Funicular railway power question

Three phase power is discussed here pretty often.

Indeed I believe you yourself brought it up in this thread

I told you how it probably was set up, you complained you didnt understand, I pointed you to a web page that explained it.

Whatr is patronsioing about that?

It was only someome moaning that tehy couldnt ne expected to undersatdn or summat that irritated me. I study s*it I dont understand every day. Do it yourself!

Please Sir, I've got a 1hp variable frequency three phase inverter for a lathe motor. I had to think hard about the connections.

A very complex system to develop. I wonder why they developed it as a below ground drive system, rather than on poles like a ski-lift?

Interesting stuff.

Its not that long ago that I heard about the extensive hydro power (pressurised water) distribution systems they had in some large cities.

Snip

My house is supplied with 3 phase.

Outbuildings and workshop equipment mostly use 3 phase. One day I'll get round to converting my centre lathe back to 3ph so I can use the reversing switch!

Including London, as late as about 1970. Pipes now used for telecoms.

The London Hydraulic Power Company, AFAIR.

a. what happens when the cable breaks - a heavy cable (over an inch across in SF) moving fast (9.5 mph in SF) above busy city roads. I wouldn't want to walking along the road unless the height of the poles (H) minus the interval between poles (L) was around 2m. That's a lot of tall poles! (And still leaves the risk of the cable moving sideways. And buses etc)

b. transmitting the driving force from a cable several meters above the car requires a /much/ more substantial structure than from a cable a few inches below street level.

Which was bought by Mercury Communications ( remember them) in the mid seventies who realised they could utilise the pipes as ducts and what was probably more valuable acquire the legal rights the Hydraulic company held in being able to dig up up public roads it had held since the 19th century to install and maintain infrastructure.

Another asset in London reused in a similar manner were the ducts along streets that once carried the power supply cables for Trams and Trolleybuses , even now the odd feeder pillar which connected the ducted cables to a section of tram or trolley bus wiring remains in place undisturbed for decades.

GH

I think you'll find that the system had been defunct since full telephone access had covered the City and they'd lain empty ever since.

They were then bought by Mercury when they were first allowed to compete with BT and saved them a fortune in the cost of installing their cables.

"Two installations that survived into the 1970s were lifts. At Union Bank Chambers, 61 Carey Street, WC2, the main passenger lift operated on a hydraulic ram, with electric press-button control. With passengers aboard the lift car traveled at normal speed but when called from rest, the ram propelled the car at a truly unnerving rate of knots. The Grosvenor Hotel, adjoining Victoria station, had a service lift of a very antique character. It still used rope control (you pulled up or down on the rope to start the lift and held it to stop). It operated at two speeds, depending on your pull. There was no self-levelling at each floor but auto-stop trips at the top and bottom of the shaft prevented over-run. Electrical interlocks had been retro-fitted to the lift car?s doors. After the LHP Company went out of business, the system was converted to oil, using an electrically driven compressor. Whether these two installations survive is unclear."

You miss my point.

I have no trouble understanding how you could run a three phase system with one pole earthed.

I could not find a reference saying that this is how they do it.

Andy

Manchester's hydraulic system definitely ran from 1894 to 1972.

SteveW

Wonder of the one in Bristol for the floating harbour and other dock gates is still operational?

Probably not. Like other systems, the users probably switched to using their own electrically powered hydraulic pumps in the short term and where possible to purely electrical drives and many older systems probably have gone out of use entirely since then.

SteveW

The Bristol Harbour system was for its own purposes rather than customers elsewhere, like a power station the schemes that sold hydraulic power had to run pumps to adequately supply a customer even though they may not actually need any , at Bristol they would know when a crane was going to be used a lock operated or a bridge swung.

I visited the International Festival of the Sea at Bristol in 1996 as a crew member on a visiting vessel and the Hydraulic system was still in use then, it finally ceased to be used in

GH