Report - Pilkington Glass - South Yorkshire - May '15

[Mr Sam]

no planning for this just went off on a whim we even trusted my newly acquired nail! after patting around and getting scooped by the local youth we found a better way in and were in awe as to the size of the main hall! i hadn't looked at any recent reports so forgot it was the site of track work and the diamond crossing panel of significant interest to me as i work on track, just hope it doesn't come back to haunt me shovelling it in!

Construction of the factory began in 1919 and it opened in 1922. The site was chosen due to its canal side location and access to local coal and sand. In 1923 Pilkington, in collaboration with Ford in the US, developed a continuous flow process for the manufacture of glass plate and a method of continuous grinding. However in the 1950′s Pilkington’s developed the “float” method of glass production (the molten glass is poured onto a bath of molten tin at 1000C). This was much cheaper as it did not require the grinding and polishing processes. Pilkington’s quickly set about converting all their factories to this new technology with the exception of the Doncaster plant which retained the old method of production. It finally closed in 2009.

only noteworthy explore of the day we checked out a non existent bottle tip MD had spotted from the motorway! then stopped by Ilkeston Stanton on the way home on the off chance... only to shoot back up the M1 after a reliable source told us of an epic "walk in" only to get collared by the law before even getting out the car!!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_sam/sets/72157652741920048

top day out with Goldie87 & MD

bumped into a fellow explorer, can't think of his name though...

 

[mrwhite]

thats bloody nice

cheers for sharing

 

[Carter]

Smashing that, loads of great colours. Whats that track doing there then?

 

[Cuuvin]

Been mentioned that the tracks are laid by track work apprentices. makes sense, wouldn't want to practice / learn on a live track, eh?

Pilkington's Glass Factory, Kirk Sandall, Doncaster


Introduction:

Pilkington's, my local and much beloved industrial derp. First visited here back in March 2012 with a non member and was quite taken a back by the size of the place and just how awesome it was, especially since it was one of my first proper large scale industry explores. Before this the only really large place I'd visited was Thorpe Marsh next door! Anyway, with the place literally only a 15 minute drive away from me, I've visited numerous times since 2012 but for some reason, never put up a full report of my own, I'm not sure why, but saying that I only reported on Thorpe Marsh a few month back!

So this Easter I decided I'd go back again, have a good look around and collect any images I may be missing from other visits and compile a report. So three years on, here it is, my take on a personal favourite, Pilko's!

I've also put up a report of the engineers workshops previously, which can be found here:

Engineers workshops report

ectricians Workshop:
...
Hall No.3, Loading Bays:

This is where the completed glass would have been sorted onto the back of wagons for delivery's or put onto fork lift trucks for storage in the yard. Part of the old internal rail link can still be seen inside here, I'm not talking about the sleepers that have been laid by the track work apprentices, I'm talking about the tracks that can be seen sunk into the concrete.

...
And that's all guys, cheers for reading as always, and I hope you enjoyed the pics!!

 

[The Wombat]

That place looks huge
Nice work mate

 

[dave]

Good stuff there enjoyed my visit here recently couldn't get to the track as there were men working on it. What a racket they were making too gave me a shock when I first heard it.

 

[Camera Shy]

Still worth a look, good stuff.

 

[Will Knot]

Great work that Mr Sam, thanks for posting