# Pictures of old school control walls



## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

I could have sworn I posted this before but apparently not. I for one love the old school control walls, you know an entire wall in a control room filled with lights and switches and buttons and gauges and chart recorders. Think 1960s nuc plant type control room. Surely someone on here has some cool pictures of some. Our wastewater plant has a pretty cool one I need to take a picture of sometime. HMIs are nice but will never be as cool as some big gauges and hand painted flow diagrams.


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## wiz1997 (Mar 30, 2021)

I've seen some pretty cool old school control rooms.

Cell phone cameras were not available back then so no pictures, and some control rooms did not allow cameras.

I've seen many control rooms just as you described out in the chemical plants and refineries on the Houston Ship Channel.

It was amazing to see all those devices and it made you wonder who figured this out.

The back side of the floor to ceiling control walls were just as amazing.

Today the plant operators just stare at a computer screen, the wall of instruments is gone.


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

Troubleshooting the control wall first step was pushing on all the relays to find the loose one.


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## dspiffy (Nov 25, 2013)

Kind of related-- I used to do lighting with a traveling theatre group. This was in the 90s. I saw the coolest and most dangerous stuff in theatres that at the time were 50-100 years old.

My favorite were the giant floor mounted variac dimmers you had to put your whole body weight into.


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

At the chemical plant I worked at there were some pictures in a control room of the instrument wall with the U shaped flow gauges and the red ball in them. Being the house operator was a daunting task.
There was a boiler utilities operator there that ran a 450# package boiler with no instrumentation for nearly a shift. Another boiler went down and the instruments weren’t connected to it as it was just coming back together from repair. He ran it by feel and knocking on it to know the water level and steam pressure. When instruments were finally up, the water level was right on and pressure was also.


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## mle33 (Oct 18, 2013)




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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

mle33 said:


> View attachment 162924


YES! This is the sort of thing I'm talking about.


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

460 Delta said:


> At the chemical plant I worked at there were some pictures in a control room of the instrument wall with the U shaped flow gauges and the red ball in them. Being the house operator was a daunting task.
> There was a boiler utilities operator there that ran a 450# package boiler with no instrumentation for nearly a shift. Another boiler went down and the instruments weren’t connected to it as it was just coming back together from repair. He ran it by feel and knocking on it to know the water level and steam pressure. When instruments were finally up, the water level was right on and pressure was also.


Some of them old time operators where in a class by themselves. It really seems as if the old school electromechanical type controls and instrumentation forced you to understand the machine better than the modern day computerized version. One of our plants was built in the early 60s and was originally all pneumatic valve controls. Huge cycliders hanging off the butterfly valves and stuff. Superintendent started in the 80s and remembers them all. Sounds like it was quite the interesting beast to operate.


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

A computer screen will just never be as cool as this random picture of the internet. Must have been a real bear to maintain and troubleshoot but if I could I would totally go back in time and work on that. Think I'll skip the goofy hats though.


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## Wardenclyffe (Jan 11, 2019)

Three Mile Island 1979


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

Just imagine the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars it would take to build one of those today. An analogue Simpson panel gauge is like 300 bucks.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

mburtis said:


> A computer screen will just never be as cool as this random picture of the internet. Must have been a real bear to maintain and troubleshoot but if I could I would totally go back in time and work on that. Think I'll skip the goofy hats though.
> View attachment 162926


This might be Chernobyl


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

splatz said:


> This might be Chernobyl


It could be, I think the description said something about soviets. Still cool even if it commie


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

mburtis said:


> It could be, I think the description said something about soviets. Still cool even if it commie



How about Armenia? 

Satisfying photos of control rooms that once ran the world (pocket-lint.com)


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

This one's Chernobyl


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

dspiffy said:


> Kind of related-- I used to do lighting with a traveling theatre group. This was in the 90s. I saw the coolest and most dangerous stuff in theatres that at the time were 50-100 years old.
> 
> My favorite were the giant floor mounted variac dimmers you had to put your whole body weight into.


This post alone deserves a . You sir need to start a separate thread and tell us more about this story. Sounds good, but let’s not hijake this already amazing thread.


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## dspiffy (Nov 25, 2013)

Wardenclyffe said:


> Three Mile Island 1979
> 
> View attachment 162929


How about that lighting! Anyone remember those specific troffers?


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

Was the goofy hat supposed to protect you when the place melted down or what ?


