I don't often post photos from our UK power escapades, aside from one or two reports here and there. I've been saving them up for one big post, and although everywhere hasn't closed yet, I figure they're just going to build up and then get lost in the depths of the backlog. So here's my take on the big coal munchers and oil guzzlers that we've been checking out over the last few years.
No big, extensive coverage here, just a few shots of each station. Enjoy -
Littlebrook D, Kent - July 2015.
Littlebrook D was an oil fired station, and was built by the nationalised CEGB. Construction on the plant began in 1976 and the first unit was commissioned in 1981.
The plant had a total generating capacity of 1370 MW, which is increased to 1475 MW with the stations open-cycle gas turbines included.
The station also had "black start capabilities", which means it would have been able to start generating without an external power supply if the UK had experienced a full or partial blackout.
Littlebrook D stopped generating on the 31st of March 2015.
Photos -
The first time we went here, the station was in the decommissioning process, and the inside was still fully lit. The lighting in the turbine hall is pretty awful for photos, it's probably the worst lighting I've had to deal with in post. All shots were handheld too, so 😕
Two years later, we decided to go and see how work had progressed and grab some shots in the sunlight..
..and to see the control room too, as it was still manned the first time we went -
Uskmouth B, Newport, Wales - August 2015/January 2018.
I don't have the images for the original visit here, can't seem to find them anywhere, but we did go back in 2018 so I've got something to put here. As I remember, the photos form that visit were shocking as it is, so it's probably a good thing!
Uskmouth B was built in 1959, and has a generating capacity of 363 MW, which is enough to power around 360,000 homes. It was earmarked for closure in 2014 and was mothballed.
In 2015, plans were announced to convert the station to burn biomass, after it was acquired by SIMEC group.
The station had began generating again since this, but in 2017 an explosion occurred in a switch room, throwing switch gear through a wall to the outside of the building: Power station evacuated after explosion
So this seemed to put everything on halt again, thus our prayers had been answered, and we got to visit Uskmouth B again -
My favourite turbines -
One of the control rooms. Each unit has its own control room, which is pretty cool -
Tilbury B, Essex - November 2015
This particular station was of great interest to us for quite some time. We had seen some brilliant reports on here from when it was in its decommissioning phase, but our goal was to see it in in the daylight, now that we knew everything had been powered down.
Tilbury B opened and began generation in 1968 with a total generating capacity of 1428 MW across its 4 units, however, one unit was decommissioned some time before the station closed. The silent unit was used for spare parts for maintenance on the remaining three units.
In 2011, RWE announced plans that they would be converting the power station to burn biomass only. But in 2013, due to financial problems and difficulty in the conversion work, RWE announced that the conversion would be halted. It was subsequently mothballed and then decommissioned.
Tilbury B has also seen its fair share of 'incidents' -
In 2008, "The Boiler Incident" occurred, where an engineer carrying out works on an offline boiler fell some 20 ft into said boiler, and was rescued by crews.
In 2009, a fire broke out due to a complication with one of the stations high-pressure steam turbine units. Luckily no-one was injured and the fire was quickly reported as 'under control'.
In 2012, a major fire broke out in a fuel storage area high up inside the building. This involved around 4000 - 6000 tonnes of fuel contained in storage cells, two of which were ablaze.
The high up position of the fire itself made it difficult for firefighters to tackle, and it took several hours to gain control of the situation. It took fifteen pumping appliances, three aerial ladder platforms, one major rescue tender, three bulk foam tenders and a thermal imaging camera inside a helicopter to help tackle the fire.
Anyway, SHOTS -
Ironbridge B, Shropshire - Various visits - 2015/16
Ironbridge was a pleasure to look around. It contained some really sweet looking hardware and gave us a small glimpse into what Eggborough might look like in person.
It was also probably the easiest one out of the lot, until later when the site had wound down and they'd actually bothered to secure stuff!
Ironbridge B was a coal-fired station. Construction began on Ironbridge B in 1963 and the aim was for the station to be generating electricity by 1967, but this goal was not achieved due to various circumstances and instead the station began generating in 1969 with one 500 MW unit in operation. The second 500 MW unit began generating in 1970. In November of 2015, the station reached its 20,000 hours of limited generation and was subsequently closed and decommissioned. Decommissioning concluded in 2017.
