Tag Archives: Engineering

Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot

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I recently got the opportunity to tour New York’s MTA’s Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot with the New York Transit Museum. It is the newest bus depot in New York, and it features many innovative and environmentally friendly design. It has a green roof. Stormwater from the roof in reused in the facility for bus wash. It has a thermal wall that absorbs heat in the winter. It is a really well designed facility, and it is huge. There are also many buses at the bus depot because of course the bus depot is for maintenance and repairs.


The front of the building featuring a gorgeous mosaic
The green metal on the south absorbs solar energy to help heat the building.
Heat exchangers for hot water
Access to oil/water separator
Bus wash using stormwater from the roof
HUGE storage tank stores stormwater from roof
Lots and lots of piping and conduit in stormwater recycling area
Stormwater cleaning tanks
I have a thing for pipes and conduits. I just love the patterns.
The green roof covered with plants
Plants on green roof absorb some of the stormwater, and stormwater runoff enters pipes to go to the storage tank.
Oh yes, there are buses at the bus depot, and they get maintenance and repairs.

Colorado State Capitol

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Amazingly I lived in Colorado for four years while in college and never once went inside the state capitol. I finally changed that today. Although while taking the tour, I learned that the capitol has been renovated and restored since I was in college, so I was able to see a much nicer looking building than I would have seen back then. The capitol is lovely, and if you are able to visit, take the tour because you can go up into the dome and onto an observation balcony but only on the tour. Similar to capitols, the House of Representatives is decorated in green like the UK House of Commons, while the Senate is decorated in red like the House of Lords. Much of the stone in the building is from quarries in the state, including a gorgeous red onyx. There is a lot of brass that appears to need constant polishing. My favorite feature of the building is Mr. Brown’s Attic, where there are windows to allow you to see much of the superstructure, including vaulted ceiling of the two chambers.

Colorado State Capitol

Interior space

Ground floor

The rotunda

Inside the rotunda looking up to the dome

Representatives chamber

Senate chamber

Brass elevator

Red onyx and brass decorate much of the building

Stairwell with brass decorations

Inside the dome

Window in Mr. Brown’s Attic of the exterior of one of the chamber’s vaulted ceiling

View from the dome’s balcony

Sacramento River Cruise

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While exploring Sacramento, I decided a river cruise would be a great way to see the city, considering the city is on the banks of two rivers. A river cruise was definitely a lovely way to get a different perspective of the city. The cruise only went on the Sacramento River, as my guess is the American River is even more shallow than the Sacramento, which is only about 12 feet deep. The engineering highlights of the cruise were going under two different bridges, the I Street Bridge, which is a swing bridge, and the Tower Bridge, which is a vertical lift bridge. The cruise also went under a boring stationary bridge, the I-80 bridge. The cruise also passed by both the old and new water intake pumping stations, where river water is pumped to the water treatment plant.

I Street Bridge

Bridge over the American River

Docks and condominiums line parts of the river

Drainage outlets from nearby canal

Downtown Sacramento

Old water intake tower and pumping station

New water intake pumping station

Downtown Sacramento

Tower Bridge

Kennedy Space Center

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Today was my first visit to the Cape Canaveral area and to the Kennedy Space Center. The big exhibit here is the space shuttle Atlantis. They have it set up really nice, so you can see inside the payload and the damaged external heat shield tiles and blankets. There are plenty of other exhibits to see. Also, you can also take a bus ride to another site to see a Saturn V rocket. The rocket is impressive, and the bus ride is a very short tour of the center and worth the ride.

Space shuttle Atlantis front

Space shuttle Atlantis payload

Space shuttle Atlantis back

Space shuttle Atlantis engine area with damaged heat shield tiles

Saturn V rocket

Saturn V rocket engine

Saturn V rocket main engines

Saturn V rocket main engines, view of inside

Bus tour passes the rock path, with imprints of vehicle still visible, that the shuttle on its platform moved to the launch site

Vehicle Assembly Building

Rocket Garden at sunset

MTA’s Flatbush-Empire Substation

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I took another tour with New York Transit Museum today. This one of the Flatbush-Empire Substation, formally known as Old Prospect Park Substation. It was constructed in the early 1900s to originally provide power for Brooklyn trolleys and then was used to provide power to the subways. Sadly, the substation sits right above where the Malbone Street disaster occurred, where approximately 100 people lost their lives in 1918 when an untrained conductor was operating a subway train during a labor dispute. The substation played a role in the disaster when the circuit breakers tripped at the station from the train accident, and the substation operator restored power to the rail thereby electrocuting any victims on the tracks because the system operators thought the breakers had tripped due to a prank by strikers.

The substation originally converted AC power from the grid to DC using rotary convertors. Now they use modern thingamajigs that are not nearly so cool looking. The downstairs of the substation has all the old unused parts, not to mention all the hazardous chemicals that had to be removed. There are capacitors where PCBs had clearly been removed, and other places painted with a white sealant after asbestos had been removed. Upstairs is where the boring gray boxes filled with modern electronics that actually do the work now are. The substation does not have a working rotary convertor by the way. The only one left owned by MTA is at Substation #13 (see that post for photos and video).

