Ferrybridge 'C' Power Station
Introduction:
You may remember my two part report from Kellingley Colliery a couple of month back, and how I said it was an important one for me growing up in the shadow of the place and having half of my family working in there? Well, the other half, on my Dad's side worked and some still do work in the three Aire Valley Station's, Ferry C, Eggborough and Drax.
As soon as I heard of Ferry C's sad closure, I again, like Kellingley knew it was only a matter of time until I'd find myself crawling into conveyors and working my way toward some top industrial action. I just had to see this place, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let the place be demolished in front of me without seeing inside and experiencing what my ancestors before me did on a day to day basis.
A plan was hatched and after a few indivigual recce's @Raz and I headed out into the night. Fortunatley, we had a clean run in and out without issue, that said, the place is busy at the moment. We could hear voices and footsteps at almost all times in the station itself and engineers where roaming the turbine hall floor, we picked a few well timed moments to take our shots and left deciding not to push our luck further.
History:
Believe it or not, 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:
Ferrybridge 'C' and the Multifuel plant seen from the golf course as we wait for the cover of darkness...
Conveyors:
Let's start our quick tour of the station by taking a look inside the conveyors and coal delivery, sadly on this visit we missed the mills like @Speed and @clebby before us.
Coal Delivery...
The Coal Drops, coal drops from the bunkers through here and down to the mills.
The Boiler House:
We didn't spend too long in here, by this point we had Turbine fever, with the turbine hall in sight it was just too tempting to head over and ensure we got the pics we came for.
The Turbine Hall:
The home of those four almighty 500MW Parsons Units and our main objective for the night, put your feet up and enjoy!
I'm quite pleased with the way these have turned out considering they where taken under duress, when people say this area is a stressful place to be, they're not joking. Enjoyable though, all the same!
Unit four, as said previously, the Turbine Hall, is still out of bounds really for the time being, you can still get some good shots if you're quick and stick to the shadows though.
Unit One, and a rather nice old enamel lamp...
Views of the turbine hall, both wide and at 50mm.
And that's yer lot, time to GTFO!
Cheers for reading,
TAW
You may remember my two part report from Kellingley Colliery a couple of month back, and how I said it was an important one for me growing up in the shadow of the place and having half of my family working in there? Well, the other half, on my Dad's side worked and some still do work in the three Aire Valley Station's, Ferry C, Eggborough and Drax.
As soon as I heard of Ferry C's sad closure, I again, like Kellingley knew it was only a matter of time until I'd find myself crawling into conveyors and working my way toward some top industrial action. I just had to see this place, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let the place be demolished in front of me without seeing inside and experiencing what my ancestors before me did on a day to day basis.
A plan was hatched and after a few indivigual recce's @Raz and I headed out into the night. Fortunatley, we had a clean run in and out without issue, that said, the place is busy at the moment. We could hear voices and footsteps at almost all times in the station itself and engineers where roaming the turbine hall floor, we picked a few well timed moments to take our shots and left deciding not to push our luck further.
History:
Believe it or not, 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:
Ferrybridge 'C' and the Multifuel plant seen from the golf course as we wait for the cover of darkness...
Conveyors:
Let's start our quick tour of the station by taking a look inside the conveyors and coal delivery, sadly on this visit we missed the mills like @Speed and @clebby before us.
Coal Delivery...
The Coal Drops, coal drops from the bunkers through here and down to the mills.
The Boiler House:
We didn't spend too long in here, by this point we had Turbine fever, with the turbine hall in sight it was just too tempting to head over and ensure we got the pics we came for.
The Turbine Hall:
The home of those four almighty 500MW Parsons Units and our main objective for the night, put your feet up and enjoy!
I'm quite pleased with the way these have turned out considering they where taken under duress, when people say this area is a stressful place to be, they're not joking. Enjoyable though, all the same!
Unit four, as said previously, the Turbine Hall, is still out of bounds really for the time being, you can still get some good shots if you're quick and stick to the shadows though.
Unit One, and a rather nice old enamel lamp...
Views of the turbine hall, both wide and at 50mm.
And that's yer lot, time to GTFO!
Cheers for reading,
TAW
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