Night vs day -
And the disappointing control room -
Longannet Power Station, Scotland - April 2016/February 2017
We'd been waiting in excitement for this one to close, and for good reason - It's fucking massive.
Driving toward the station, we could see in the distance, growing bigger as we closed in, which built upon the nervous feeling that I always seem to get when approaching a fuck-off power station all lit up in the night, knowing that i'll be in there soon.
I think we went a bit early on this one, it was still crawling with people. So we only snapped a few handheld shots of the turbines from the crane gantry and then went on our way.
In 2017, everything was different, and we had free roam of the beast, control room and all.
Construction on Longannet begun in the mid 1960's and began generating in 1970. It was in full operation by 1973.
Longannet had an installed capacity of 2400 MW, utilizing four English Electric turbine sets, each arranged in two lines with a cross compound arrangement, driving eight 300 MW GEC turbo generators. (Thanks, Andy)
The station closed and began shut down in March of 2016.
Ferrybridge C, Yorkshire - September 2016
We'd been looking at Ferrybridge and wondering what it would be like inside for quite some time. We'd even debated visiting when it was still in operation at one point.
We saw Speed's report pop up the same night we visited Longannet for the first time, actually. And there was no question as to whether or not we'd follow suit and have a look for ourselves.
Getting in had proved to be a bitch each time. It wasn't hard exactly, but we had to hit the deck multiple times because of the slowest but scariest security car ever always popping up out of nowhere.
Construction of Ferrybridge C began in 1962 and the station began generating in 1966 by one unit. When the station was fully operational it had a maximum output of 2000 MW across four 500 MW units.
In July of 2014, a fire broke out in Ferrybridge C. It is understood that the fire started within Unit 4, with Unit 3 also affected. Neither Unit 3 or 4 were operational at the time.
In 2015, SSE announced that the station would close in March the following year. SSE stated that this was because of 'irreparable damage' caused by the prior fire, and that Ferrybridge C was now making financial losses.
The station also boasts a delicious control room -
Rugeley B, Staffordshire - July 2016/February 2017
It was good to get this one ticked off, but it was another one we'd been too early for.
We got in okay, but this time they had a security golf caddy, which was both fast and silent! Though it only took some dodging and correct timing to get in successfully.
Once inside, it was the usual affair, machines whirring and plenty of noise. But upon looking into the turbine hall, we noticed a few people in overalls and safety gear walking around, doing various worky things. So we just grabbed a couple of high up photos of the turbine hall (which didn't turn out too great) and left it for another day. We kept going back over the month and managed a to get a bit more done.
The place didn't really reach its prime until the next year, when things had turned quiet as they normally do.
This time with @Ojay and @PROJ3CTM4YH3M in tow, we nailed it.
Here's my report if you're interested: Rugeley B Power Station, Staffordshire - July '16 - Feb '17 | UK Power Stations
Wild Ojainz
Fawley Power Station, Hampshire - February 2017
We'd walked up to Fawley and had a look around the outside some years before my first look inside. We'd seen the fantastic efforts of others before us on the forum and we were really itching to get in there.
It had been out of operation for quite some time before we went, but only around the time we did it was it truly not in use. The control room, as well as being the local control to the station, also acted as a remote control station for various other power stations in the UK, so it was still manned even after its closure in 2013.
There are now plans to redevelop the site, and thus, there are no longer any members of staff based inside the building.
The station was commissioned in 1971 with an output of 2000 MW across four 500 MW units.
Fawley also has a tasty control room -
And some really nice curvy labs, which were a good bonus -
The remains of Kingsnorth - July 2017
We visited this one on a whim the morning after a rather messy party, still feeling a bit under the weather.
We had tried Kingsnorth a few times in the years prior, one such time resulted in @Andy the Spicy Egg falling off the sea wall, luckily into a pile of seaweed which prevented him from hurting his coccyx.
Most of the station had been demolished before we got a look in, but we got to see the control room and GTs, both of which were a bonus as we thought we'd find nothing but empty rooms.
I didn't have my camera to hand this time, as we came to this area with the intention of getting very drunk, not infiltrating demolition sites, so these images were taken on my old Samsung Galaxy S7, as you'll see in the image quality!
The security man had luckily been murdered before our visit, so we could walk around freely -
This phone had an extremely posh CEGB engraving -
Eggborough Power Station, North Yorkshire - New Years Day, January 2019.
