B,N&O,
Have you built a sub-station car? I am looking to start build one and haven’t had much luck finding a detail photo of one. I have several photo’s of them, just no good ones of A) operation, B.) roof structures C.) interior.
I’m looking to do something more than just build a box car throw some glass insulators on the top and letter the thing.
Note the prototype photo description at Dave’s Electric Railroads => And this is a huge website. More than “a boxcar photo” like this Norfolk & Western Elkhorn Tunnel Dynamo Car are hard to find.
However, there a handful of MOW (Maintenance of Way) Portable Substation photos at North East Rails => That are more than a boxcar at the bottom of the page => Which are actually substations on wheels.
Allen.
I don’t think I’ve built such a car but at that I can only suppose what a sub station car is. My guess is that you are talking about some sort of overhead maintenance car. Most trolley companies lived on the thinnest of shoe strings… especially after 1924. Most maintenance cars were “hand me downs” acquired from other companies of built locally in their own shops. I don’t think I’ve seen two maintenance cars that looked very much alike.
Thus you have a lot of latitude to construct something that looks good to you. Below is a link to the Chicago page of the Chicago Transit Authority. Although some equipment is very old most photos were taken after WWII as the handwriting was on the wall for the demise of trolleys.
http://davesrailpix.com/cta/htm/oddballs.htm
see ya
Bob
No it’s a car that sub-station is stored in for line issues or maintence. Attach to local AC power, attach to line and it converts the power to the lines power whether DC or lower/higher AC. It’s usually purpose built.
The Sacramento Northern ran two, and I have heard of others, but haven’t seen them. CSS&SB ran(runs) one, as did the North Shore, but again no pics.
OK…
I have it now… I looked through what I have for Chicago and find no listings or photos. If such a car merely hooked to an AC source there probably would not be a lot of distinctive equipment sticking out o the car other than it would identified with the line’s MOW equipment numbers and not a general car number that would have been a revenue car.
If the car had a generator that might be gas or Diesel powered it would have a radiator and a fuel storage access on the outside.
I know I have seen and heard of such things but I can’t find anything quickly.
sorry
Bob
Pacific Electric also had a sizeable fleet of portable substations, no two exactly the same. A common practice was to pair them with a substation for peak demand hours that could tax a fixed facality, particulary with PE freight motors lacking mu controls vied with interurbans for power off the same grid.
Dave
Allen…
Found it…
The link below shows two … scroll down. One is an iteresting one from 1920 and the other is the type you bemoaned with only insulators but there are some cool details.
http://people.virginia.edu/~ggg9y/substations.html
see ya
Bob
Morning everyone - here’s a link to photos of a another typical portable substation, this one used by Jamestown Westfield and Northwestern in NY State. Hope it helps, Art