sanford - I was able to turn on the power on Cannon Island - I too cannot follow the STEAM walkthrough nor any of the other walkthroughs on the Internet. Chief said to not turn on the condenser with the most rust. I found what looks like 2 of them with a lot of rust which I didn't turn on - I took a guess that moving the handle to point to the dome light turns that condenser ON while moving the bar away from the dome light turns it OFF -- I assumed that since there is no other indicator whether a condenser is on or off.
Ok so I fiddled with the gates to try and reach all the condensers then turn ON ONE condenser at a time and go back to the the room with the meter and see what the gauge says. If it advanced, I went to the next condenser on the walkway and turned it ON and again go back to see the meter. If the needle on the meter showed LESS power, I went back and turned that bar the other way. I did this routine until I got the power ON the meter and threw the switch. This took me about an hour of wasted time -
OK So the power is ON and I got one transporter to work -but I STILL cannot see anywhere where there are clues to these puzzles that might even hint on what to do next. The walkthroughs are not really any help - they "may" show you what to do but offer no help on where the clue came from to do the action or figure it out.
That's where I am at now - trying to figure what to do next.