Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8

Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8
Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8
Location2245 N. Lake Ave
Altadena, California
Coordinates34°11′04″N 118°07′55″W
ArchitectPacific Electric Railway
NRHP reference No.77000295
Added to NRHPNovember 9, 1977

Substation

Electric interurban and trolley cars required 600 volts direct current to operate a car's Direct Current (DC) traction motors. The function of a "substation" was to convert very high voltage alternating current (AC) from a power generating plant (often miles away) for an AC to lower voltage DC conversion. The high voltage AC entered the substation, was dropped in level by a transformer, and the resulting lower voltage AC was then fed to a device called a Rotary Converter for the conversion to 600 volts DC. Substations existed on every trolley and interurban line in the United States and often still do for today's subway and light rail lines although the very large and cumbersome rotary converter,as much as eight feet in diameter and rotating, has been replaced by solid state converters.[1]

PE's Altadena Substation #8

Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8, also known as the Altadena Substation, is a National Register of Historic Places structure (site #77000295) in Altadena, California. Originally used to power Pacific Electric Railway (PE) lines in the Altadena area, it is today used as an office building.[2]

The PE's traction substation was built in 1905. In addition to providing power to the PE lines, it also powered the Mount Lowe Railway.[3] In 1941, when PE sold its Pasadena area lines to Pasadena City Lines, a subsidiary of National City Lines, the substation was included in the sale.[4] It was placed on the Register in 1977 for its significance as a part of the Pacific Electric Railway.[5]

See also

References
  1. The Electric Interurban Railways in the United States, George W.Hilton, 1952
  2. Harrigan, John (August 1, 1999). "Mount Lowe Power". Echo Mtn. Echoes. Land-Sea Discovery Group. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
  3. "Pacific Electric Mount Lowe Line". Electric Railway Historical Association. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
  4. "Pacific Electric Pasadena Local Lines". Electric Railway Historical Association. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
  5. "California - Los Angeles County". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.