will be the birthday if not sooner.
Very nice tour. I love seeing this older equipment still being maintained, warm, and ready to turn and burn!
I’d really like to see these engines run. What an opportunity you had!
Thanks for sharing and filming this.
And thanks to the owners/maintainers to allow this. What a rare treat. 👍🏼
Yes this was a great tour to see the engines. Thanks for stopping in.
Love this video. It's the first large engine video I've seen where the presenter was not only knowledgeable but good at pointing things. I learned more from this excellent tour than I've learned from a dozen similar ones! Very informative, and enjoyable!
Thank you.
Thanks for the tour.
Thanks for stopping in Ryan.
Thanks for the tour, one of these days I'll find time to get up there.
Jeff gave me a great tour. Email Mike Palmer from the City web site and just set up the tour.
Interesting tour. I always figured power plants to use steam turbines exclusively. At the evil polluting refinery we had two power plants and all of our power was generated with steam turbines. The steam came from burning waste gas from making gasoline etc.. Keep on keeping on.
Thanks Harold. The steam engine was either a beam engine or a triple expansion. No turbine. The evils of production. What evil refinery? i worked for Exxon I have been into Baytown and area many times.
It started as AMOCO and got sold to BP. Of course BP started to contract out all of the work and sold off the power plants and some other stuff.
My highschool shop teacher grew up on Santa Catalina Island. He said power there came from two very large (16 cylinder? I forget.) diesel engine driven generators. This would have been in the 1960s; things have probably changed since then.
I noticed a little horns on top of all the control panels, I bet those are for trouble warning or maybe when they're starting them
Thank you very much, AWESOME 😎
No problem 👍
I wouldn't mind getting a hold of that dead FM but it's probably gone now but then there'd be the freight to get it out to Cali oops
Did he say that it's a 2160 KW engine? That's crazy that this gigantic machine produces only 2MW of power. The smallest Wartsula engine produces I think 17MW if I remember correctly.
That is what the data plate said.
hey Randy, these kinds of tours are so koollll. i love seeing this type of stuff. thanks for archiving that for us.! too bad we didn't get to see one of those behemoths running. maybe on a return trip..
Thanks Mike. They do run them maybe next time out I will be able to get in on a running.
Enjoyed...interesting so much that my treadmill time seemed like a few minutes not 28minutes 😳😅😅😅
Thanks Chuck, I tried to keep it short. I could of made 3 or 4 videos. Lots there to show.
Thanks for the video Randy. And right from my home state.
Thank you for the visit. My daughter has lived there for 10yrs.
Very interesting Randy. My early career was testing and commissioning protection and control equipment in hydro electric power stations so the alternators and much of the control equipment looked familiar... so too did those big wrenches. Each of our stations had their own dedicated tool sets just like those.
Thank you Peter. Fun tour.
I looked at the signs you showed but couldn't find Morris anywhere on them. I did see Morse though.
I never claimed to be a master of any language. Thanks for watching.
Super engines there Randy , Loved this share .. Thanks man !
Thanks Shawn for stopping in.
thanks, those power panels look the same as oil drilling rig but there is only 3 or sometimes 4 and engines smaller, would love to know more of the history
Yep GE basic design used everywhere and on everything. The City of Sidney web site has some of the history. www.cityofsidney.org/PhotoGallery/Album/9
I believe the cooling water pumps should have 5 X pipe diameter straight section on the suction side, so those elbows look a little too close.
Yep CW pumps. More about NPSH.
Randy, thank you for this gem of a video. Lots of details and close up views had me replaying parts and freeze framing just study and understand. Too bad you didn't take videos of the large ship engines when you were Chief Engineer. Thank you very much.
Thanks Paul. fun tour. Yep wish I was doing this then. I would of had enough video for years.
Yes, there would have been a lot show. My dad was a captain for United Fruit Company (Chiquita® Bananas) and sometimes when in port, his Chief Engineers (and also good friends of the family) would give me tours of the ships' engine rooms. It was the Chief Engineers that got me started in machining when I was 14 and now a lifetime hobbyist machinist.
I sailed with a friend for many years, he was an CE for United Fruit for awhile.
Fascinating equipment. Thanks for the tour.