Rotary convertor

Rotary convertor

Switch for rotary convertor

Cables coming up from grid underground

Electric busbar panel board

Electric bus

On top bus panel board

Ammeter

Ammeter

Electric switches

Third rail

Modern breakers

Batteries in case of loss of power to grid

Penobscot Narrows Bridge

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While traveling though Maine, we drove over the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, which is a lovely cable-stayed bridge. Cable-stayed bridges are my favorite kind of bridges. I love their simple elegance and functionality. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is unique in that it has an observatory on top of one of the pylons. Who would have thought to put an observatory on top of a pylon? Next to the bridge, you can also walk onto a small portion of the old Waldo-Hancock Bridge. The Waldo-Hancock Bridge was suspension bridge built in 1931. It ultimately had to be taken down due to heavy corrosion of the main cables. The Waldo-Hancock Bridge was replaced with the Penobscot Narrows Bridge in 2006.

A thunderstorm passed by right before we entered the pylon, so in the below photos taken from the observatory, there are some of out of focus areas. I waited until the storm passed before taking the photos, but the windows still had raindrops on the glass, so the photos are not completely clear.

Penobscot Narrows Bridge

Small deck of the former Waldo-Hancock Bridge

Looking south from the base of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge pylon

Looking north from the base of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge pylon to an old pier of the Waldo-Hancock Bridge

Looking east from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge pylon observatory

Looking north from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge pylon observatory

Looking south from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge pylon observatory

Looking west from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge pylon observatory

MTA’s Jamaica Yards

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I took another tour with the New York Transit Museum today. This one was of Jamaica Yards in Queens, where maintenance is performed on subway cars. I love touring these yards. Jamaica Yards was different then some of the other ones I have toured in that it has a bit more space. Not a lot, but at least a little more. Every time I go on one of these tours I learn and retain just a little more.

Subway cars enter the yards from this tunnel

Jamaica Yards repair sheds

Jamaica Yards. “Stop look read your iron” is a warning to drivers to be alert where they are going. “Iron” refers to the rail.

Trains lined up in the yards

Trains in the maintenance shed

Of course I am going to be interested int the safety measures. These lights read: Carbon monoxide alarm boiler room, methane alarm gas meter room, high water alarm car wash pump room, and car wash fire alarm.

One of the workers shows us how they test that the shoe, which contacts the third rail, is at the right height

One of the workers shows us how they test that the shoe, which contacts the third rail, has the correct tension

Regents Canal

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I posted yesterday about my boat ride on along the Regents Canal from Camden Locks to Little Venice. Today I went for a very short walk along the same canal in the Camden Locks area. It really is a pretty area. It is also a very popular area. There were many people walking along the towpath, and there were also many people just hanging around the area.

Camden Locks

London Water Bus docked near Camden Market

Bridge next to Camden Locks

Homes along Regents Canal

Boats moored on canal

One of many bridges over the canal

Tower Bridge

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I love bridges, so while in London I am visiting as many bridges as possible (although there are quite a few). One bridge that was on my must see list was the iconic Tower Bridge. It is a beautiful bridge. Even better though, you can tour the historic engine room and also go to the top and walk across the upper level walkways that connect the two towers.

Tower Bridge

South tower

Inside the engine room areas, you can see the historic coal burners, steam engines, and the accumulators. The bridge now operates with electricity.

Coal burner

Steam engine

Accumulators

In the south tower, you can see the inside of the tower and all the structural components. They have human figures up in the structure to demonstrate how it was built.

View inside the south tower, looking up

Both the east and west upper walkways have a segment of glass floor, so you can look down onto the river and roadway.

Looking to the road from glass floor of upper level walkway

The views from the upper walkways are wonderful. You can see very far up and down the River Thames.

East view from upper walkway

West view from upper walkway

West view from upper walkway

Whitechapel Fatberg

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I was able to complete my quest today, the reason I came to London at this time. I saw the Whitechapel Fatberg at the Museum of London. I realize this is not the normal type of thing people go on vacation and fly across an ocean to see, but anyone who reads my blog at all should know I am not normal. London sewer workers coined the term fatberg to describe a giant, congealed mass of fat and oil that also has wet wipes, diapers, and other rubbish people put down the drain and shouldn’t. [Important education moment for those who do not know. Those “flushable” wipes are not flushable. Sure, they are flushable in that they will flush down your toilet, but they are not flushable in that they will not break down in the sewer system or at the wastewater treatment plant. Neither will diapers, condoms, and all the other stuff people flush or put down drain pipes.]

In 2017, London sewer workers found the enormous Fatberg in Whitechapel. It weighed 130 tons and was 250 meters long. Some of it they removed with power jet sprayers to then vacuum out, but much of it was so hard, they had to remove it with pick axes and shovels. It took nine weeks to remove the Fatberg. According to information at the museum display, some of the fatberg was converted to biodiesel, and the rest was turned into renewal energy and fertilizer at the wastewater treatment plant.

They had two pieces of the fatberg on display. One of the samples has crumbled into smaller pieces. In the large piece, there is some sort of plastic wrapper sticking out of it. They also x-rayed the pieces because why not.

Small pieces of the Fatberg

Large piece of the Fatberg

Large piece of the Fatberg

X-rays of the Fatberg