Re: Mentone (VIC) Steam repair depot

[David Johnson <trainman@ozemail.com.au>]

Notagunzel wrote:

> When the suburban network was first electrified beginning in 1917ish, the
> Power was generated by the Victorian Railways in their own power station at
> Newport.  This was transmitted by cable & overhead feeders to substations
> at methinks 22kv@50Hz, and at each of these substations, converted by
> rotary converters down to 1500vdc to feed the overhead.  These rotary
> converters were essentially a big AC motor driving a big DC generator, and
> was the only feasible way of converting the high voltage required for
> transmission, down to the (relatively) low voltage needed for the trains.
> These days, the power is taken from the local distributor's grid, and
> dropped down by a transformer/silicon rectifier to the required voltage,
> this equipment being much smaller than the area needed for rotary
> converters.

Last time I was in Melbourne about 5 years ago, I visited a tramway substation
in the afternoon peak and watched the rotary converters being started.  They
have probably been withdrawn by now.

--
David Johnson
trainman@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/