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Dragon_Urbex
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Guest
Well. This is very much a site I have wanted to do for many years at this point. Eggborough Power Station was constructed in the 1960s and brought online gradually between 1967 and 1970. Upon the completion of works and the commissioning of the remaining units, the power station was formally opened on the 18th of September 1970 by Brigadier Kenneth Hargreaves. Designed by George Hooper of the firm Sir Percy Thomas and Son, it is an identical design to that of Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire, which was designed by the same firm, but double the size of Ironbridge. Consisting of four 500MW turbo-alternator generator units, drive by four Parsons steam turbines, fuelled by four coal fired boilers, this power station really was a monster when it was fully operational. Eggborough's Units 3 and 4 were fitted with Flue Gas Desulphurisation in the early 2000s, to scrub 50% of the station's sulphur emissions and to comply with the EU's Large Combustion Plant Directive (that finished off Didcot, Fawley etc) and two FGD plants were built with gypsum and limestone stores. Much of this has now been demolished sadly. Eggborough was taken offline in March 2018 and fully closed and decommissioned in September 2018. In June 2019, St Francis Group, a brownfield development company, bought the site for an undisclosed sum with the intention of demolishing the power station's buildings to replace them with warehouses. What a waste. As 28DL can only have 30 pics on a thread (as far as I'm aware), I've got about 50 more photos on my website post about the site here .
The Explore:
I woke up pretty damn early on a chilly April morning at 2am. I’d decided to get a very early night’s sleep beforehand, to make sure I was fully awake and alert for the day’s events. I’d gone with a friend of mine and we stayed close by the site - I was doing some university coursework up in the area so it would have been rude not to try Eggborough! After two hours (my usual wake up time for my brain), we both set off for the power station. However, my friend decided to go back to bed instead as he was very tired after not having slept well. So, I had to go it alone. BINGO! I was in! However. Demolition is well underway here sadly, and two of the four turbines are stripped out, with the other two open to the air, which made for an interesting photo opportunity. I spent around four hours inside the power station, moving up and down inside. I photographed the cooling towers from the roof of the boiler house against the rising sun whilst braving the bitterly cold winds and sitting on freezing cold frost. Let’s just say, the photos speak for themselves about how cool and fascinating this place was. The control room was easily the highlight of this explore. So many knobs and dials and buttons. Serious old school vibes, with no computer screens anywhere. I have Asperger's Syndrome and one of my passions is power stations and for me, this was a total wonderland, if you'll excuse the cheesy remark there. Specifically, this type of power station from what I consider the golden age of the CEGB's building spree of 500MW units interests me the most, which is why I could go on for ages about them. However, onto the photos. Enjoy…!
From June 2020.
The following are from April 2021.
And then a shot of Drax between two cooling towers, chuffing away in the distance, all units full tilt.
Thanks for readin'!
The Explore:
I woke up pretty damn early on a chilly April morning at 2am. I’d decided to get a very early night’s sleep beforehand, to make sure I was fully awake and alert for the day’s events. I’d gone with a friend of mine and we stayed close by the site - I was doing some university coursework up in the area so it would have been rude not to try Eggborough! After two hours (my usual wake up time for my brain), we both set off for the power station. However, my friend decided to go back to bed instead as he was very tired after not having slept well. So, I had to go it alone. BINGO! I was in! However. Demolition is well underway here sadly, and two of the four turbines are stripped out, with the other two open to the air, which made for an interesting photo opportunity. I spent around four hours inside the power station, moving up and down inside. I photographed the cooling towers from the roof of the boiler house against the rising sun whilst braving the bitterly cold winds and sitting on freezing cold frost. Let’s just say, the photos speak for themselves about how cool and fascinating this place was. The control room was easily the highlight of this explore. So many knobs and dials and buttons. Serious old school vibes, with no computer screens anywhere. I have Asperger's Syndrome and one of my passions is power stations and for me, this was a total wonderland, if you'll excuse the cheesy remark there. Specifically, this type of power station from what I consider the golden age of the CEGB's building spree of 500MW units interests me the most, which is why I could go on for ages about them. However, onto the photos. Enjoy…!
From June 2020.
The following are from April 2021.
And then a shot of Drax between two cooling towers, chuffing away in the distance, all units full tilt.
Thanks for readin'!
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