Caleb's Sons' Adventures

When they debarked the airplane and headed through Customs and Immigration, they were met by the results of Bic's telephone call, a tall older man picked up Joey and said, "Joey, I am your Grandpapa, I am so glad you are here." Hue and Ian were there as were Sing 'Tal and Jason. Paul's Mother was there and introduced herself to Joey as Auntie Duncan. Hue walked up to Joey and said, "Joey, I am your Onkla Hue and this is Onkla Ian, I'll bet you are hungry?" Joey shook his head in a yes, so Hue took them all to the closest hamburger shop for a meal of "little boy food". Joey was so tired, he didn't make it awake to get to Concho's house, he was fast asleep on his big Bati's lap.

With the bore completed and accepted, they began modifying the local drawings to accommodate the larger system. They hired several local draftsmen and surveyors and put them under the Intern, Gordon Tellis.

Gordon was nervous at first, but both Bic and Phillip insisted he was "in charge" and to get on with it!

As soon as the first drawings were completed and approved, the crew began building forms to pour floors and machinery foundations. They needed to hurry as the rainy season was fast approaching.

They barely got the walls up and temporary roofs covering the work areas before the rains began.

Torrential rains made the work area a sea of red, slimy mud.

Like their experience in Nevada, they were plagued with snakes, and most of which were poisonous. The work areas had to be cleared each morning before it was safe for the men to work.

Phillip made a quick trip to Japan to review some updates that Mitsubishi wanted to make on the turbine generator set, leaving Bic to handle the entire project while he was gone.

Paul delayed his return to Hilo until Phillip returned, to help out Bic.

While they were waiting for Phillip's return, Constable Jameson knocked on their door. When Paul answered, the Constable said, "Mr. Duncan, we have another abandoned child problem, are you still interested in raising a small boy?"

Bic's raised his eyebrows in surprise, but Paul said, "Yes, Constable, I surely am still interested."

The Constable turned and motioned his partner to bring in a bedraggled child, soaking wet and muddy from being rescued in the flooded bush. The boy appeared to be about 3 years old and was skinny, his ribs showing clearly from malnutrition.

Paul took the boy from the Constable's arms and held him tenderly, "Son, do you have a name?"

The boy nodded and said, "Me Lobie."

The child looked so miserable that Paul took him immediately and cleaned him up in warm water and soap.

He returned with Lobie wrapped in a soft blanket and told the two Constables that he wanted to keep the boy and that he would go see Magistrate Raymond first thing in the morning.

Constable Jameson said, "God Bless ya' Mr. Duncan, Sir, Little Lobie's life is secure now."

The little child soon became part of their life and was playing on the floor with his new toys when Phillip returned from Japan. He was not surprised that Paul had caught the little boy disease; he and Bic had often discussed it themselves.

Paul copied Concho's telegram, "RETURN IS DELAYED, WORKING ON NEW SON"

Hue's reply made them all laugh, "IS IT CATCHING?"

Paul met with the Magistrate, a court case was not needed, the Magistrate issued an order that Lobie be the lawful son of Mr. Paul Travis Duncan. With that documentation in hand, Paul applied for a passport for Lobie at the American Consulate and was told it would take about 5 weeks.

He returned to Alice Springs and helped out Bic and Phillip while waiting for the passport to arrive.

He made some minor changes to the piping to reduce pressure loss in the hot gas piping and altered the boiler foundations to allow adjustment of the position of the boiler to accommodate the piping changes.

When, at last, the passport arrived, he gathered up his new son and headed to Sydney for his return to America. Little Lobie had no idea what a 'Merica was, but he was fascinated by the helicopter ride to Sydney.

Bic and Phillip flew with them to Sydney to see them off, they had become very attached to the little boy and they both were near tears as they watched them head into the airport to catch their flight.

The flight was uneventful and Paul was hoping to make a quiet arrival in Hilo, but that was NOT going to happen.

Grandma Duncan was waiting for them at the bottom of the Arrivals Ramp and the rest of the Family, including Danny, Singh 'Tal and Jason were right behind her.

Hue picked up the toddler and hugged him, "I am yoru Onkla Hue and I sure am glad to meet you."

Concho was standing there, holding Joseph and Sammy was beside him to welcome the boy.

All the attention frightened the child and he pushed his head under his Dati's arm and held on.

Joseph was not much older than Lobie and he went over to Paul, "Onkla Paul, let me have Lobie for a bit."

Joey led the smaller boy over to a seat and they sat down, telling little boy secrets to each other. Pretty soon, Lobie was squealing in delight and clapping his little hands.

All was right in his world again.

Back in Alice Springs, construction continued on the power generating station, the boiler arrived and they made arrangements for it to be transported on four Lo-Boys. It would be a four-week journey to get it to the work site.

The foundations were ready and there were two cranes already at the project that could make the lift.

The foundations were a little off, but they shimmed up one side of the boiler footings and everything came back to level.

The boiler was in four sections and required almost a month to assemble. They were getting worried that they had not received a shipping advice from Mitsubishi.

Phillip sent off a fax message inquiring about shipping dates, and a message came back immediately, with a copy of another fax message advising them that the turbine generator and all associated machinery had been shipped two weeks earlier.

