Picture(s) of the day....

[bobins]

To link in with Neil's posting about a 'The Register' article down at the Pickled Egg https://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/ ... 35#p520151
Here's a couple of photos taken some years ago of one of the Mail Rail stations just as they were starting the mothballing process

Own work

Own work

[CitroJim]

Great pictures Bobins

[harryp]

""PUBLISHED: July 9, 2015 12:00 pm LAST UPDATED: July 9, 2015 12:09 pm
Is former Wolverhampton Sainsbury's to become city eyesore?
One year ago today Sainsbury’s moved out of its Wolverhampton city centre base in St George’s to take up residence in a new £60million store off Ring Road St Mark’s.
Read more at http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2015 ... e88YsSA.99""

Sadly, just another abandoned building now

[CitroJim]

Sadly, just another abandoned building now

Not half the eyesore an abandoned supermarket on the seafront at Burnham-on Sea is.. I think it was a former Morrisons but now all the windows are 'bricked up' with rough concrete blocks...

It presents a terrible image of a town trying to pass muster as a desirable holiday destination...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Definitely not my own work but enjoy the link to Ryan McEwan Photography.

He does some absolutely stunning night-time photography of Edinburgh, the one of the waterside at Leith is exceptional. Website http://www.ryanmcewanphotography.com/

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=5900D091

He has taken a very nice image of the Queensferry Crossing...............otherwise known as the new Forth Road Bridge.

Supposedly ready for May 2017 Opening, so anyone venturing up from down South for a 500 mile tour of the North of Scotland later in the year will be able to experience it first hand.

Significant moment in the last few days...It has successfully met in the middle!

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

The title of the World's Largest solar plant is constantly changing, I believe its held by India at the moment.

Obviously I havent been round the world with my instamatic attached to a suitable drone to supply any original photography for "Picture(s) of the day" so apologies for the extra effort of clicking on a link.

Some of these installations are strangely pleasing with a bit of decent camerawork, with this one the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy plant in Nevada, being a case in point. Its a Solar-Thermal Power plant (wiki article here.

http://breakingenergy.com/wp-content/up ... 4_hi-1.jpg

and this one has a beauty of symmetry and tranquility

http://www.sciencealert.com/images/stories/solar.jpg

I concede that power generation plants from other sources can have an awesome presence, even your coal-fireds can conjure up some brooding images, and the starkness of some nuclear power installations can appeal to some..even the incongruent Torness installation on the east coast as you drive up to Edinburgh has this quality.

So, if you fancy joining in let this be "Power Generation Plant Pictures day!" lets hope it gets more participants than "Milton Keynes Day"

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Geograph is always and interesting source of images witn images posted up for every 1km square in the UK.

Here's one Torness Power station starkly white and and boxy with the lighthouse comparitively small-scale behind it and the Bass Rock out at sea, and the Kingdom of Fife beyond.



Image by Walter Baxter
under this creative commons licence

Regards Neil

[bobins]

I concede that power generation plants from other sources can have an awesome presence, even your coal-fireds can conjure up some brooding images, and the starkness of some nuclear power installations can appeal to some..even the incongruent Torness installation on the east coast as you drive up to Edinburgh has this quality.

So, if you fancy joining in let this be "Power Generation Plant Pictures day!" lets hope it gets more participants than "Milton Keynes Day"

Regards Neil

Challenge accepted But enough of this green and pleasantness, here's some good old fashioned oil burners with one thing in common - they're all either underground or in very large concrete boxes

Own work

First up is a couple of the old gensets under Gibraltar. Gib is basically hollow and has a very interesting history - as well as being very small and perfect for electric cars.... apart from the really steep bits The photo above is in Calpe.
The next two photos are in the area of Fire Control South. I don't know if it was preserved 'by accident', or if there was an intended further use for the genny. Whichever way, it was in lovely condition when I visited a good few years ago

Own work

Own work

In need of a bit of work with a wire brush, and the odd can of Plus Gas - these three gennies were in Tomson's Raise in Gib.

