Meadowhall cooling towers

[muddycoffee]

The cooling towers you could see from Owlerton Stadium were at Neepsend Power Station. Neepsend was the first powerstation in Sheffield, built around 1906 or thereabouts.

 

It had four-steam driven generating sets:two BTH @ 22Mw (?) and two Metro-vicks @ 33 Mw(?). Some of the generating equipment were overhauled, begining in the late 1940's but by 1970 or so, the whole place would be just about worn out.

 

Blackburn Power station was a later and much larger station with more units. Don't know much about this station but suspect its units were also small and probably worn out by the 1980's or whenever it closed.

 

Both stations were built and operated by Sheffield Corporations Electricty Supply Department. At the time of Nationalisation (1947), they were taken over by the British Eletricity Authority (BEA), which ultimately became the Central Electricty Generating Board (CEGB).

 

The huge building (neepsend) remained for a while after it was shut because it took a long time to dismantle and make safe. Locals called it the "Black Factory", and according to lads from the area a decade older than me it was a huge warren of massive rooms which went a few floors below ground. I know of many lads who broke in and explored. The whole place was completely gone by the mid 1980s and the only trace was a huge concrete platform which I assume capped off the foundations. There was also a huge tunnel assiciated with the site which came out some distance away. This was a place where the bravest would go right through without a torch and was dubbed Sh***on Entry. Again I was a about 2 years too young to have been introuduced to that one.

 

A local history book remarks that one of the reasons this power station was decommissioned was because the CEGB (or whatever power generating company) wanted to concentrate its generation at a huge power station in the trent valley near nottingham rather than have smaller power stations spread across the region.

[fourfive]

Here is a recent picture of the towers, taken from the end of Carlisle street.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c158/fourfive/e00a3080.jpg

[muddycoffee]

I have recently been reading about the construction of the M1 through the area of tinsley and south yorkshire and it seems that the road planners had a real complicated problem because the whole area is riddled with uncharted coal mines. As they worked out the route of the motorway they had to take a core sample every few yards so they didn't get a collapse into a void after the road was built. This greatly added to to complexity and time taken to build the road.

With this in mind it is hardly surprising that they don't want to touch the towers as removing them could upset the settled ground and cause the viaduct to dissapear down a coal mine or at least bend or crack. After all their thousands of tonnes must be causing a huge pressure on that part of the valley, and removal might cause the ground to raise. The viaduct was built after the towers were built so maybe it needs their weight to maintain its position.

[peterw]

And of course they didn’t want to bring the M1 down to ground level because that would have involved paying out millions in compensation to all the steelworks and engineering shops that would have had to be demoliished.

[martss]

If the cooling towers are pulled down or if the viaduct wasn't built, they'd be about 25% less posts on the forum!

[muddycoffee]

And of course they didn’t want to bring the M1 down to ground level because that would have involved paying out millions in compensation to all the steelworks and engineering shops that would have had to be demoliished.

From an engineering perspective I don't think it would make any sense to build it at ground level, even today if it were built from scratch, due to the fact it runs across a valley and complex "grade seperated" intersections were required at each side.

[martss]

There's the Don and canal in the way too, not forgetting all the roads that were already there, major routes between Sheffield and Rotherham that couldn't be severed.

[martss]

Some info on the viaduct here .

 

http://www.iht.org/motorway/m1bridges.htm

[Falls]

HI,

 

Where they built the Tinsley Viaduct is about the only place it could be, and still pass between Sheffield and Rotherham. Putting it anwhere else would have caused major problems. Also, most of the land on which it was eventually built already belonged to, or was controlled by, Whitehall-ie, the railway, River Don, the canal, etc.

 

You will remember that building the viaduct close to those famous cooling towers was a big concern, particularly in winter when precipitation from the towers might fall onto the road deck and freeze. Thats why electric trace heating was supposed to have been installed under the road surface. Don't know if it is still there or if they bother with it now that the power station has gone.

 

In Canada and the US, the surfaces on road bridges are the first thing to freeze in winter so you cross them with care.

 

Notice I haven't mentioned the trials and tribulations with the viaduct itself Thats a whole subject in itself.

 

Regards

[Falls]

Some info on the viaduct here .

 

http://www.iht.org/motorway/m1bridges.htm

 

Hi Martss,

 

Sorry I didn't read your ref: above before adding my two cents worth to the discussion of the Tinsley Viaduct. The article on the viaduct is factually correct but too polite.

 

The Ministry of Transport road roughshod over ligitimate concerns by the West Riding Highways designers and forced the Freeman Fox design on everybody. The result was a design that was supposed to be cheaper but ended up costing a heck of a lot more in the end (Sound familiar?).

 

Having screwed up the process,the MoT then had the gall to dump the Viaduct back onto the West Riding Highways to maintain. Remember how long the top deck was restricted to two lanes each way? Remember also the fungus growing inside the boxes? I better not say any more

 

Regards