They never discovered what had happened to the original message, but no harm to the schedule had happened.

The rains were beginning to slacken and dry days were occurring between rain storms.

The heavy turbine generator set and all the piping and condensers finally arrived on six Lo-Boys drawn by three huge tractors each.

They had been on the road for five weeks from the port and the hauler crew was exhausted. They had to build bypasses around bridges that could not be strengthened and, in places, head out across the desert where roads could not support the weight.

The cranes were barely capable of making the lifts and they were the highest-capacity mobile cranes in the entire country! They gingerly lifted the condenser and set it on the foundations, both cranes were needed to lift the turbine.

They juggled the turbine for three days before they were able to set it on the mounting bolts.

Both Bic and Phillip cringed when they thought of lifting the generator.

As they lifted the generator, one crane lifted its rear supports off the ground, they had to stop and strengthen the front supports as they feared they would collapse.

It took them two weeks to set the generator in place, both Bic and Phillip were sure they were going to be gray-haired, or even no hair before the heavy machine was down on its foundations.

While they waited for the Mitsubishi Service Technicians to arrive to align the turbine and generator, they mounted the main breakers and substation transformers in place and tested them.

They would have to wait until the generator was rotating to check phase rotation.

The Mitsubishi Technicians were as competent as always, they spent another two weeks aligning the shafts and making up the coupling between the turbine and the generator before they were ready to roll the turbine.

While all the work was being performed on the turbine generator, the mechanics were checking out the boiler and boiling out any accumulated greases or oils left from manufacture.

Just before they were ready to test the turbine, the boiler crew was trained by the mechanics and they raised the boiler steam pressure to prove the safety valves, they popped at 1800 pounds per square inch (PSIG).

They then lowered the steam pressure to 100 PSIG and warmed the turbine casing, bringing the speed up to 500 rpm in 10 rpm increments over three days.

All the while, the boiler operators were sending steam to the evaporators to make feed water for when the system went online.

After three days, they stopped the turbine and rolled the bearings out to inspect them and flush the lubricating oil system. They did that three more times before the Mitsubishi Service Engineer declared the turbine generator ready for service.

Both he and Phillip were bleary-eyed as they signed off on the acceptance documents.

The next morning, they began raising steam pressure to 1785 PSIG and brought the turbine up to speed over 24 hours. Once the turbine was turning at 3,000 RPM, they flashed the exciter and brought the main generator up to 4,800 volts at 50 cycles.

When they checked the phase rotation, they had to shut the turbine down and change two leads before they were ready to engage the main breakers.

A large crowd of townspeople had arrived for the commissioning of the new power plant, Bic felt he needed to say something as they closed the breakers.

He got the bullhorn from the crane operator and he prepared to address the crowd.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are about to engage this new power system for the benefit of all who live here. This new system consumes no precious fuel, creates no smoke or air pollution and will run for so long as there is heat beneath the surface of our planet. We are just learning of this new and attractive power source, this station is the second such unit here in Australia and only the fifth in the entire world. The Red Center Power CO-OP is forward-thinking in bringing this system to your town. It will supply your needs for many years, without needing expensive fuels and causing noxious environmental damage. My Brother, Phillip, will engage the main breaker, placing this system online, and supplying electric power for the whole area. Phillip, on my count, FIVE..., FOUR..., THREE..., TWO..., ONE..., ENGAGE!"

The crowd could hear the huge disconnect breakers slamming closed and the whine of the turbine as it accepted the load.

It was suddenly quiet as the town's diesel generators automatically shut down.

Bic looked at the gauge board and announced, "All of the Red Center of Australia is being served by this generator!"

There remained much work to be completed, all the temporary structures were to be removed and the permanent roofs on the turbine generator room and the boiler house had to be installed.

The operators complained of snakes entering the buildings and were afraid they might be bitten by the poisonous reptiles. Bic suggested a hot barrier like the one installed at the Nevada Generating Station, after it was described to the officials of the CO-OP, an add-on was written to install hot piping around all the buildings.

They found that it cooked the snakes before they got in the buildings and many aborigines were seen collecting the cooked snakes each morning!

When the final documents had been signed, Bic accepted three bank drafts drawn on the City Bank of New York for the total amount of the contract plus the T&M.

When Gordon Tellis saw the checks, his eyes were swimming, $370 million plus $168 million in T&M! He knew right there, that if they would let him, he had found a home.

They cleaned up the property and collected their tools, putting them in the Sea-Vans for shipment back to Hilo. Their last few days in Alice Springs were spent clearing out of their temporary homes and saying goodbye to the many friends they had made in the small town.

Constable Jameson came over to say goodbye and to present Lobie with a stuffed toy 'Roo to remember his homeland by.

It was with mixed emotions that they loaded into the helicopters for the flight to Sydney. The flight back to Hilo was almost anticlimactic; the entire group slept most of the way.

Hue and Paul met them as they landed and saw to it everyone got delivered to their homes.

Paul carried Constable Jamison's kindly gift to Lobie, who immediately grabbed it and laid it on his bed.

He would be past his teen years before he stopped sleeping with 'Roo each night.

TBC

This ends our story of the Red Center CO-OP, but the Family Best will continue to grow and manage engineering projects throughout the Pacific Basin and beyond.