GREEN                           

     AND

        CLEAN

             POWER        

French River Land Company's Website!

Previous Pictures Two Web Page

I posted too many photographs on the website. It was becoming very slow to load. I moved some of the previously posted photographs here.

Here is a rare picture of me welding the giant bridge beams in the forebay at Woronoco Hydro's intake. When we purchased the plant we found the wooden support members were totally rotten. We chose to replace them in steel. We ripped the entire structure out. I found some scrap, 36" deep, bridge beams. Here I am welding the  upper beam to its 2" diameter bed pins. We cut the beams to fit the 48 foot width of the intake. In order to support the beams we drilled into the concrete, three foot deep, by 2 1/2 inch diameter, holes with my trustee Thor Rock Drill. The holes were drilled in the location of the four corners of the beam. We used a sledge hammer and drove in the two inch diameter, solid steel, pins in the holes. We then lowered the beams down onto the pins and welded them in place. We installed three beams. One at 1/3 the distance from the bottom, one at 2/3 the distance from the bottom and one at the top. The left over pieces we cut to fit between the backside of the main beams and the concrete wall. I am standing on one of the short sections. Note the one pin you can see sticking out of the wall to the right of where I am working. I know this was over kill, but I have learned that big, is better, in the hydro industry!!!

Another picture of me in my winter beard. I am lighting off one of the big Victor wrecking torches. Things get really cold on the Westfield River in December. One day we went out to work. It was dead calm and the temperature was 31 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Our breath was coming out of our mouths and a little cloud would form and turn into miniature snowflakes!

Celesty in action!!!! She is sitting on the Woronoco No. 2 pressure casing. Note the operator for the 72 inch butterfly valve over Mike's head. The crew is grouting the space between the old pressure case and the new steel plate liner. The waste paper basket is welded to a two inch pipe that is inserted between the two layers. See the second bucket located behind Celeste. We mixed the grout, emptied it into the buckets and vibrated it into the cavity.

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)

Here, I am using thermite bars to burn the salient pole rotor off of the Westinghouse shaft. We needed the shaft to make our hybrid WestFang Generator. The rotor had sat outside in the weather for so many years, that we were afraid of bending the shaft, if we pressed it out of the flywheel bore. Ronnie Johnson has just lit up the end of the bar with the 30 inch wrecking torch. Once the bar starts to sputter, you crank open the ball valve, on the collet holder and all hell breaks lose!! It never ceases to amaze me how destructive a thermite reaction can be. Kids don't do this at home!!

Golden Pond Hydro Powerhouse, Fall 2008, Pouring the spillway apron extension. The large rubber hose is the "elephant trunk" that is connected to the concrete pumper. We poured over 100 cubic yards of concrete. Our hearty thanks to Steve Doyon, of the New Hampshire DES, Dam Safety Program and Director Peter Valeri, of the FERC's, New York Regional Office for their technical help and support in repairing our project!!

We have the following generators for sale. Please e-mail me at bfay@frenchriverland.com

We have two of these General Electric, 800 KVA, 640 KW, 200 RPM, 2300 volt, horizontal, salient pole generators for sale. They are in very good condition and were taken out of service 3 years ago. They are in safe storage in Butte, Montana. We are asking  $25,000, per generator, fob Butte, MT. Please call me at 413-427-2665, Bill Fay Please click on this Picasa Web Album Address for more photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/frenchriverland/MissoulaMT?authkey=Gv1sRgCNn7tZPspb3PvwE#

A rare picture of Celesty, Will and Ronnie with the famous Mr. William Munch. Bill is a master electrician, hydro developer and owner of the Valatie Falls HEP. He learned about hydro development as a child. He worked with his father developing hydro stations in the 1930s and 1940s. I am always in awe of Bill Munch and see him as a living part of hydro history. By the way, he hates to have his photo taken!!!

Celesty and Will during the presentation of their WPI Major Qualifying Project (MQP). These gentlemen are their advisors, Professors Mingjiang Tao and Paul Mathisen. They designed a replacement dam for the Anasagunticook Lake Dam in Canton, ME. Celesty has graduated with a BS Degree in Civil Engineering. Will is graduating this Spring with a BS Degree in Civil Engineering.

