# Neptune Yard Tunnels - March 08



## geordie (May 23, 2008)

Since discovering a tantalising looking hole a little while back, i was itching to get down and have a look, and on the big meet we finally did! 

Had a return visit with Dave on a gloriously sunny day, mainly to have a look along the north side we did not get to see on the meet... 

The Generator Room















This was in about 4 ft of water so didnt want to get any closer!!

We walked along the pipes, the water in the passageways got steadily deeper the further along we went, even my wellies would have been defeated at one point!











The corner of the third dry dock










And my favourite pic of the day...... the water was so still, the reflection so perfect..... someone with more camera know how than me would make a cracking shot of that!!






After a while, the dark was oppressing and the silence was just too much, so, to the surprise of a lone pikey.... we emerged back into the sunshine!






all in all, a nice morning out, thanks to dave for coming along


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## Engineer (Jun 21, 2008)

*Neptune Yard.*

Some nice electro-mechanical stuff there.


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## scammell23 (Jul 5, 2008)

*Neptune Yard electrical equipment*

Hi, its Looker here! I changed my name. I was with you and Dave when we found the interesting opening in the dock floor. 
The electrical equipment you found looks like a rotary converter. A rotary converter was a kind of generator composing of an electric motor and a generator or dynamo, coupled together. 
They had several uses, the most common were:
1. A means of turning a single phase electrical supply into three phase electrical supply for machinery.
2. A a rotary frequency converter - for converting the frequency of an AC supply e.g 50 Hz to drive non standard machinery at e.g 20Hz.
3. Or simply to convert an AC electrical supply to DC, typically to power dockside cranes, dry dock gate opening winches etc, I suspect what you found was for this purpose.

Before the invention of mercury arc rectifiers semiconductor rectifiers, the rotary converter method was the only means of conversion.

Its fascinating to think that interesting pieces of machinery like this are still lurking right beneath our feet! Great find, keep up the good work.


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## Engineer (Jul 5, 2008)

*Dock Tunnels.*

Looks a bit like a "Ward Leonard" set.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Ward_Leonard


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## scammell23 (Jul 6, 2008)

*Ward Leonard set*



Engineer said:


> Looks a bit like a "Ward Leonard" set.
> 
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Ward_Leonard



I love old electrical equipment, they are so well built and interesting. I saw what looked like Ward Leonard units on a tv programme on discovery showing how the new york subway used to work when it was new. They are still there in a massive plant room under the grand central station, not used but kept looking nice. They looked like one unit and were exactly like what it said on wikipedia from your link.


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## Engineer (Jul 6, 2008)

*Neptune Yard Tunnels.*

Yep marvelous bits of kit, I once worked at a paper mill that had two large units, including lineshaft drives.

If you are into this sort of stuff there's a a book "New Yorks Forgotten Substations" ISBN No 1-56898-355-7, not all Ward Leonard, more rotary converters, good history and pics.

Link.
[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Yorks-Forgotten-Substations-Behind/dp/1568983557/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&sr=11-1[/ame]


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## pdtnc (Jul 6, 2008)

interesting place. thanks for showing.


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