Ferrybridge 'C' Power Station, West Yorkshire, 2016 - 2018
Introduction
You may, or may not as the case may be remember a rather rushed report from here by myself and @Raz back in May 2016 just after the station had closed down, the turbine hall and control room where still occupied at the time and the boiler house was still hissing and banging with the sound of pipes cooling and steam escaping. Well, I've been rather busy at Ferry 'C' over the two year period since that report, trying my best to cover as many areas of the plant as possible and with quite some success...
So here it is in writing and pictures, the definitive Ferrybridge 'C'...
History
There's been a Power Station in Ferrybridge since as early as 1926 with the construction of Ferrybridge 'A' Power Station, the first of four Power Stations located in and around Ferrybridge. Ferrybridge 'A' was a 125MW station and was powered by a pair of 3,000rpm turbines. Ferry 'A' seized generation in 1976, the art deco building however still stands to this day, in use as an overhaul facility with RWE.
Then came Ferrybridge 'B' Power Station, Ferry B opened in 1957 and was a 300MW station powered by 3 100MW units. In 1992 the station closed its doors and was later completely demolished.
Ferrybridge 'C' the power station we'll be looking at in this report was constructed between 1962 and 1966, opening in '66. Ferry 'C' is a 2,000MW Station, armed with 4 500MW Parsons Units. It was sadly closed by SSE on the 23rd of March 2016.
Finally we have the most modern power station in Ferrybridge, the miniscule multifuel plant which only opened last year in 2015, the station is only capable of generating a max of 90MW, making it by far the smallest station to have exisited to date on the Ferrybridge site.
Pictures
Now on to the pictures, taking a look at each part of the plant individually as we go... These photo's have been collated over a period of two years, it's worth noting that the power has since been cut at the station.
Starting with the coal preparation plant...
Coal Preparation Plant
Starting with the most recently explored part of the site for me, the coal preparation plant, I must thank @AndyK for the use of his boat aptly named 'The Ferrybridge Invader' for the day, otherwise I might have struggled to see this part of the plant...
Coal arrived into Ferrybridge via three different means, by road, rail and canal.
Out of the three delivery methods, coal by water interested me the most, simply because it's such a rarity in this country these days, infact, the barge tippler at Ferrybridge 'C' is now a sole survivor of it's type in this country. Coal was transported from Kellingley Colliery down the Aire and Calder Navigation and from Immingham, this operation ceased around 2001 leaving the barge tippler derelict for the past 17 years. It is however still in great condition and still with working power in parts! The barge tippler works by lifting coal barges out of the water using counter balances and a Ferguson Palin motor assisted by a David Brown Gearbox. The coal is then emptied directly onto the conveyor system where it can be sent straight to the boilers or get dumped on the coal stack.
Coal was also delivered to the station by rail as mentioned previously this was know as the Merry Go Round (MGR) Service, trains would arrive at the station from local ports and colliery's pass round the stations rail loop dropping their cargo of coal without stopping into the coal bunkers before heading straight back out to collect more coal non stop. An amazingly efficient system.
A model of the coal prep plant as seen inside the Admin building...
Looking down the River Aire at the Barge Tippler and Station back in April 2016... Steam still coming from the cooling towers.
Let's take a closer look at the Barge Tippler...
Arriving by boat...
Passing right underneath the barge tippler was something quite amazing, the scale of this plant is breath-taking, getting my first glimpse of the inside of this beast was just as epic as I'd hoped it would be. We moored the boat to the side of the canal near the barge control gondolier and explored further.
Log book within the gondolier, funny thing about this is that it will have definitely been handled by my uncle this book, as he was head of the coal plant around 94 I believe, also the year I was born... Funny, 24 years later and I'm reading it in a state of dereliction...
And the view back down the River Aire from the control booth looking down the dock... There's a Heron on one of the lamps too, a little hard to see on here though.
Heading inside the barge tippler there's honestly not a massive amount to be viewed, it's much more impressive from ground level looking up at those massive counter balances. That said, it's still worth a look, and it's the key to successfully navigating the coal plant, with a little initiative applied.
Heading upstairs for a closer look at the counter balances...
And upwards again to the winding house, which is set in a rather nice all glass room on top of the concrete structure... Inside here you've got a small substation, two winder drums and a David Brown Gear Box, and well, other than that... A great amount of empty space and Pigeon shit really, but there's some nice views looking back on the station the coal plant when secca's not about, sadly the sun bowled us out of a shot of the station on our visit.
Next, we hit the dimly lit underground heading for the conveyors, the arteries of the plant, clogged to the brim with black crap just like any one else who has two pipes on the go constantly I guess... We're heading for the rail unloading shed, we know where it is, but we didn't yet at this stage know whether it'd be accessible or not...
Fortunately with a slide and a squeeze it was, just! Here we're standing right beneath the unloading shed, the coal drops from the bunker over head down the shoots onto the conveyor and away into either the power station or the stockpile.