Thanks for coming along.
Very cool thanks for sharing
With just one man maintaining the plant, there isn't enough manpower available to fix the red tagged engine.
Makes it tough. Thanks
Great Video. Thanks for the tour. Reminded of my first two ships. 6 Diesels in forward and aft engine rooms. Not being an Engineman or a Boiler Tech, I can't tell you what they were.
Thanks Gus. Hard to say but lots of engines.
Thanks for sharing this Randy!
Thank you for stopping in.
Thanks for sharing this, Randy!
Thanks Neil for stopping in.
Great tour Randy! That was fascinating.
Thanks Dan for visiting. Fun tour.
Nice tour. Only thing better than old iron is big old iron.
Thanks , Yep, can't say anymore.
Great tour Randy - loved it, fascinating. Something about huge machinery! Always wonder how the heck they ever move stuff so large.
The scale of machining and casting for these giants is so impressive. Super video.
Thanks Chris. The engines were built in place, smaller pieces to make a big piece.
Duh - that was obvious, if I had stopped think about it LOL. :)
Check out some of the old photos and engine install. www.cityofsidney.org/PhotoGallery/Album/9
Thanks - pics show a lot. I remember big engines in ships get built in situ.
Very interesting, thanks for the tour, you made one mistake, you didn't get a close up of the lathe, I like the 20" W-T drill press, it's from the 40s, I have a 1952 W-T 20" drill press, so I'm kind of partial to old tools.
Thanks C. Yeah I don't know how I missed that.
Cool stuff Randy!! Can't imagine how loud those things would be running. In the event of a power outage, would they run more than one at a time? Thanks for the tour, you sound like you know what your talking about.....ALMOST!
It has been 11 years since I have been next to one.
Working night shifts we use to sleep right along side of these engines, with ear pugs of course. Kept us nice and warm.
Put on your ear protection and the constant speed and loping of the engines synchronized together can lull one to sleep. I usually woke up when the load changed as the pitch of the engine sound would change and I was happy to see the lights were still on!!!
We have the same thing in Falls City NE
Cool old power plants.
Very interesting. I love this type video. I seem to remember you touched on the Sky Crane helicopters one time. I'd enjoy seeing a video in more detail.
Thank you Tom. Yes, I do have access to some crane's, but probably have to arrange that for the winter when they are at there hanger. Kind of hard to do when they are spread all over fighting fires.
That's lots of diesel power in one spot, those old engines are probably in almost new condition, they usually last forever with good maintenance. Just add a keel and water, then you'll feel at home... lol
Interesting to see... ;)
These are in fairly good condition, a couple of them are out of service due to some issues. These are small engines compared to today standards. But engines very similar to these were also used in Tug Boats and small ships. Engines this size today turn out 2 to 3 times as much horsepower. It was a great tour and being among the great old equipment. If I lived here I would work on them for free and form a group to maintain them.
Guess the sound of those is impressive, kinda massive, in other words very man type machines... Nice to maintain at least one machine to show how it was made and ran in that era.
Any one of those engines would make a nice upgrade for my Honda.🤤
Yes for sure. There are a lot of folks right now wishing they had this. Thank you.
Someone knew about the inside of the Woodward Governors to take the time and make the glass or plexiglass for the sides. That is so cool I have only seen 2 in the years I worked on Woodward Governors. I wanted to buy one they didn't want to sell it.
Always cool to have clear panels on this sort of equipment.
Well I haven't seen a tooth vernier for some 20 years!
Thanks Nigel.
Randy, maybe it is just me, but the sound track was not synced to the video. At the end I noticed that the video length was 28:03 and the video had run for 28:24. I am familiar with how those engines work, but if other people are having the same issue it might be quite confusing because you are not talking about what is on the screen...
Thanks Bob, I will have to check that.
Randy, great video .......im originally from eastern Ne.....we also had a large generatimg station in wayne, Ne......im curiuos where you are located....I now live in central iowa......thanks again
I live in Mariposa, CA. Daughter lives in Sidney, NE.
thanks....... great video series.....
Great vid
Thank you.
Now take us on a ship tour, air or water.
