Rick_A
Well-Known Member
Raising of the inverkip chimney
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-23160478
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-23160478
Something to watch on the clyde 28th July
- Thread starter Rick_A
- Start date
NormanS
Well-Known Member
Raising? Na, I think you mean something else.
Rick_A
Well-Known Member
Sorry meant Razed
bikedaft
Well-Known Member
Anyone been up it?
I foolishly turned down the chance about 10 years ago
Guess they will have an exclusion zone to seaward?
I foolishly turned down the chance about 10 years ago
Guess they will have an exclusion zone to seaward?
A1Sailor
...
bikedaft
Well-Known Member
I was hoping that we could get a clear idea from CPA as to extent etc, rather than just turningup on the day, which we will do anyway...
ffiill
Well-Known Member
Strange-I could see it from my kitchen window on Canada Hill,Bute.
I had always assumed it was gas fired and that was why it was so clean.
Despite living in sight of it for 6 years I never realised that it wasnt operational.
I had always assumed it was gas fired and that was why it was so clean.
Despite living in sight of it for 6 years I never realised that it wasnt operational.
bikedaft
Well-Known Member
rhumlady
Well-Known Member
Now what are we going to use for navigation! I can see people saying "this isn't the Clyde, there is no chimney around here. I knew you got that course wrong when we passed Girvin"
A1Sailor
...
When I was on the bridge with the Grey Funnel Line it was an essential aid to navigation, known as the FBC - ****ing Big Chimney!
oldbilbo
...
That calls to mind the ditty "It was on the bridge at midnight, throwing snowballs at the moon, and he said he was a virgin, but....."
rhumlady
Well-Known Member
I can just see the scene on the bridge that morning. "Really navigator it just disappeared you say. I can't see something that big just vanishing"
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Generations of submariners too! As Ship Control Officer of the Watch running on the surface I must have fixed off that chimney a gazillion times!
Clyde_Wanderer
Well-Known Member
Anyone know what time of day it is going to be comming down?
Dont want to spend all day hanging around or dont want to sail up there and miss it.
An ETOBO would be handy.
C_W
Dont want to spend all day hanging around or dont want to sail up there and miss it.
An ETOBO would be handy.
C_W
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
Traditions like that don't pass away. It is still referred to in exactly those terms.
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
I agree - we are sailing down the Clyde off on our summer hols exactly about then.
Clyde_Wanderer
Well-Known Member
John when is "exactly about then"?
I have read elsewhere that it is comming down at 10pm.
What a c**p time to bring it down.
C_W
john_morris_uk
Well-Known Member
Tricky question. Gillian is flying up on the 27th arriving just after lunch. That means Helensburgh mid afternoon and we will set off as soon as we are ready. If we leave on the 27th then we might get as far as Kip? Realistically, we might not slip and proceed until the 28th. I haven't looked at the tides yet either.
10 pm seems an odd time for the demolition. 10 am sounds more likely?
Seatrout
Well-Known Member
As a child, my parents took me to a protest gala day in the fields where the power station was to be built. The highlight of the day was the release of a barrage ballon on a cable to the actual height of the proposed chimney.
After an afternoon of fun, the balloon was duly released; the wind caught it and the cable went right across the A78 and wrapped round the electric overhead cables of the nearby railway line! Such fun, and more entertaining than the gala day stalls!
While mothballed, the site became a popular venue for special forces training; fire-fights could be regularly heard at dead of night from nearby.
Personally, I won't be sorry to see it go, while acknowledging it as a navigational landmark, IMO, its a horrible blot on the landscape. That said, somewhere I have a surreal photo of it at sunset, during the miners strike, with the black smoke spilling downwards onto a flat calm water.
After an afternoon of fun, the balloon was duly released; the wind caught it and the cable went right across the A78 and wrapped round the electric overhead cables of the nearby railway line! Such fun, and more entertaining than the gala day stalls!
While mothballed, the site became a popular venue for special forces training; fire-fights could be regularly heard at dead of night from nearby.
Personally, I won't be sorry to see it go, while acknowledging it as a navigational landmark, IMO, its a horrible blot on the landscape. That said, somewhere I have a surreal photo of it at sunset, during the miners strike, with the black smoke spilling downwards onto a flat calm water.
DaveS
Well-Known Member
These references are good, but do contain one error: Inverkip was not Scotland's only oil fired power station. Carolina Port B, sited east of Dundee, was also oil fired. Because of the very low water temperatures of the Tay during snow melt the condensers developed an exceptionally hard vacuum, making the station on a number of occasions the most thermally efficient in Europe. I worked there as a trainee for a few months in 1975/1976, at which time the station was deemed mid merit and usually operated on a two shift basis. This made it operationally interesting, since each day involved a start up and a shut down, something only normally experienced annually in a base load station.