The top level of the shed was gated, the gates really didn't seem worth climbing so a quick one was grabbed before we retreated back down the fire exit we'd come up from.
A rather nice view of the Tippler and the MGR circuit too. Sadly the coal prep control room was the only area on just about the entire station that we couldn't get into.
The Power Station Approach
I'll include a few externals here of our approach to the station, all taken under the cover of darkness, naturally, and most of them over a year old now too...
This one's from our first ever attempt at the station when @Raz and I managed a quick blast around in May '16 taken from the golf course, now the site of what I suppose you could call the site of the 'E' station, this view certainly isn't a 'thing' anymore.
Next up is probably one of my favourites from my time spent at Ferrybridge, creeping around the cooling towers in the dead of night, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself when all the coal guzzlers are gone! Maybe take up chess....
And one taking a look at the base of one of the cooling towers and the surrounding CW system canals, the 275KV switch house can be seen behind too, stand by for funnies regarding that place next week if you see me at the meet up... Anyway, on the subject of circulating water, lets take a look in the CW pump house shall we?
Circulating Water Pump House
The CW Pump house consists of four bloody great big orange Drysdale pumps, who are tasked with the duty of keeping water running from each unit, through to the cooling towers and back through the water treatment plant in a cycle, hence circulating water. Essentially this building is the heart of the station.
Control Panel for the pumps...
A detail shot of No.2 Pump, really there's not a lot else to show in here, it's a nice space to be in though with the opportunity to get some good shots. This area however seems to have been locked up around the same time as the workshops, really glad we hit this place nice and early.
Water Treatment Plant
Raz and I stumbled into here on our second visit only to see a camera and retreat rapidly, it was until late last year that I took a closer look at the treatment plant, this time with AndyK. It's amazing how quickly the decay's started to settle in here, peely paint and rust everywhere, anyway the water goes through separate stages of filtration here. It has to be purer than pure before it can be admitted to the boilers, this means going through Anthracite, sand and a multitude of other chemical and mechanical filters.
Some of the chemicals in here are dangerous enough to warrant an emergency shower and full NBC style over suits, nasty.
Associated pumps and equipment on the lower levels.
Fire Pumps
Next door to the water circulation room is the fire pump room, it's the standard CEGB setup old diesel truck engines set up on plinths, in this case, Dorman engines power Mather & Platt pumps.
An overview of the room, a fairly impressive one at that too, some may say the 'exploring of old is gone' well, I'm not sure it's gone just yet...
Dorman engines galore...
Mather and Platt...
Introduction
You may, or may not as the case may be remember a rather rushed report from here by myself and @Raz back in May 2016 just after the station had closed down, the turbine hall and control room where still occupied at the time and the boiler house was still hissing and banging with the sound of pipes cooling and steam escaping. Well, I've been rather busy at Ferry 'C' over the two year period since that report, trying my best to cover as many areas of the plant as possible and with quite some success...
So here it is in writing and pictures, the definitive Ferrybridge 'C'...
History
There's been a Power Station in Ferrybridge since as early as 1926 with the construction of Ferrybridge 'A' Power Station, the first of four Power Stations located in and around Ferrybridge. Ferrybridge 'A' was a 125MW station and was powered by a pair of 3,000rpm turbines. Ferry 'A' seized generation in 1976, the art deco building however still stands to this day, in use as an overhaul facility with RWE.
Then came Ferrybridge 'B' Power Station, Ferry B opened in 1957 and was a 300MW station powered by 3 100MW units. In 1992 the station closed its doors and was later completely demolished.
Ferrybridge 'C' the power station we'll be looking at in this report was constructed between 1962 and 1966, opening in '66. Ferry 'C' is a 2,000MW Station, armed with 4 500MW Parsons Units. It was sadly closed by SSE on the 23rd of March 2016.
Finally we have the most modern power station in Ferrybridge, the miniscule multifuel plant which only opened last year in 2015, the station is only capable of generating a max of 90MW, making it by far the smallest station to have exisited to date on the Ferrybridge site.
Pictures
Now on to the pictures, taking a look at each part of the plant individually as we go... These photo's have been collated over a period of two years, it's worth noting that the power has since been cut at the station.
Starting with the coal preparation plant...
Coal Preparation Plant
Starting with the most recently explored part of the site for me, the coal preparation plant, I must thank @AndyK for the use of his boat aptly named 'The Ferrybridge Invader' for the day, otherwise I might have struggled to see this part of the plant...
Coal arrived into Ferrybridge via three different means, by road, rail and canal.
Out of the three delivery methods, coal by water interested me the most, simply because it's such a rarity in this country these days, infact, the barge tippler at Ferrybridge 'C' is now a sole survivor of it's type in this country. Coal was transported from Kellingley Colliery down the Aire and Calder Navigation and from Immingham, this operation ceased around 2001 leaving the barge tippler derelict for the past 17 years. It is however still in great condition and still with working power in parts! The barge tippler works by lifting coal barges out of the water using counter balances and a Ferguson Palin motor assisted by a David Brown Gearbox. The coal is then emptied directly onto the conveyor system where it can be sent straight to the boilers or get dumped on the coal stack.
