Benjibear
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Saturday, February 23, 2013 9:45:30 PM
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19558688@N02/4903330470/in/set-72157624624993843/ 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19558688@N02/4903328066/in/set-72157624624993843 

From the Fly-O-Plane topic, I saw these pictures of what appears to be a connection for electricity. I am just curious was this a common way to get electricity in the day, what was in the truck, and anything else that may be relevant to this topic.
It is what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Keith
Saturday, February 23, 2013 11:25:58 PM
Transformer in truck to connect to town power. Would guess that they would be carried by smaller shows who did not have a generator.
Benjibear
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Sunday, February 24, 2013 10:00:45 AM
Originally Posted by: Keith 

Transformer in truck to connect to town power. Would guess that they would be carried by smaller shows who did not have a generator.



Both cases, it appears there is a transformer on the pole which I assume would step the utility voltage to the shows utilization voltage which I assume is 120/240 Volt, Single Phase. The thing that is interesting, is I am not sure if the electricity is being metered.
It is what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.
Keith
Sunday, February 24, 2013 4:54:21 PM
As I recall/read some shows carried transformer trucks (hot wagons, IIRC) to connect to town power. Perhaps not all spots had access to pole mounted transformers as this one did. Not sure from the pics whether the transformer was actually used to power the show. Don't know about metering.

Just remembered that Conklin used transformers in 1976. Pic here . I don’t recall pole mounted transformers at this spot. I assume transformers were 3 phase to power ride motors.
ringmaster
Sunday, February 24, 2013 5:58:08 PM
The hot wagon is being connected directly to the 440V line, not the transformer. The two or three transformers (pot) will step the city juice down to 220v, and distribute it through three lengths of 4 gage cable, two legs and a neutral, some times a forth was added for a mechanical ground. Later 3/4 or 4/4 baloney cable was used. The ends of he 50' cables were bolted to each end of 1" square brass bars, bolted to the bottoms of wooden junction boxes, which sat on the ground. There were no plugs, switches, or fuses. Each bar had a row of 1/4" holes, the bare ends of the hookup wires were stuck in the holes and wedged with the pointed end of a cut down candy apple stick. The more sophisticated showmen wrapped or even soldered their cut in wires to the eyes of 3" brass cotter pins that were then wrapped in friction tape. You could buy the pins of the Acme truck.
Shows that used only city power ran all their majors off gas engines.
flamo
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013 1:27:46 AM
Back in the day we did all kinds of stuff to get electricity to the rides and joints. the only fusing was on the ride or joint , not in the boxes. I saw more joint leads melt down as they used 16 and 18 ga wire when it should have been 12. There was no plug in, it was all direct connect and the electrician dinged jointees for the cut in. Most shows had gas engines on rides including the MGR. In the late 60s even smaller shows started converting to generators and 3 phase electric. Pot wagons would take city power and using the proper transformer taps would drop it to 208 single phase. If you had a ride that required 3 phase you bought an "Add a phase" which created an artificial 3d leg. Back then we used 8' ground rods, then the green mechanical ground. With Larry Carr coming from the 300 KW plants we had 5 conductor 0 wire. I could not drag a 100' shot of that stuff. City power was if they got there early enough. We had power 24/7 but sometimes they were late getting there to cut you out. Solved that problem when I got a hot stick and climbers. Pop the jacks and drop the wires. And we did use copper tubing for fuses. Remember, back the juice was used mostly for lights, 25 watt on the rides and 100 watt clear in the joints. Side note....The MGR had the only music on the midway. The Himalaya started the lite and music craze. The only other music was with the shows and revues. Very few of those left. Junction boxes were made from woof, painted red with 3 bars, either copper or aluminum with holes dilled in them. I left the box open and it was hot, almost all cut ins were done hot when one of the dogs on the show decided to relieve himself and mark the box. Sparks flew and he went yelping off. He walked well away from red boxes after that.
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paulmbe
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013 2:32:15 PM
Not to mention the apple sticks or if you were on a high end show cotter keys Freddie Gilmore taught me to work a box hot on his dads show
"Life's journey is not to arrive safely at the grave, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting, "Holy *, what a ride!"
ringmaster
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 12:46:58 AM
Originally Posted by: paulmbe 

Not to mention the apple sticks or if you were on a high end show cotter keys Freddie Gilmore taught me to work a box hot on his dads show


You learned to pickup a few apple sticks of the ground and keep'um in your apron. If you ran out, grab joint operators would charge you a dime or even a quarter each if you ran out.
A high class version of the cotter key was the pigtail, a female extension cord end fitted with cotter keys.
The metal Minnesota junction box with a locking water proof top, legs, and twistlock outlets started showing up in the mid nineteen sixties.
On the independent midways, trailers and joints were individually hooked up to city juice . You had to supply a hundred feet of 4/10 and a household style switch box. Some fair boards made you buy their male plugs with unique layouts that didn't work anywhere else, for several times the going rate. 'Nother damned ding.
Gary C
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 2:14:37 AM
I've played spots recently that used power like this. Dixon May Fair, in CA still does it this way. The power is just run through a "hot box", and distributed as if the generator were in the trailer. The fair pays the power bill. Had a live line fall on my house trailer a few years ago, when the landing gear failed on the hot box trailer, and broke the line off of the trailer. Not good!
Gary C.
amused
Friday, March 14, 2014 7:12:01 PM
Back in the 60's and 70's, Midway of Fun Shows, owned and operated by Ray Dresher, used a hot truck like that. They didn't own a generator. Every spot (we played in Minnesota) made arrangements for us to "hook in". Did I mention we played 2 spots a week? 3 or 4 days a piece... Yeah, we moved![rockon]
SideWinder
Sunday, March 16, 2014 2:06:47 PM
That's basically how you got "CITY POWER" back in the day.
Bill P
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Monday, March 17, 2014 8:15:04 PM
Saw some of those 3 bar junction boxes with studs and wingnuts in the 70's. You wrapped your wire around the stud and tightened the wingnut. One step fancier than apple sticks.


Last hot wagon I saw was on Gooding Amusement at Ohio State Fair in 1974.
gmonty3
Sunday, September 13, 2015 7:10:49 AM
There were 3 and 4-bar "Apple Stick" junction boxes. If the box was 3-bar, it carried single phase 220 and the natural was in the center; hot on either side. If the box carried 3-phase 220, there were 4-bars. The natural was always "next to the hinges". There was no 5th wire in those days (Green Ground). After a heavy rain in LaGrange, Georgia on Johnny "J's" Gold Metal Shows, I saw one of these boxes short out the generator. When Pee Wee cranked the generator around 5:00, the black smoke poured out of the exhaust. Rain water was standing in the bottom of one of the boxes and all 4-bars were under water. Going back to the term "Apple Stick Box", there were 1/4 in. holes drilled in all four bars approximately 2 in. apart. One hooked up their joint with say 12-gage wire by putting the naked end of the wire into one of the holes and pounding in a candy apple stick with a pair of dikes to hold the wire in place. Those were the days!
Monty



ringmaster
Friday, February 26, 2016 4:09:22 PM
Midway of Mirth,Ester Speroni, had a generator semi with three pots and a wooden tower at the front, so she could swing both ways. When we were on city, we had 24 hour juice in the living quarters.
Mighty Sutton Shows had a hot wagon mounted on in a train show van. They pulled it with a pick-up and it would fishtail wildly the whole time.
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