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Coming a bit further forward in time, this was in an old Nato site in West Germany. It's one of four gensets in the hall, the second photo is of the air intake chamber - note the person at the back for scale

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Own work

Going back to the 50s now, this is in an old Regional War Room which had a later use as a slightly more modern government bunker. An old Ruston and Hornsby generator with a 'Lancashire Dynamo + Crypto' alternator (at least I presume it's an alternator, not a dynamo !!) dating from 1953 lurks through the doorway.

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The next one is in an old Post Office Protected Repeater location - basically a bunkered phone exchange.

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To end with, a couple of foreign sites - the first one is from an old East German nuclear warhead store. These were where the battlefield warheads were kept very safe and very secure. There was a direct connection on the gate to the inner secure area back to Moscow, so if anyone opened the gate - an alarm would ring. So absolutely nothing to worry about there. Oh no.

Own work

And as a contrast, one from a neutral country - Switzerland. Some nice Sulzer engines in a rather lovely engine room

Own work

[NewcastleFalcon]

Challenge accepted But enough of this green and pleasantness,.......

Thanks Bobins, that contribution has well and truly puts "Power Generation Plant Day" ahead of Milton Keynes Day already!

I think Ferrybridge C is no more, but green and pleasant it was not! Still...probably fairly depressed house prices nearby!

http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsp ... idge-1.jpg

Regards Neil

[white exec]

Really impressive photos, Bobins. I've done the 'tourist' bits The Rock a few times, and even into the Joint Services area (when our RAV4 got rammed by a trainee Wireless driver wrestling unsuccessfully with his Defender handbrake at full throttle in reverse), but never into the depths of the services caverns. As you say, most of what you don't see on Gib is out-of-sight . . . . rather like Switzerland!

Perhaps we should include the vast underground hydro power station under Ben Cruachan on the upcoming 500 North excursion?

[bobins]

Really impressive photos, Bobins. I've done the 'tourist' bits The Rock a few times, and even into the Joint Services area (when our RAV4 got rammed by a trainee Wireless driver wrestling unsuccessfully with his Defender handbrake at full throttle in reverse), but never into the depths of the services caverns. As you say, most of what you don't see on Gib is out-of-sight . . . . rather like Switzerland!

We were fortunate enough to be able to arrange a complete walk through in one go from one end to the other on one occasion. It took a bit of arranging, and we had the surreal experience of a military police vehicle following us at a slow walking pace at the 'interesting' end of The Rock. I'm pretty sure they've opened up more bits of underground Gib since I was last there.

As for Switzerland - an Eye-Spy fanatics wonderland

Now you see me.......

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Now you don't......

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And that's just the sites built into the mountains. Their 'Falsche Chalets' are amazing. What you think is a lovely barn in a tranquil setting turns out to hide a great lump of a weapon

Own work

Perhaps we should include the vast underground hydro power station under Ben Cruachan on the upcoming 500 North excursion?

Now that sounds like an interesting diversion

[myglaren]

Inspired by a book I am reading and your posts I looked at our local-ish power station and it is proper dismal.
Have seen it in the distance when testing some electronics, probably about three miles away but not much to see from that distance.
No better close up

ETA: Hartlepool - couldn't remember that name of the place earlier.

[CitroJim]

Thanks for those pictures Bobins Really enjoyed them... Wish I had pictures of the generating plant I've been involved with over the years but sadly no photography was ever allowed...

Everything from Deltics providing standby power for Short Wave broadcasting transmitters right down to little 15KVA plants powered by twin-cylinder diesel Listers...

Those of yours are so evocative I could immediately smell that wonderful oily diesel aroma present in all generator houses

Lots of happy memories brought back

[bobins]

Jim - there's every chance you've seen this maintenance board before.... I believe you may have started out here many years ago. It was for 'a very large transmitter' site

Own work

Sadly the gensets have long since gone

[CitroJim]

Jim - there's every chance you've seen this maintenance board before.... I believe you may have started out here many years ago. It was for 'a very large transmitter' site

Yes, I reckon there's a very good chance In the summer of '76 Happy days! Standing by a Deltic and witnessing it start up and run at that location changed my life irrevocably - I fell hopelessly in love and remain so to this day

Only last week I was nattering with a colleague who used to work there and we had a very enjoyable stroll down memory lane

Even to the point of being keener on early diesel railway locomotives than steam ones... I love steam but I love diesel more