| Celeste N. Fay is the President of FRL and her brother, William D.B. Fay is the Vice President. Celeste is a recent graduate of WPI with a BS Degree in Civil Engineering. Will is a senior civil engineering student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Celeste and Will have several years of power plant, O and M experience with D. Hobbs Contracting and Swift River Hydro Operations Company and have worked extensively with their father. FRL has the tools, equipment and shop facilities to fabricate and repair hydroelectric equipment, regardless of its age or design. 
Old Sturbridge Village Plant Will Fay inspecting High Voltage Conduits William K. Fay P.E., FRL's Chief Engineer and General Manager, is a licensed hydro engineer who has inspected 80 dams for the Massachusetts Dam Safety Division and is authorized by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to perform Part 12 inspections of licensed hydropower facilities. He and his children, Celeste and Will, have rebuilt many small hydro plants located throughout New England. 
Celesty jacking the Golden Pond, Hydrolec, Kaplan, Hub down, with a 30 ton, hollow, core ram. 
Mary Remington and Will Fay offloading one of four, Rodney Hunt, Hi Test, gatecases. These units are part of a quadraplex, dual camelback unit similar to Jim Beesha's units at Mechanicville, N.Y. Will and I have been rebuilding the low level outlet at Tannery Pond. Please see the attached Picassa album (click on the box below):  
Flash!!! March 12th, 2008, 2:00 PM. We just synchronized Woronoco No. 1 for the first time in 23 years. We got the unit up to full gate and made 460 kilowatts. This was very good considering the tail water stage is elevated by ten feet. The rooster tail coming out of the gorge is so large it is flowing 400 feet across the tailrace pool and hitting the far shore!!!We have been rehabbing the unit for the last nine months. It is better than new!!! Note the disc brake and new hydraulic power pack. Woronoco No. 1 Rebuild <<<<<<< click on the hyperlink 
Celesty and Will getting ready to dive on the forebay at Woronoco HEP. Sand had built up in front of the west rack and the trash rake would not descend to the sill. They cleaned out the sand. 
My recent hunting trip to Montana aka: bagging the big horned hydro generator. I just got back from Montana. I was out hunting big horned hydro generators. I bagged four 30,000 pounders. I would stuff them and put them over my mantle piece but I do not think my hearth is strong enough!!! Two of them are being installed at our Indian River HEP. Enjoy!!http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/MissoulaMT?authkey=v571LsJtfdk <<<< click on this hyperlink
 Removing the Rodney Hunt turbines at Livermore Falls, N.H. Bill Fay is using thermite bars to burn the 3 inch thick cast iron head covers at Livermore Falls. Here the cold of outer space (liquid oxygen at minus 297 deg F) is feeding the fires of hell (OxyAcetylene burns steel at 2500 deg F, the surface temperature of the sun is 16,000 deg F. The tip of the thermite bar runs 8,000 deg F). The thermite bars are consumed like a punk stick. As they burn down the 8,000 deg F gets very close to your hands!! Once they are ignited, we could carve our initials in solid granite. (Livermore Falls<<click here for Livermore Falls) 
The beast exposed!!! One of these runners and gate cases we installed at Pioneer Hydro in Ware. MA. A second was installed at Tannery Pond in Winchendon, MA.  Celesty, at the edge of the abyss. She is operating the mini electric hoist at Golden Pond Hydro. We had a balance weight loosen up and our worst scenario come true. We needed to pull our bulb unit in the middle of a New Hampshire winter. Every thing slows down a 5 below zero. 
In order to get the forty foot lift from the gantry I-beam to the tailrace floor, we had to hook three chain falls in series. The five ton falls took the weight of the unit. The one ton falls were used as trim control. 
Will is a contortionist!! We have just separated the unit from the penstock. Will is replacing the missing balance weight. 
Winter on the Westfield River. Celeste and Ronnie Johnson installing stoplogs in order to drain Woronoco Hydro. Note the main beam is the same one Will is seen cutting in a following photo. 
King Tut, "The Supervisor"!! This guy barks out orders like a dog!!! 
Will standing on top of the newly installed Hydrolec Turbine. The unit was installed two weeks ago and the paint is already coated with algae! Note how the turbine is bolted to the penstock. Its weight is suspended from the pit walls by four, heavy walled, channel-iron, hanger brackets. 
Will is flipping the Hydrolec Unit from, vertical to horizontal, in preparation for lowering it into the abyss. The 18 inch I-beam is cantilevered ten feet off the back wall of the powerhouse. The unit can be rolled, on the trolley, over the tailrace and lowered down to the end of the penstock. 
The newly rebuilt, Hydrolec H9H, turbine finally arrives at the Freshwater Hydro Station (aka: Golden Pond Hydro) in Ashland. N.H. Will Fay is attaching the lifting belts and shackles to the crane hook. Lee Nichols of Ashland Electric Light Department is operating the crane. The double drop tractor trailer could not drive down the access road so the unit was moved to this smaller truck. The I-beams and pipe supports for the new installation gantry crane came with the same load. 
Will and Celeste rigging the 2000 pound, 18 inch I-beam, for the new gantry, at Freshwater Hydro. Previously, when the unit needed work, George had to hire a 90 ton crane to remove it. After it was repaired, he had the crane back to re-install the unit. Celeste and Will designed the gantry and are now fabricating/installing it. 
Will has transferred the load from the three ton chain fall to a 5 ton chain cum-a-long. He removed the chain fall and is lifting the beam closer to the support frame. He has installed a lifting strap around the two beams as a safety. The old railroad bridge is in the background. 
Co-conspirators!!! We needed to remove the old wear sleeve from the blade trunion. It was held on by LockTite. In order to remove it, we needed to heat the assembly up to 500 deg F. While Carol was teaching ballet, Celeste and Will snuck the blade into our kitchen. They put the blade in the electric stove and baked it at 500 deg F. I think they may have told Carol that they were baking brownies!!! The high temperature broke the bond and we were able to remove the sleeve. 
Will and the four supervisor dogs, taking a hydro break, on the Swift River, in Bondsville, MA. Tsar is flanking Will. King Tut is following. He is boxed in between Queen Cleo and Miss Zoey! 
Celesty operating the Milwaukee magnetic base drill. She is installing anchors to fix the rotating field buses to the reconditioned slip rings. 
Celesty, Mike and Ian rigging the rebuilt Woronoco No.2 gate case into position. They are re-installing it into the newly grouted pressure casing. Kenny Smith is in the background supervising. 
Celesty removing a 60 inch bull gear from a gate lifter shaft. The pinion gear has a broken tooth. The down and dirty method to repair a broken tooth is to drill and tap a row of holes, screw in studs and shape them to an approximate tooth profile with a four inch grinder. The Wizard made a new tooth, milled out the broken tooth, pressed the new tooth into place in a machined slot and then held it in place with three recessed Allen cap screws. | 
