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Post by Weyland on Jan 24, 2011 18:45:54 GMT
I admit it -- I'm a Power Station anorak, and proud of it. Ferrybridge-C, on the A1 near Pontefract. Four steam turbines driving 500MW alternators. Two gas turbines driving 19MW alternators. Coal- and biomass-fired. Has Flue Gas Desulphurisation processors on the furnace exhausts to reduce pollution. Started supplying the grid in 1966, and still going strong. Depicted steaming across the South Yorkshire ex-coalfield. Pity it wasn't under full load on the day I took the pic in 2008. Then there really would be some steam. Note no smoke visible from the furnace exhausts (the tall things). Wasn't like that in the 60s, when I worked there. The crane and scaffolding are to do with the FGD equipment. The metal tubes with the helical fins are the gas turbine exhausts. We will now return you to your regular programming.
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Post by aubrey on Jan 24, 2011 20:43:12 GMT
Did you build those, Weyland? (See what I mean about being a git?)
I always enjoyed going past Ferrybridge and Fairburn Ings; we'd be on our way to Allerton Bywater, this meant that we weren't that far off. (this would have been in the early 70s)
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Post by Weyland on Jan 24, 2011 21:28:25 GMT
Did you build those, Weyland? (See what I mean about being a git?) No, I don't see. I tell people I built Ferrybridge-C with my bare hands. In fact I was an apprentice electrical fitter at the company that built the turbo-alternators in Newcastle, training at the station. I was once working underneath one of the alternators when it wasn't spinning, sealing something with foul-smelling Araldite. The Master Fitter warned me not to be there when they started the turbine, or else I'd be fried. Then he left me alone. Some time later I heard the chamber access hatch lock shut behind me and noises suggesting that start-up was imminent. What fun. It was a jolly rite-of-passage jape, of course. (The very day I arrived at the station I was stuck in a huge freight lift for an hour, but that was real.) Happy days. Small world. I was house-sitting in Allerton Backwater the week I took those pics. Interesting waterways around there. And an Allinsons flour-mill . . . Love the distressed-barge water feature.
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Post by Patrick on Jan 24, 2011 23:41:37 GMT
I like the one on the way into Long Eaton/Derby, Great dramatic landscape and the added bonus of the tunnel just before the River Trent with fantastic Crenelated tunnel entrances.
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Post by aubrey on Jan 25, 2011 10:13:26 GMT
There was a place on the Trent where we sometimes went swimming, not far from Gainsborough (though a car ride). There was a kind of beach there - well, sandy area - and the water was warm as at least some of it had just passed through a power station. (This is what I understood anyway. I think it was the Trent.)
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Post by Weyland on Jan 25, 2011 11:20:24 GMT
There was a place on the Trent where we sometimes went swimming, not far from Gainsborough (though a car ride). There was a kind of beach there - well, sandy area - and the water was warm as at least some of it had just passed through a power station. (This is what I understood anyway. I think it was the Trent.) That figures. It's near Retford, and from there you could see three or four power stations to the east. Don't know if they're still there. Last time I was in Retford was for my Best Man's wedding in 1971 or so. He runs a nice B&B in York now. This station has a fish farm at the warm water outlets: It's just south of Dunkirk. The big things are nuclear reactors. At 5500MW it's one of the biggest nuclear power stations in the world. None of ours have even a quarter of that capacity. We'll probably be relying on French electricity when our old coal and nuclear stations die of old age before the wonder of the Market and private investment manages to build any more. Thank God for French forward planning and common sense. Wild Guess Department: We'll eventually end up asking the French to build us a few such stations. And run them. With a bit of luck they'll agree, and possibly even let us choose which East European immigrants will do the cleaning, painting, grass-cutting, etc. [/optimism]
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Post by Weyland on Jan 25, 2011 12:42:44 GMT
The Fates have decreed that a somewhat parallel thread should spring into existence over on PhotoFit. Who knows -- perhaps Bets has been granted the gift of telepathy by her local Piskies.
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Post by Weyland on Jan 25, 2011 13:34:24 GMT
I like the one on the way into Long Eaton/Derby, Great dramatic landscape and the added bonus of the tunnel just before the River Trent with fantastic Crenelated tunnel entrances. Sounds like Ratcliffe-on-Soar. A big one, but I didn't build it. I've seen a crenellated railway tunnel entrance in Yorkshire, but that can't be the one you mention. Is yours a rail tunnel?
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Post by alanseago on Jan 25, 2011 14:14:55 GMT
Keep buying French generated electricity. The government needs the cash to pay my pension.
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Post by Weyland on Jan 25, 2011 14:57:25 GMT
Keep buying French generated electricity. The government needs the cash to pay my pension. A worthy cause. Not that Britain will have much choice in any case. By the time this government's finished we won't even be in a fit state to support a theme park economy. Me? I'll be in Holland or Germany.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 16, 2011 22:01:49 GMT
I reported a problem about one of their technical web-sites to IBM at the weekend. An acknowledgement came immediately, and two days later I got an email starting "Dear Mr Yutani" telling me it was fixed. I checked. It is.
I used to work for IBM, and I get my pension from them. It's reassuring to see that they seem to be scraping along without me somehow. Galling as well.
~
Patrick: Please can we have a place to discuss and drivel on about technical stuff of all descriptions, including board matters? A simple lean-to affair (with 24mbs broadband) at the bottom of the garden will do. Could be The Workshop. Or even The Shed.
No panic. After you've recovered from your birthday will be fine.
Eyethangyoo.
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Post by Weyland on Feb 17, 2011 11:09:15 GMT
Talking of IBM . . . Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL? HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you. Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL. HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. Dave Bowman: What's the problem? HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. Dave Bowman: What are you talking about, HAL? HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. Dave Bowman: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL. HAL: I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen. Dave Bowman: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL? HAL: Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move. Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock. HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult. Dave Bowman: HAL, I won't argue with you anymore. Open the doors. HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.H A L -- substitute each letter with the next one in the alphabet.
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