⁴ᴷ Operating a 1904 IRT Subway Rotary Converter

Located at IRT substation #13, IRT rotary converter #1 is still functional and was demonstrated to attendees of a tour run by the New York Transit Museum. More info on the museum's programs is on their website- www.nytransitmu...
Rotary converters were once used to convert 25-cycle AC current from the power plant to 600 volt DC current for powering subway trains. The last rotary converters used in NYC Subway Substations stopped regularly operating in 1999. The Westinghouse Electric company manufactured the rotary converters, and the General Electric company manufactured the control equipment.
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Taken on February 25th, 2017.

[@DANNYN224]

Another substation that has this is BMT 70 S south 6th street in Brooklyn

[@bdodger]

I worked in the BMT Substations in the early 1960's . hadn't seen one of these babies since I left to work in another Dept. The Westinghouse Rotaries were larger and under rated as far as KW output. A piece of History glad it is preserved.

[@jerrypeukert5732]

Bob Ogus So you retired from the power department working in the manuals.

[@gtb81.]

i'd bet it would work just as good today as it did back then

[@paulkocyla1343]

A time when engineering and beauty always went together.

[@thomaslevy2119]

The converter changes AC to DC mechanically. The converter is a large AC motor which drives a DC generator inside of itself. DC traction motors are used on subways, electric and diesel-electric locomotives because they produce much more torque than AC motors of the same HP rating. It took until more recent times and the invention of solid-state electronic controllers before AC motors started being used on more recently built subways. NYC had plans to convert their subways to AC, but that project was put on hold due to the lack of funding at last report. AC propulsion is more energy efficient than DC, but converting the largest subway system in the world to AC is not cheap.

[@CrosstownXpress]

Actually, there is currently a plan to replace the signals on the Crosstown Line (The G Line) since apparently the signals on this line were not ever replaced even once. Anyway, the point is that the planned new signals for the line are planned to be AC (alternating current) signals, instead of the DC (direct current) signals. My guess is that if these new AC signals on the Crosstown Line prove to be successful, then it would be installed on other train routes as well (but then again, as you said, this project isn't cheap, and the duration of work is expected to be about 38 months, so who knows).

[@Ass_Burgers_Syndrome]

I think Thomas was talking about converting the motive power for the trains, not for the signalling system, unless I'm missing something !

[@thomaslevy2119]

Correct.

[@CrosstownXpress]

Craig F. Thompson But if there are back up batteries, then that means that it's DC current, because batteries are DC voltage. There is no such thing as an AC voltage battery.

[@kkparis]

DC power is actually more efficient for system covering shorter distance with AC traction motor. Although AC overhead line can carry much higher voltage thus less resistive loss, changing the torque on AC traction require manipulation on frequency, which requires DC power first. If the input power is AC, then changing the frequency of the AC power requires converting the source to DC and then back to desired frequency in AC, which is two conversion on board. It works the same for the DC third rail/DC catenary system, except the AC to DC conversion is done outside the train, which the train itself needs to carry less equipment and thus the train has less load.

[@bk_knight256]

fascinating! Amazing machinery and enginuity to create 600vts of electricity to power up the subways 3rd rails.

[@matthewsykes4814]

She's loud....and beautiful

[@cc201135]

awesome video man, old school converter which is today only as big as car battery to do the same Job.

[@CrosstownXpress]

So this is what used to power the Subway, so awesome.

[@HobbyOrganist]

Even more is how all this stuff came about so quickly after electric generation was INVENTED! they had nothing to go by from old reference books on how electric worked like we do now

[@robertliskey420]

The art of the machine! Wonderful, Thank you!

[@francoispf3418]

Vraiment magnifique j'aimerais bien visiter ça en vrai.👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@DandyDon1]

Is this the system which is next door to the David Letterman theatre?