Coal was also delivered to the station by rail as mentioned previously this was know as the Merry Go Round (MGR) Service, trains would arrive at the station from local ports and colliery's pass round the stations rail loop dropping their cargo of coal without stopping into the coal bunkers before heading straight back out to collect more coal non stop. An amazingly efficient system.
A model of the coal prep plant as seen inside the Admin building...
Looking down the River Aire at the Barge Tippler and Station back in April 2016... Steam still coming from the cooling towers.
Let's take a closer look at the Barge Tippler...
Arriving by boat...
Passing right underneath the barge tippler was something quite amazing, the scale of this plant is breath-taking, getting my first glimpse of the inside of this beast was just as epic as I'd hoped it would be. We moored the boat to the side of the canal near the barge control gondolier and explored further.
Log book within the gondolier, funny thing about this is that it will have definitely been handled by my uncle this book, as he was head of the coal plant around 94 I believe, also the year I was born... Funny, 24 years later and I'm reading it in a state of dereliction...
And the view back down the River Aire from the control booth looking down the dock... There's a Heron on one of the lamps too, a little hard to see on here though.
Heading inside the barge tippler there's honestly not a massive amount to be viewed, it's much more impressive from ground level looking up at those massive counter balances. That said, it's still worth a look, and it's the key to successfully navigating the coal plant, with a little initiative applied.
Heading upstairs for a closer look at the counter balances...
And upwards again to the winding house, which is set in a rather nice all glass room on top of the concrete structure... Inside here you've got a small substation, two winder drums and a David Brown Gear Box, and well, other than that... A great amount of empty space and Pigeon shit really, but there's some nice views looking back on the station the coal plant when secca's not about, sadly the sun bowled us out of a shot of the station on our visit.
Next, we hit the dimly lit underground heading for the conveyors, the arteries of the plant, clogged to the brim with black crap just like any one else who has two pipes on the go constantly I guess... We're heading for the rail unloading shed, we know where it is, but we didn't yet at this stage know whether it'd be accessible or not...
Fortunately with a slide and a squeeze it was, just! Here we're standing right beneath the unloading shed, the coal drops from the bunker over head down the shoots onto the conveyor and away into either the power station or the stockpile.
The top level of the shed was gated, the gates really didn't seem worth climbing so a quick one was grabbed before we retreated back down the fire exit we'd come up from.
A rather nice view of the Tippler and the MGR circuit too. Sadly the coal prep control room was the only area on just about the entire station that we couldn't get into.
The Power Station Approach
I'll include a few externals here of our approach to the station, all taken under the cover of darkness, naturally, and most of them over a year old now too...
This one's from our first ever attempt at the station when @Raz and I managed a quick blast around in May '16 taken from the golf course, now the site of what I suppose you could call the site of the 'E' station, this view certainly isn't a 'thing' anymore.
Next up is probably one of my favourites from my time spent at Ferrybridge, creeping around the cooling towers in the dead of night, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself when all the coal guzzlers are gone! Maybe take up chess....
And one taking a look at the base of one of the cooling towers and the surrounding CW system canals, the 275KV switch house can be seen behind too, stand by for funnies regarding that place next week if you see me at the meet up... Anyway, on the subject of circulating water, lets take a look in the CW pump house shall we?
Circulating Water Pump House
The CW Pump house consists of four bloody great big orange Drysdale pumps, who are tasked with the duty of keeping water running from each unit, through to the cooling towers and back through the water treatment plant in a cycle, hence circulating water. Essentially this building is the heart of the station.
Control Panel for the pumps...
A detail shot of No.2 Pump, really there's not a lot else to show in here, it's a nice space to be in though with the opportunity to get some good shots. This area however seems to have been locked up around the same time as the workshops, really glad we hit this place nice and early.
Water Treatment Plant
Raz and I stumbled into here on our second visit only to see a camera and retreat rapidly, it was until late last year that I took a closer look at the treatment plant, this time with AndyK. It's amazing how quickly the decay's started to settle in here, peely paint and rust everywhere, anyway the water goes through separate stages of filtration here. It has to be purer than pure before it can be admitted to the boilers, this means going through Anthracite, sand and a multitude of other chemical and mechanical filters.
Some of the chemicals in here are dangerous enough to warrant an emergency shower and full NBC style over suits, nasty.
Associated pumps and equipment on the lower levels.
Fire Pumps
Next door to the water circulation room is the fire pump room, it's the standard CEGB setup old diesel truck engines set up on plinths, in this case, Dorman engines power Mather & Platt pumps.
An overview of the room, a fairly impressive one at that too, some may say the 'exploring of old is gone' well, I'm not sure it's gone just yet...
Dorman engines galore...
Mather and Platt...
Really enjoyed that