The most recent of our power adventures, and one of my absolute favourites, too.
I'd always wanted to see inside Eggborough, something about it always attracted me to it and made me wonder what it would be like to be inside it when driving past on the motorway.
They cracked on with decommissioning work here really quickly, virtually everything is powered down now, as such I don't have any photos with the lights on, but I've always preferred power stations in natural light anyway, and this turned out to be a brilliant day for it.
Visited with @AndyK of course, and @The Amateur Wanderer
Thanks for a cracking day, guys.
Eggborough was built between 1962 and 1970. It first began generating in 1967.
It had a total generating output of 1960 MW across four 500 MW coal-fired units.
It is also the sister station to Ironbridge.
In February of 2018 it was announced that the station would close in the following September. In despite this plan, Eggborough stopped generating in March of 2018.
It's like two Ironbridges in one room -
The control room is another good'un -
Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire - 2019
This was a permission visit, we had our own tour, as we were the only two there at the time. As many of you know, Drax is still operational, but it is a beast. So here's a couple of photos from there -
I didn't take many photos, I didn't want to keep our guide waiting, as he would have been waiting for a very, very long time!
Aberthaw B, South Wales - 2020
Aberthaw B ceased operations in 2020, it was high on the hit-list due to its unique design and old-industrial feel. It presented a decent challenge in terms of gaining access, too.
It has one of those million quid fences, electrically charged, shake detection, camera to camera coverage, the whole works. Getting inside wasn't the issue, it was getting out of the coal bunker that was the main problem.
We must've spent over 6 hours in one room. The doors into the boilers were all padlocked, and it wasn't looking good for the future of this trip. After finishing our prepared celebratory dragon soops and some creative thinking, we just managed a way in.. Just.
Guts -
The effort was worth it, just to see my mates with smiles on their faces -
And that's all so far!
A massive thank you to all of my friends involved with these adventures, it's been fucking brilliant. Here's to more powah, more laughs and more free coffee and biscuits.
Extra thanks to @Andy the Spicy Egg @Ojay @PROJ3CTM4YH3M @The Amateur Wanderer @darbians, @Terminal Decline, @Olkka, @slayaaaa Mother Hampshire and anyone else I've ever been power stationing with. You're all absolutely amazing.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this, and hopefully I've done some justice to these massive bastards.
No big, extensive coverage here, just a few shots of each station. Enjoy -
Littlebrook D, Kent - July 2015.
Littlebrook D was an oil fired station, and was built by the nationalised CEGB. Construction on the plant began in 1976 and the first unit was commissioned in 1981.
The plant had a total generating capacity of 1370 MW, which is increased to 1475 MW with the stations open-cycle gas turbines included.
The station also had "black start capabilities", which means it would have been able to start generating without an external power supply if the UK had experienced a full or partial blackout.
Littlebrook D stopped generating on the 31st of March 2015.
Photos -
The first time we went here, the station was in the decommissioning process, and the inside was still fully lit. The lighting in the turbine hall is pretty awful for photos, it's probably the worst lighting I've had to deal with in post. All shots were handheld too, so 😕
Two years later, we decided to go and see how work had progressed and grab some shots in the sunlight..
..and to see the control room too, as it was still manned the first time we went -
Uskmouth B, Newport, Wales - August 2015/January 2018.
I don't have the images for the original visit here, can't seem to find them anywhere, but we did go back in 2018 so I've got something to put here. As I remember, the photos form that visit were shocking as it is, so it's probably a good thing!
Uskmouth B was built in 1959, and has a generating capacity of 363 MW, which is enough to power around 360,000 homes. It was earmarked for closure in 2014 and was mothballed.
In 2015, plans were announced to convert the station to burn biomass, after it was acquired by SIMEC group.
The station had began generating again since this, but in 2017 an explosion occurred in a switch room, throwing switch gear through a wall to the outside of the building: Power station evacuated after explosion
So this seemed to put everything on halt again, thus our prayers had been answered, and we got to visit Uskmouth B again -
My favourite turbines -
One of the control rooms. Each unit has its own control room, which is pretty cool -
Tilbury B, Essex - November 2015
This particular station was of great interest to us for quite some time. We had seen some brilliant reports on here from when it was in its decommissioning phase, but our goal was to see it in in the daylight, now that we knew everything had been powered down.