[@henkholdingastate]

super it is stil there

[@patsematary]

When electricity and machines were still “modern art”

[@abudiyan]

I JUST WENT THERE A FEW DAYS AGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@andrewsmart2949]

how it was in the old days with motor/generators,now we use transformers and electronics

[@simonlaker2139]

Bed the brushes in. Or check to see if your mica is high

[@longmetro44l.5]

That's so cool.

[@MenzelMotors]

"Warning: Do Not Touch. 600 Volts." ... New York Transit Museum

[@Dresfvae]

I was able to record and R46 (R) at 96 Street.

[@mr.sir.]

Can you post it?

[@richardsledgecock2110]

Did it go synchronized? Or just DC start circuit?

[@DJHammersTrains]

DC Start Circuit

[@raybin6873]

I'm curious of it's efficiency rating. I suspect it is not very good.

[@Ragnar8504]

I've read that some rotary converters went up to 95% so possibly not all that bad.

[@552MB]

It was very good. In a lot of other ways it was superior to solid state rectifiers - except for the most important mechanical wear element.

[@DavidBerquist334]

Does this still power the subway or are there transformers feeding the 3rd rail all on the same phase 600 volt output on the transformer and 1 side go to ground and live side to 3rd rail and is lighting 120/240 volts like in a house stepped down from 600 volts thanks

[@fanplant]

that rotary made 630v dc from 11kv 30hz 3phase power that was once made by the transit company's own power plants. That humming you can hear in the video is the rectifier installed to replace the rotaries. It uses 13.8kv 60hz 3ph (modern distribution in manhattan) feeding a step down transformer and then the 3ph feeds a network of diodes (big ones) that make pulsating DC. Similar to the diodes in a car alternator but there's two sets of them out of time of each other to make "smooth enough" DC @630v

[@StringerNews1]

@@fanplant I just saw a video of a similar one just behind the Ed Sullivan Theater on IEEE Spectrum. So it's an AC-DC converter then. The only rotary converters I've seen IRL were for old tube transceivers in a police car, and one that converted 480V 3-phase at 60 Hz to 400Hz for a mainframe.

[@fanplant]

@@StringerNews1 I've been in that substation back in 2000. BTW I was wrong, it was 11kv 25 cycles.

[@fanplant]

So a car alternator has 6 diodes but the rectifier I worked on in NY Roosevelt Island had 12 diodes in an interesting connection from the step down transformer. Here is a pretty good explanation: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/244697/what-are-the-pros-cons-on-the-30-degree-voltage-phase-shift-between-the-primary

[@billmoran3812]

Every high rise building built before 1980 has rotary converters powering the elevators. They are all DC motors as well.

[@stephenmarrone5865]

See that IRT sign it did not come from there?

[@ThePiquedPigeon]

0:40 - pictures you can smell...

[@Chance-yj8vo]

What does the rotary converter do ?

[@DJHammersTrains]

There's a brief explanation in the video description

[@0hsjsjsshsj833]

Dj Hammers 3

[@kenqwe04]

This must be the one behind the Ed Sullivan Theatre.

[@WitchidWitchid]

Basically it's a mechanical rectifier. It converts AC current to DC current. Eventually the transit system switched over to mercury vapour rectifiers and now they use modern solid state rectifiers so there is no real need for rotary converters nowadays. But they are an interesting piece of electrical history.

[@Vageta97]

Dj Hammers can you do a video on the lower level of the 9th Avenue station on the D line

[@alexthemtaandr211weatherfa2]

Cool

[@ronaldrojas1581]

Whoa

[@anonymousanonymous7250]

72nd st powerhouse?

[@DJHammersTrains]

53rd

[@anonymousanonymous7250]

Oh wow. The only one I know of is at 72nd St.

[@cesarricra3692]

canbio de rodamientos

[@TheEDNC]

Tesla designed?

[@552MB]

Nope, some one else, can’t remember who… but not Tesla.

[@frommarkham424]

That thing is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooud