Visited with chiroptera (pictured below).
[1] Now that I have your attention...
I'll give a brief background on the site, though annoyingly I wasn't able to find much and I'm not entirely convinced of the accuracy of the stuff I did find.
The site was formerly British Gas's Westfield Development Centre, before being bought by Fife Energy in 1992. The plant began commercial operation in 1998, as a single open cycle gas turbine (OCGT). It was then converted to a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) setup, resuming commercial operation in 2001 with an output of 120MW. The plant was closed/mothballed in 2011 after becoming unprofitable, partly as a result of high energy transmission charges.
Now, onto the fun stuff
This site was a complete surprise for us. It hasn't been covered before as far as we know so we had no idea what to expect. We knew there had been some metal theft but it seems to have been really very minor, with most of the site in shockingly good state. We knew we were in for a good one when we were presented with a couple of these as soon as we gained access to the building.
[2]
Things were only just beginning though. Tearing ourselves away from all the lovely industry, we proceeded upstairs and were met with this:
[3]
Oh yes, things were looking up! A few expletives and some pictures later, we were doing what any right-thinking explorers would - heading upwards.
[4]
Being a fairly cautious chap, I had been leaning towards doing this site at night to we'd have some nice, safe shadows to lurk in. Luckily chiroptera disagreed - it would have been a terrible shame to miss out on views such as this:
[5]
Continuing our upwards theme, we made for the roof. We caught a pretty good glimpse of the rest of the site on our way and damn were we impressed.
[6]
Sure it's no Inverkip, but this place had a pretty nice chimney. The base is accessible but alas, there doesn't seem to be any way up.
[7]
It was an absolutely beautiful day, especially for Fife in April. We had a brief pause on the roof for some food and drink, enjoying the view.
[8]
We still had delusions of doing another site afterwards at this point, so headed off before long and started looking for a route through to the next building. The conveyor belts held the key!
[9]
We headed on up, chiroptera being particularly wary of the integrity of the floor. If I'd known at the time just how recently the plant was constructed, I would have been even less inclined to caution.
[10]
I don't really know much about the nuts & bolts of how a station like this would have worked but as I understand it we were in the gasification building. Whatever it did, what first got me excited was the excellent view out over the rest of the site and the brilliant tangles of pipes and valves.
[11]
Now, I'm no pipe fanatic but I could certainly appreciate this!
[12]
There was loads of other good stuff in this building but I can't possibly post all of it. I'm sure chiroptera's report will feature plenty of excellent pipe pictures if you want more. Being a fan of the nerdier things in life, I found this room fascinating. As well as the archaic computer, the typewriter and the miscellaneous computer parts, there was a wall of plotters, graphing a multitude of unintelligible readings.
[13]
As we moved on, chiroptera headed into what looked to me to be a rather uninspiring wiring area. Normally I'm the one leading the charge into every last nook, cranny and cupboard but this one didn't look worth the effort to me. Luckily though, we persevered. Rounding a corner and happening upon an absolutely pristine control room was quite simply breathtaking. Once we'd stopped jumping around in excitement, we got on with the job.
[14]
Now at this point I was starting to feel that things were just going too well. We've seen plenty of cool stuff in the past but stuff this good doesn't generally come so easily. No stupid climbing, no walking for hours, no endless reconnaissance missions, no panicky, clattering escapes. Smooth sailing. Whatever, we were going to make the most of it.
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
From here on, it was mostly backtracking so this seems a good place to end. Our luck held and we slipped out undetected, though only just.
Thanks for looking. If you haven't already, you should check out chiroptera's report and, if you can, the site itself. The stuff we saw was awesome and there's plenty we didn't get to. Get yourselves to Fife!
[1] Now that I have your attention...
I'll give a brief background on the site, though annoyingly I wasn't able to find much and I'm not entirely convinced of the accuracy of the stuff I did find.
The site was formerly British Gas's Westfield Development Centre, before being bought by Fife Energy in 1992. The plant began commercial operation in 1998, as a single open cycle gas turbine (OCGT). It was then converted to a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) setup, resuming commercial operation in 2001 with an output of 120MW. The plant was closed/mothballed in 2011 after becoming unprofitable, partly as a result of high energy transmission charges.
Now, onto the fun stuff
This site was a complete surprise for us. It hasn't been covered before as far as we know so we had no idea what to expect. We knew there had been some metal theft but it seems to have been really very minor, with most of the site in shockingly good state. We knew we were in for a good one when we were presented with a couple of these as soon as we gained access to the building.
[2]
Things were only just beginning though. Tearing ourselves away from all the lovely industry, we proceeded upstairs and were met with this:
[3]
Oh yes, things were looking up! A few expletives and some pictures later, we were doing what any right-thinking explorers would - heading upwards.
[4]
Being a fairly cautious chap, I had been leaning towards doing this site at night to we'd have some nice, safe shadows to lurk in. Luckily chiroptera disagreed - it would have been a terrible shame to miss out on views such as this:
[5]
Continuing our upwards theme, we made for the roof. We caught a pretty good glimpse of the rest of the site on our way and damn were we impressed.
[6]
Sure it's no Inverkip, but this place had a pretty nice chimney. The base is accessible but alas, there doesn't seem to be any way up.
[7]
It was an absolutely beautiful day, especially for Fife in April. We had a brief pause on the roof for some food and drink, enjoying the view.
[8]
We still had delusions of doing another site afterwards at this point, so headed off before long and started looking for a route through to the next building. The conveyor belts held the key!
[9]
We headed on up, chiroptera being particularly wary of the integrity of the floor. If I'd known at the time just how recently the plant was constructed, I would have been even less inclined to caution.
[10]
I don't really know much about the nuts & bolts of how a station like this would have worked but as I understand it we were in the gasification building. Whatever it did, what first got me excited was the excellent view out over the rest of the site and the brilliant tangles of pipes and valves.
[11]
Now, I'm no pipe fanatic but I could certainly appreciate this!
[12]
There was loads of other good stuff in this building but I can't possibly post all of it. I'm sure chiroptera's report will feature plenty of excellent pipe pictures if you want more. Being a fan of the nerdier things in life, I found this room fascinating. As well as the archaic computer, the typewriter and the miscellaneous computer parts, there was a wall of plotters, graphing a multitude of unintelligible readings.
[13]
As we moved on, chiroptera headed into what looked to me to be a rather uninspiring wiring area. Normally I'm the one leading the charge into every last nook, cranny and cupboard but this one didn't look worth the effort to me. Luckily though, we persevered. Rounding a corner and happening upon an absolutely pristine control room was quite simply breathtaking. Once we'd stopped jumping around in excitement, we got on with the job.
[14]
Now at this point I was starting to feel that things were just going too well. We've seen plenty of cool stuff in the past but stuff this good doesn't generally come so easily. No stupid climbing, no walking for hours, no endless reconnaissance missions, no panicky, clattering escapes. Smooth sailing. Whatever, we were going to make the most of it.
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
From here on, it was mostly backtracking so this seems a good place to end. Our luck held and we slipped out undetected, though only just.
Thanks for looking. If you haven't already, you should check out chiroptera's report and, if you can, the site itself. The stuff we saw was awesome and there's plenty we didn't get to. Get yourselves to Fife!
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