European Railroad Discussion > Droning around

The last day of July was forcasting some rather high temeratures, here in the UK.  There was a tour operated by Statesman Rail, from Westbury to Scarborough, hauled by a couple of resplendant class 47s. I caught these at Burton Salmon. From there a quick dash to Whitley Bridge, on the Drax power station branch, for the empty biomass working from Drax to Tyne. Seen here passing the now closed Eggborough Power Station. Drax power station is on load, in the distance, burning biomass. chris uk

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After the biomass train, I went over to the Port of Immingham, where some of the biomass for Drax power station is imported. I timed it right to catch a DBCargo class 66 just about to finish loading. On the way home I stopped at Crowle, a few miles west of Scunthorpe. Here, a GBRf  66 is working the Scunthorpe Roxby Gullett to Collyhurst empty gons. I'm not sure what this train moves, but I think waste from an incinerator is brought to Scunthorpe for landfill. chris uk

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What a different perspective ! :) Excellent !
Thank you for sharing these with us ...:):):)

Thanks for posting all of your interesting scenic photos.
ALLEN

I am glad to see your post did not fall afoul of the "Scunthorpe Problem".

Interesting that they built two power plants so close to each other. Here in the US they probably would have combined them on to just one site.

PHall Wrote:
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> Interesting that they built two power plants so
> close to each other. Here in the US they probably
> would have combined them on to just one site.

There were actually three, all within a few miles of each other; Ferrybridge C and Eggborough were 60s vintage stations, Drax A was supposedly the first half of a mega coal burning station built on top of the new Selby coalfield of interconnected mined, to be served by six pit heads. This was in the mid 1970s. But changes in the energy industry, the dash for gas and geological problems caused the mines to close and Drax B was never built. Still on a cold day the sight of all three plants hard at work was pretty impressive as was the constant procession of trains.

Chris, that's a tremendous set in almost perfect conditions. Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/20 10:40 by 86235.

An incredible series of images, thanks for posting them.

JB

Many thanks for all your kind Comments. The third power station out of shot is Ferrybridge 'C', where I worked many years. All 3 were built to burn coal from the Yorkshire & Selby coalfields. Although the cooling towers create a closed circuit cooling system, there is a continuous purge and make-up required from the river Aire. I suspect one reason for the spacing out of the power stations was the need to space the water requirements from the river Aire. In the height of summer, with very little fow on the river, at Ferrybridge we could almost reverse the flow of the river.  chris uk



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/20 13:28 by 55002.

ORNHOO Wrote:
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> I am glad to see your post did not fall afoul of
> the "Scunthorpe Problem".

I never ask 'who put the thorpe in Scunthorpe'!!!!!