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

MHElectric said:


> This post alone deserves a . You sir need to start a separate thread and tell us more about this story. Sounds good, but let’s not hijake this already amazing thread.


I agree there has to be some amazingly cool electrical equipment in old theaters. Gotta figure some of the oldest building around are probably theatres. Or at least the ones that didn't burn down in the gas lighting days.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

Washington D.C. waterworks, 1940


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

Boguchany Dam, Russia


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

splatz said:


> Washington D.C. waterworks, 1940
> 
> View attachment 162936


You have no idea how bad I wished my water plant looked like this. I've seen pictures of other old water plants where the floors are all black and white tile, the walls are fancy brick, etc. Makes you think you would need a suit just to walk in the place.


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## dspiffy (Nov 25, 2013)

mburtis said:


> I agree there has to be some amazingly cool electrical equipment in old theaters. Gotta figure some of the oldest building around are probably theatres. Or at least the ones that didn't burn down in the gas lighting days.


Or early electric days-- Chicago Iroquois Theatre fire was started by arc lamps.

Unfortunately I have no pictures from those days-- this was well before phones with cameras and I was too poor at the time to get pictures developed-- and I searched google for anything similar and didnt see anything. I'll do some digging. I wish I could remember the name of the theatre that had the weirdest equipment. It was in a mental hospital, we were performing for the patients. It was clear they hadnt updated anything since the hospital was built, I think they had the most dated equipment I had ever seen. This was in the 90s.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

Crane controls, still operating.

















Old MG sets. Older controls than anything I’ve ever seen, Igor, throw the switch!! It’s all massive open style knife switches and rheostats. I thought it had smaller exciter sets but was told the smaller set is just another motor. AC motors are synchronous. Very sophisticated for it’s day.


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## zoltan (Mar 15, 2010)




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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

Not a control room but if you ever have a chance, I think Hoover Dam is back to offering a tour that takes you inside


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

splatz said:


> Not a control room but if you ever have a chance, I think Hoover Dam is back to offering a tour that takes you inside
> 
> View attachment 162973


Been there. My dad took us when we were kids. I remember it been fun, even as a moody teenager.


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## canbug (Dec 31, 2015)

I like all the pictures but I kept thinking these all look like a Pizza Hut kitchen. 

Tim.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

splatz said:


> Not a control room but if you ever have a chance, I think Hoover Dam is back to offering a tour that takes you inside
> 
> View attachment 162973


It was stopped for COVID but we’ve been on it. Very cool.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

canbug said:


> I like all the pictures but I kept thinking these all look like a Pizza Hut kitchen.
> 
> Tim.


New or old style?


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

No pictures, but in a previous life I ran a hot mix asphalt batch plant. The control was a Hardy brand electromechanical “computer” in a huge 6’x4’ console that had two JMF programs you could select. The JMF was set using 10 turn potentiometers under a lockable plexiglass lid. The control got it’s information about weight from dial scales that had an iron core reactor in the mechanism. The brains of it all were two Automatic Electric stepping relays like telephone exchanges used. As it ran, the steppers would work with an audible snap until the batch was weighed, then return to start with a brdddd. Then the timed mix would start and the stepper would run on it, then brddd, return to start.
The reality was the steppers and the AMF Potter Brumfield octal base relays clicking and snapping made a rhythm that would lull you into a drowsy, dreamlike, semi-conscious state. But when a operation would occasionally hang up, you would instantly come awake.
The other thing that would wake you up was when the standing pilot light would go out on the Maxon burner, but the orange hot refractory lining in the pre-combustion chamber for the dryer would relight the atomized diesel stream with a boom rivaling a Claymore mine.

Good times.


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## LARMGUY (Aug 22, 2010)

deleted


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

dspiffy said:


> How about that lighting! Anyone remember those specific troffers?


The one from the other one control room is better. They look to be the plastic eggcrate mirror ones that discolored when you touch them with your fingers. I remember having to wear new gloves every time we worked on that type.


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## Breakfasteatre (Sep 8, 2009)

I cant find any great photos of the controls, but the RC Harris water treatment plant just east of downtown Toronto is absolutely gorgeous inside.

It was built in the 40s and every detail of the building features beautiful art deco features. Even the large pump motors.

Precovid they would do an open doors event and you could do a walking tour through the plant.

As of 2012, the plant still purified 40% of the cities water
































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rc harris water treatment plant control panels - Google Search






www.google.com


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