Please see the following link to their paper:

Anasagunticook Lake Dam Replacement- C.Fay & W.Fay<<< click on link

Celesty torquing down the little bull gear bolts for the main driveshaft at Slater Mill Museun in Pawtucket, R.I. The Wizard is watching for movement of the blocks. This exhibit always had a severe vibration problem. This was partially caused by the replacement, main, bullgear located in the basement. When it was cast, it cooled in a slightly oblong shape.

Will operating our flood gate during the freshet of April 9th, 2005. See the photo essay of how we replaced this enormous (8 foot by 10 foot) wooden gate without the aid of a crane:

Please see the attached Picassa album (click on the box below):

  <<<< click on this interactive button

Mike is scaling the inside of a draft tube whilst Celesty holds the halogen light for him. This is a really tall tube. Mike is about 18 feet above the tailwater. The tube is about 8 feet in diameter at the high side. We had him tied on with redundant safety belts and chains.

Celesty checking out the Lower Bristol site in April of 2005. She and Will almost bought the upper and lower sites. This powerhouse and its equipment have since been obliterated from the face of the earth. What a shame.

February 5th, 2009 added Sparhawk Mills

Celesty supervising the pick, of the Brockway Mill's, second generator rotor. The first generator lost its bearings and destroyed its rotor and iron core. Chris purchased this generator. He dropped both rotors off at the shop. We pressed both shafts off the rotors. We turned down the old shaft and pressed it back into the new rotor. We did this so the generator shaft and coupling would match up to the existing turbine. Note the newly glyptoled salient pole pieces.

Mary Remington deciding if the old Bradway is worth rebuilding. Poor Mary, instead of going to the movies, she gets to see defunct hydroplants, in the basements of old cotton mills!!! Actually, she really enjoys the trips. This is a Bradway Waterwheel and Governor, both the turbine and governor, were designed by Charlie Bradway. This site has 54 feet of head. (see additional photos at end of Bradway webpage)

Celesty, Davis and Mike rigging in the 26,000 pound, solid steel, Dong Fang synchronous, salient pole, rotor. Notice Celesty's mitten stabilizing the rotor shaft while Davis and Mike remove the cribbing. This is typical!!! We can not work in or near the water unless it is 10 below zero!! Celesty is always in the thick of it!!! At least she was smart enough to wear her Carhart thermal coveralls. See the third to the last photo, in the machine shop sidebar, to see how large this rotor really is and to see it flying through the powerhouse!!!

A second view of Celesty and Mike picking the Dong Fang rotor. Celeste is tossing those 70 pound, southern yellow pine, timber cribs, around like they were match sticks!! Between working with us building hydroelectric plants, for the last 12 years, and graduating with a Civil Engineering Degree from WPI, she knows more about hydropower engineering then most 50 year old consultants!!

December 20th, 2008 added our adventures rebuilding the Valley Paper Company's Smith Kaplan in 1993.

December 12th, 2008 added a link to the CORPS's Water Hammer Program for penstock transients

November 26th, 2008 added Carl Weidner's Design of an Overshot Waterwheel( an exquisite paper)

November 24th, 2008 added barrel stave bearing repair webpage

November 1st, 2008 repaired Bradway page and added Golden Pond Repair Photos.

Will Fay is using a megohmeter to check the primaries for short circuits. We found out that one of the high voltage primaries had short circuited to ground inside the aluminium tube that you can see the wires passing into. This tube was designed to keep the high pressure oil inside the turbine and the water from entering the turbine. It turned out to be a complicated design. We had to destroy it in order to reverse engineer it. It was filled with epoxy. The wires were interrupted by brass cylinders that had been drilled from either end that created blind holes with brass in between. The wires were inserted from either end and silver soldered in place. They were then inserted in the aluminium cylinder and it was filled with epoxy. This elaborate scheme was to prevent the high pressure oil from wicking up the interstices of the cooper wire.

October 6th, 2008. Added Bradway Turbine webpage.

September 30, 2008: I spent a lot of time finishing up our saga about removing the turbines at Livermore Falls, NH. You may thoroughly enjoy perusing the web page:

http://frenchriverland.com/livermore_falls.htm

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.

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