Do my eyes deceive me?

[mickthemaverick]

No, it wasn't Stagshaw, it was a longer name than that I'll take a look at my maps and try and post up the route and sites, back in a while!!

Initial look yielded this:

borrowed from web

Also glad to hear that there are still some engineering managers around with field skills and commitment!!

[Hell Razor5543]

Talking about masts and towers, how about the Shukhov Towers?;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukhov_T ... _Oka_River

https://simkl.com/tv/679392/mysteries-o ... episode-5/

[bobins]

Not your average array.....

Soviet array - own work

[NewcastleFalcon]

Wiki has quite a nice gallery of "hyperboloid" structures (like the Shukov Towers) from around the world.

Here's Newcastle Airport control tower just for fun


Newcastle International Airport Control Tower
Allan H Brooks / New Control Tower Newcastle Airport, via Wikimedia Commons

and a Shukov tower lit up!

Shukhov Tower photo by Maxim Fedorov. Night
Maxim Fedorov [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons


Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Having dug through my old documentation I have found the commissioning test documents which reveal the sites used from Grangemouth downwards to be:
Blackhills, Dunslair Heights, Dunnion Hill, Ottercops, Ponton Pike, Eston Nab, Greenhour Hill, Weston Hill, Billings and Waddington

A couple of those names look wrong to me but that's what it says!!
my "S" site was Ottercops so apologies for misleading you. Picture of source document below which is totally my own work!!

own work

own work

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well Mick Ottercops is middle of nowhere, well in the "land of wide horizons" or "land of the windfarm". Definitely Pontop Pike as opposed to "Ponton Pike"......one of the ones I mentioned in my nostalgic reminisce.

Regards Neil

[andy5]

As a result of today's posting on POTD I thought it might be fun to share some things we've found which do not turn out to be as they seemed!
To get the ball rolling here are a couple of photos:





which I sent to our council highways department on 1st April with a report that someone had stolen our lamp post. I had a reply asking if I'd seen it the night before, I explained that I hadn't because it was dark!! I heard no more

Believe it or not, and apologies for changing the subject away from the other more interesting posts, I once had a dispute with Hounslow council about being fined for driving in a bus lane in Chiswick at 1115 pm, and part of my objection was based on their inability or refusal to say whether or not a lamppost was in a certain place.

[mickthemaverick]

Well Mick Ottercops is middle of nowhere, well in the "land of wide horizons" or "land of the windfarm". Definitely Pontop Pike as opposed to "Ponton Pike"......one of the ones I mentioned in my nostalgic reminisce.

Regards Neil

Yes Neil, it was Pontop Pike, likewise Greenhour Hill should have been Greenhow Hill! The document I have here is my personal copy of the commissioning report in first draft and I believe those secretarial (we had secretaries in those days!!) typos were corrected before the final customer copy was published. When I said the S site was north of Newcastle I meant laterally not literally!!

[myglaren]

I was really confused earlier when you mentioned the Wilton to Runcorn Ethylene pipeline then dragged Kielder and points north into it.
It wasn't until I saw the map and realised there were two pipelines that it became clear - must have missed something somewhere.

Shame Jim is not here to contribute as he did a lot of work on aerials.

As did the bloke who owned the car bits shop I used - retired now.
He left University as a Biochemical PhD but was conscripted into the RAF and never did any alchemy whatsoever - thrown into electronics, primarily aerials, and built listening stations all over the world to earwig on the Russians, among others.
Fascinating chap.

[mickthemaverick]

You mean your eyes deceived you Steve? It did say BP Grangemouth to Wilton to Runcorn in the original post! I had a mate who worked for Marconi travelling the world for Naval aerial installations although I think most of his work was on parabolics (radar etc)!

[myglaren]

I only half read that as IIRC there is a bit of M'bro called Grangemouth. Wasn't expecting it to meander through foreign climes.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I only half read that as IIRC there is a bit of M'bro called Grangemouth. Wasn't expecting it to meander through foreign climes.

Grangetown? Steve

I am just surprised that we have ethelene flowing under the Northumberland and Durham countryside without ever knowing it was there. Wonder if it leaks out at the joints?

I know when Keilder was created there were pipe lines created between Tyne Wear and Tees.

Bit of an academic assessment here, may return and give it a read to refresh my memory, if theres nowt on the Telly.

https://britishdams.org/2006conf/papers ... ulloch.PDF

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I can reassure you that the ethylene has been flowing since the seventies with no reported leaks. The management and control systems were very advanced in the late eighties when I worked on it. I can only assume that the systems have kept pace with the advances since then. In those days a helicopter inspection of the entire route was carried out weekly with ground crews manually walking the lines with sniffing equipment on a daily basis. It was those engineers that we provided the system for. The system was designed with intrinsic safe guards to ensure the radios were safe to use in a potentially volatile environment so I was fully briefed on all the aspects of the operation. There is more information on the web if you google, or ddg of course, the phrase Trans pennine pipeline!! Of course should it ever rupture and ignite we would have a real North South divide on our hands!! Might even let the North Sea meet the Irish Sea !!

[myglaren]

I only half read that as IIRC there is a bit of M'bro called Grangemouth. Wasn't expecting it to meander through foreign climes.

Grangetown? Steve

Bugger - Grangetown/Grangemouth - all the same isn't it

I had a friend worked as a commercial/industrial painter for J D Williams and worked mainly on the Wilton works but also Dormanstown, Redcar, Seal Sands, Grangetown and other ICI and related places - including Runcorn, which sparked my interest but as usual memory failed me.

[mickthemaverick]

Memory is a b..........sometimes Stan, you're not the only one!!! Grangemouth is west of Edinburgh on the river Thames I think!!