History
Construction of the second power station at Rugeley began in 1965, and was completed in 1972. The 'B' station was closed in 2016, with the owners, Engie blaming poor market conditions and increasing carbon costs. Currently the building is being demolished to be replaced by a sustainable village.
The explore
My first attempt at Rugeley, in May, turned out to be a pretty bad experience. I arrived at the site late at night but didn’t enter the site as there were some dogs running around on the other side of the fence, which I could catch glimpses of in the darkness. I decided to return the next day in the mid-afternoon, hoping that security had put them away in the daytime. I managed to make it to the building but was unable to find a way in as all the doors were welded shut. As I turned a corner, I saw two vans driving towards me, but it was too late to hide. It turned out that security were on their way to release six German Shepherds, which were allowed free roam over the site at night. The police were called and didn’t understand why I wanted to explore and photograph the building. I was also told by the police to delete my photos, but only the ones taken as I was being taken to the main gate as I had managed to swap my memory card.
I planned to have a go at Ironbridge after going here didn’t really feel like trying after this fail , especially as I was doing it solo and decided to revisit Tonedale Mills on the way back home.
Some photos from my first attempt
The power station see from the coal yard. The building appeared relatively small from here but the fences and walkways show how large the power station really is.
I put off a revisit to Rugeley for a few months until November to have another go at exploring the site and visited with Olkka.
As we approached the building, I could see that demolition had begun. Just after I made it over the fence, I saw the security van coming towards me and all I could do was lie down in some short vegetation while the van slowly passed, meters away from me. The van eventually disappeared. I couldn’t find a way inside. I managed to find a way into the building and climbed the stairs to find myself in the control room. The control room was good, but my main target was the turbine hall. After much faffing about we finally made it into the turbine hall to find demolition had recently begun. Although demolition has recently begun, there is a lot to see and the turbine hall still had a nice feel to it and it was interesting to explore one of the smaller, 1000MW CEGB stations.
Control room
The control room was rather nice though the rest of the admin block was completely gutted
Turbine hall
Unit 6 turbine in the process of being stripped
The alternator end of unit 7
Unit 7 wasn't quite as stripped as unit 6. It was interesting having a closer look at what was underneath the casing
One of the beautiful turbine rotors of unit 7
A view of the whole turbine hall, with unit 6 in the foreground, from the crane walkway
Looking down on the water feed pumps for unit 6
Looking down onto unit 6
Unit 7
Boiler house
Looking up towards the top of the boiler house from ground level
Tanks in the boiler house
There were some great views of the surrounding landscape from roof of the boiler house
Standing on the roof of the boiler house, I felt much higher up then the other boiler houses I've been up
Cooling tower
Getting inside a cooling tower was a great experience, the echos were beautiful
Thanks for looking
Construction of the second power station at Rugeley began in 1965, and was completed in 1972. The 'B' station was closed in 2016, with the owners, Engie blaming poor market conditions and increasing carbon costs. Currently the building is being demolished to be replaced by a sustainable village.
The explore
My first attempt at Rugeley, in May, turned out to be a pretty bad experience. I arrived at the site late at night but didn’t enter the site as there were some dogs running around on the other side of the fence, which I could catch glimpses of in the darkness. I decided to return the next day in the mid-afternoon, hoping that security had put them away in the daytime. I managed to make it to the building but was unable to find a way in as all the doors were welded shut. As I turned a corner, I saw two vans driving towards me, but it was too late to hide. It turned out that security were on their way to release six German Shepherds, which were allowed free roam over the site at night. The police were called and didn’t understand why I wanted to explore and photograph the building. I was also told by the police to delete my photos, but only the ones taken as I was being taken to the main gate as I had managed to swap my memory card.
I planned to have a go at Ironbridge after going here didn’t really feel like trying after this fail , especially as I was doing it solo and decided to revisit Tonedale Mills on the way back home.
Some photos from my first attempt
The power station see from the coal yard. The building appeared relatively small from here but the fences and walkways show how large the power station really is.
I put off a revisit to Rugeley for a few months until November to have another go at exploring the site and visited with Olkka.
As we approached the building, I could see that demolition had begun. Just after I made it over the fence, I saw the security van coming towards me and all I could do was lie down in some short vegetation while the van slowly passed, meters away from me. The van eventually disappeared. I couldn’t find a way inside. I managed to find a way into the building and climbed the stairs to find myself in the control room. The control room was good, but my main target was the turbine hall. After much faffing about we finally made it into the turbine hall to find demolition had recently begun. Although demolition has recently begun, there is a lot to see and the turbine hall still had a nice feel to it and it was interesting to explore one of the smaller, 1000MW CEGB stations.
Control room
The control room was rather nice though the rest of the admin block was completely gutted
Turbine hall
Unit 6 turbine in the process of being stripped
The alternator end of unit 7
Unit 7 wasn't quite as stripped as unit 6. It was interesting having a closer look at what was underneath the casing
One of the beautiful turbine rotors of unit 7
A view of the whole turbine hall, with unit 6 in the foreground, from the crane walkway
Looking down on the water feed pumps for unit 6
Looking down onto unit 6
Unit 7
Boiler house
Looking up towards the top of the boiler house from ground level
Tanks in the boiler house
There were some great views of the surrounding landscape from roof of the boiler house
Standing on the roof of the boiler house, I felt much higher up then the other boiler houses I've been up
Cooling tower
Getting inside a cooling tower was a great experience, the echos were beautiful
Thanks for looking
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