Tilbury B opened and began generation in 1968 with a total generating capacity of 1428 MW across its 4 units, however, one unit was decommissioned some time before the station closed. The silent unit was used for spare parts for maintenance on the remaining three units.
In 2011, RWE announced plans that they would be converting the power station to burn biomass only. But in 2013, due to financial problems and difficulty in the conversion work, RWE announced that the conversion would be halted. It was subsequently mothballed and then decommissioned.
Tilbury B has also seen its fair share of 'incidents' -
In 2008, "The Boiler Incident" occurred, where an engineer carrying out works on an offline boiler fell some 20 ft into said boiler, and was rescued by crews.
In 2009, a fire broke out due to a complication with one of the stations high-pressure steam turbine units. Luckily no-one was injured and the fire was quickly reported as 'under control'.
In 2012, a major fire broke out in a fuel storage area high up inside the building. This involved around 4000 - 6000 tonnes of fuel contained in storage cells, two of which were ablaze.
The high up position of the fire itself made it difficult for firefighters to tackle, and it took several hours to gain control of the situation. It took fifteen pumping appliances, three aerial ladder platforms, one major rescue tender, three bulk foam tenders and a thermal imaging camera inside a helicopter to help tackle the fire.
Anyway, SHOTS -
Ironbridge B, Shropshire - Various visits - 2015/16
Ironbridge was a pleasure to look around. It contained some really sweet looking hardware and gave us a small glimpse into what Eggborough might look like in person.
It was also probably the easiest one out of the lot, until later when the site had wound down and they'd actually bothered to secure stuff!
Ironbridge B was a coal-fired station. Construction began on Ironbridge B in 1963 and the aim was for the station to be generating electricity by 1967, but this goal was not achieved due to various circumstances and instead the station began generating in 1969 with one 500 MW unit in operation. The second 500 MW unit began generating in 1970. In November of 2015, the station reached its 20,000 hours of limited generation and was subsequently closed and decommissioned. Decommissioning concluded in 2017.
Night vs day -
And the disappointing control room -
Longannet Power Station, Scotland - April 2016/February 2017
We'd been waiting in excitement for this one to close, and for good reason - It's fucking massive.
Driving toward the station, we could see in the distance, growing bigger as we closed in, which built upon the nervous feeling that I always seem to get when approaching a fuck-off power station all lit up in the night, knowing that i'll be in there soon.
I think we went a bit early on this one, it was still crawling with people. So we only snapped a few handheld shots of the turbines from the crane gantry and then went on our way.
In 2017, everything was different, and we had free roam of the beast, control room and all.
Construction on Longannet begun in the mid 1960's and began generating in 1970. It was in full operation by 1973.
Longannet had an installed capacity of 2400 MW, utilizing four English Electric turbine sets, each arranged in two lines with a cross compound arrangement, driving eight 300 MW GEC turbo generators. (Thanks, Andy)
The station closed and began shut down in March of 2016.
Ferrybridge C, Yorkshire - September 2016
We'd been looking at Ferrybridge and wondering what it would be like inside for quite some time. We'd even debated visiting when it was still in operation at one point.
We saw Speed's report pop up the same night we visited Longannet for the first time, actually. And there was no question as to whether or not we'd follow suit and have a look for ourselves.
Getting in had proved to be a bitch each time. It wasn't hard exactly, but we had to hit the deck multiple times because of the slowest but scariest security car ever always popping up out of nowhere.
Construction of Ferrybridge C began in 1962 and the station began generating in 1966 by one unit. When the station was fully operational it had a maximum output of 2000 MW across four 500 MW units.
In July of 2014, a fire broke out in Ferrybridge C. It is understood that the fire started within Unit 4, with Unit 3 also affected. Neither Unit 3 or 4 were operational at the time.
In 2015, SSE announced that the station would close in March the following year. SSE stated that this was because of 'irreparable damage' caused by the prior fire, and that Ferrybridge C was now making financial losses.
The station also boasts a delicious control room -
Rugeley B, Staffordshire - July 2016/February 2017
It was good to get this one ticked off, but it was another one we'd been too early for.
We got in okay, but this time they had a security golf caddy, which was both fast and silent! Though it only took some dodging and correct timing to get in successfully.