I have some friends and I am going to look into a ship tour.
nice tour and engines. do you got a video link to the pressure volume card gauge video? you also skipped the lathe
Thanks Josh. Sorry on the lathe, south bend I think. It was a Mr. Pete mystery tool not to long ago, maybe 2 months.
Here is a link: th-cam.com/video/nlBgaxouz8U/w-d-xo.html
Randy Richard In The Shop
thanks
Hi mate. Thanks for the tour. I hate to see all those engines being taken out of commission. When was the last time that they made some sparks in anger? I bet a preservation club would love to take over that station, it's all there.
Yep it would be great if a group would help them out. I know several guy's that would love to this for free. But they live to far away, same with me. They ran 2 of the engines about 1 month ago.
Thanks mate.
So is this basically a museum, or are they still contracting with the grid authority to provide backup power?
The still use the plant as a backup system with 2 of the engines. Thanks Gregory.
Good stuff Randy. How are they generating the cooling water, cooling tower, ambient heat exchanger?
Thanks Bill, They had a cooling unit outside, and Lube oil coolers. We did not talk much about all of the aux. systems. We did talk a lot about the engines and some of the problems they are having with 2 of the engines. This the the kind of stuff I did for 30 years. Fun tour I hope to be here sometime for a running.
I never understood why it takes such huge engines to turn such small alternators . Are the magnets that strong or what ?
Yes they are. The forces within the engine's are also very high. Thanks Terry.
Charlie K . A more modern high speed engine would be much smaller, however the useful life between rebuilds to be less than 20,000 hours and the life of these medium speed engines is somewhere around a quarter of a million hours.
Very enjoyable.
Thank you, Jeff and Mike.
I am correct assuming the station is still grid connected from the 60Hz hum and could be pressed into service if needed?
Thanks, Oh yes connected to grid, and capable of sync connection to grid, for somewhere about 2-4 Megawatts.
Randy Richard In The Shop
Impressive.
Thanks.
Oh, my, a blast from the past! However I noticed the natural gas. Once in Venezuela we had the mother of all power outages. Venezuela is all hydro power from the Guri dam. Somehow they blew a major piece of swtichgear. So all Venzuela was without power. No problem -- EDC (Caracas Power, still private then) had a standby gas trubine generator, fueled by nat gas. Unfortunately all the valves in the pipeline sensed the power loss and shut off. Of course. You don't want fires downstream! But they couldn't start the gas turbine -- no gas! A whole country with almost zero power. I hope Sydney NB has this one figured out.
Wow, One power plant for the entire country. Safe is one thing, but they should of had manual bypass for startups.
The gas pipeline goes about 800 km from the oilfields to Caracas -- bit of a hike to turn on about 50 valves. Why one needs emergncy equipment.
wow are they using those old engines to generate electricity?
Yes, for emergency power, if the grid goes down.
Would be a shame to not get that engine running again for lack of head gaskets.
For sure or at least a small museum. Thanks.
Interesting tour thanks for taking us along, what brand of metal lathe was in the basement? Oh I got the Cabelas card in the mail yesterday Thanks
There was no lathe, just the nice Walker Turner drill press. Glad the card made it.
Check the video at 23:25 back right looks like a lathe to me..
Boy was I blind or what. I got focused on the Drill Press. Looks kind of like a South Bend. Next tour I guess.
Did someone catch hell for blowing the engine? Even switching to Cats or turbines would not be cheap
These are awesome engines. They need a bit more care and experience there to care for them.
Randy is that a Folgers can that really keeps things running?
Well of course, doesn't everything work better after a cup of coffee. I know I do.
So.. is this diesel power plant?
Yes, for a small town.
COOOOOL !!
Thanks
They can make diesel out of anything now so why not use these again
shame that engine is red tagged,, sadly she may end up scrapped i'd bet,,
In wondering what could've damaged the head gasket, I come to the possible conclusion of hydro-locked it. Water vaper condensing in one cylinder.
Well it looks like a lot of scrap steel, get a EMD or Cat
Le plus gros moteur diesel du monde
Not quite but large. Thank you.
Ahhhhh Cablas huh
Yep the world headquarters.
frist frost froost first
Oh yeah. Thanks for stopping by.
Randy Richard In The Shop Great video by the way :)
Thanks.