GE Steam Turbine Generator Erie Maritime Museum March 9, 2012
Steam Turbine
Turbine Generator – Three Phase AC
DC Exciter Generator
Commutator and Brush Holders
Brush Holders - Carbon Brushes Missing
Turbine Generator Control Panel
50 Ton Crane 10 Ton Auxiliary
Big Bertha Steam Engine Chestnut Street Pumping Station, Erie, PA 2011
Erie Water Works – Bayfront Highway
Erie Water Works – Chestnut Street Pumping Station
Big Bertha Steam Engine Big Bertha is a triple expansion piston steam engine. The first cylinder has 33” diameter and 5.5 foot stroke. As the steam expands it goes to a cylinder that is 66” in diameter with a 5.5 foot stroke and then to a cylinder with a 98” diameter and a 5.5 ft. stroke. It has two 20 foot diameter flywheels and operated piston pumps that send water up to the Sigsbee reservoir on 26 th Street. It made 600 HP at 50 RPM. Operating something like this was fairly labor intensive. Big Bertha was retired from service in 1951 and pumping duty is now done by several far more powerful electric motors and centrifugal pumps.