Once inside, it was the usual affair, machines whirring and plenty of noise. But upon looking into the turbine hall, we noticed a few people in overalls and safety gear walking around, doing various worky things. So we just grabbed a couple of high up photos of the turbine hall (which didn't turn out too great) and left it for another day. We kept going back over the month and managed a to get a bit more done.
The place didn't really reach its prime until the next year, when things had turned quiet as they normally do.
This time with @Ojay and @PROJ3CTM4YH3M in tow, we nailed it.
Here's my report if you're interested: Rugeley B Power Station, Staffordshire - July '16 - Feb '17 | UK Power Stations
Wild Ojainz
Fawley Power Station, Hampshire - February 2017
We'd walked up to Fawley and had a look around the outside some years before my first look inside. We'd seen the fantastic efforts of others before us on the forum and we were really itching to get in there.
It had been out of operation for quite some time before we went, but only around the time we did it was it truly not in use. The control room, as well as being the local control to the station, also acted as a remote control station for various other power stations in the UK, so it was still manned even after its closure in 2013.
There are now plans to redevelop the site, and thus, there are no longer any members of staff based inside the building.
The station was commissioned in 1971 with an output of 2000 MW across four 500 MW units.
Fawley also has a tasty control room -
And some really nice curvy labs, which were a good bonus -
The remains of Kingsnorth - July 2017
We visited this one on a whim the morning after a rather messy party, still feeling a bit under the weather.
We had tried Kingsnorth a few times in the years prior, one such time resulted in @Andy the Spicy Egg falling off the sea wall, luckily into a pile of seaweed which prevented him from hurting his coccyx.
Most of the station had been demolished before we got a look in, but we got to see the control room and GTs, both of which were a bonus as we thought we'd find nothing but empty rooms.
I didn't have my camera to hand this time, as we came to this area with the intention of getting very drunk, not infiltrating demolition sites, so these images were taken on my old Samsung Galaxy S7, as you'll see in the image quality!
The security man had luckily been murdered before our visit, so we could walk around freely -
This phone had an extremely posh CEGB engraving -
Eggborough Power Station, North Yorkshire - New Years Day, January 2019.
The most recent of our power adventures, and one of my absolute favourites, too.
I'd always wanted to see inside Eggborough, something about it always attracted me to it and made me wonder what it would be like to be inside it when driving past on the motorway.
They cracked on with decommissioning work here really quickly, virtually everything is powered down now, as such I don't have any photos with the lights on, but I've always preferred power stations in natural light anyway, and this turned out to be a brilliant day for it.
Visited with @AndyK of course, and @The Amateur Wanderer
Thanks for a cracking day, guys.
Eggborough was built between 1962 and 1970. It first began generating in 1967.
It had a total generating output of 1960 MW across four 500 MW coal-fired units.
It is also the sister station to Ironbridge.
In February of 2018 it was announced that the station would close in the following September. In despite this plan, Eggborough stopped generating in March of 2018.
It's like two Ironbridges in one room -
The control room is another good'un -
Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire - 2019
This was a permission visit, we had our own tour, as we were the only two there at the time. As many of you know, Drax is still operational, but it is a beast. So here's a couple of photos from there -
I didn't take many photos, I didn't want to keep our guide waiting, as he would have been waiting for a very, very long time!
Aberthaw B, South Wales - 2020
Aberthaw B ceased operations in 2020, it was high on the hit-list due to its unique design and old-industrial feel. It presented a decent challenge in terms of gaining access, too.
It has one of those million quid fences, electrically charged, shake detection, camera to camera coverage, the whole works. Getting inside wasn't the issue, it was getting out of the coal bunker that was the main problem.
We must've spent over 6 hours in one room. The doors into the boilers were all padlocked, and it wasn't looking good for the future of this trip. After finishing our prepared celebratory dragon soops and some creative thinking, we just managed a way in.. Just.
Guts -
The effort was worth it, just to see my mates with smiles on their faces -
And that's all so far!
A massive thank you to all of my friends involved with these adventures, it's been fucking brilliant. Here's to more powah, more laughs and more free coffee and biscuits.
Extra thanks to @Andy the Spicy Egg @Ojay @PROJ3CTM4YH3M @The Amateur Wanderer @darbians, @Terminal Decline, @Olkka, @slayaaaa Mother Hampshire and anyone else I've ever been power stationing with. You're all absolutely amazing.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this, and hopefully I've done some justice to these massive bastards.
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