RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted July 28, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 28, 2013 Due to changes in the way gas is stored nowadays, the last gasholder/gasometer has recently been decommissioned in Bolton, so anyone building a current era layout can cross off the iconic background scenic feature off their list of items. They didn't quite make their 200th anniversary, the first one having been built in 1814. Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 I would argue anyone creating a future layout cannot have one, but one set in Bolton in the first half of 2013 would be ok. Got me thinking though, how do they store gas now? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky-CRS Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 In the pipe network mainly is my understanding. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium phil-b259 Posted July 28, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2013 I would argue anyone creating a future layout cannot have one, but one set in Bolton in the first half of 2013 would be ok. Got me thinking though, how do they store gas now? In the case of imported gas, it is stored in its liquid state at the import terminals, being released into the pipeline network as needed. I believe the same sort of thing happens with north sea gas too. This is not much different to the Victorians if course because most urban gas holders were built next door to the local gas works to store the gas being produced then let it out at times of high demand. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baby Deltic Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Got me thinking though, how do they store gas now? In tins of Heinz baked beans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danemouth Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 You can still have gasometers on a modern layout! Reason? At Grangetown Gasworks in Cardiff a gasometer was listed by CADW (Welsh equivalent of English Heritage) and could not be demolished - it had been disconnected from the network. There apparently was some architectural feature that required its preservation. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 You can still have gasometers on a modern layout! Reason? At Grangetown Gasworks in Cardiff a gasometer was listed by CADW (Welsh equivalent of English Heritage) and could not be demolished - it had been disconnected from the network. There apparently was some architectural feature that required its preservation. Dave And Grangetown isn't the only one ... King's Cross springs to mind ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted July 28, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2013 Is the Littelhampton one still there? (Think it was Littlehampton). P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
25901 Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 There are 3 left in Rochdale of which one is still used, but as a kind of expansion tank to take up any increase of pressure but not for storage, says "Gas Man John" on our street ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 And still standing, and in use, at the integrated steelworks, Redcar, Scunthorpe and Port Talbot where gas is still generated from coal in coke ovens and blast furnace gas from the blast furnaces. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnd Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 There is one next to the midland line from Ashbury's to Miles Platting in Manchester where it crosses Hulme hall lane at Phillips park, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahame Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Glad the heading was 'gas holders' and not 'gas-o-meters' although someone stooped to the incorrect term. Their main function was to store (hold) gas whereas meters are those things you have in your house. I had over 30 years in the gas industry and they were never referred to as 'gas-o-meters' - always 'gas holders' and located at gas holder stations. I remember once being able to borrow the keys to the station behind the Oval to park the car when attending a big match at the Oval. There was also a rough paint scheme to their colour - black or grey in towns, green in the country and blue by the sea, although it wasn't rigidly adhered to. The big one in the Old Kent Road (no 11 if I remember correctly) was quite a size and could hold 12 million cubic feet of gas. G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HAB Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 In the case of imported gas, it is stored in its liquid state at the import terminals, being released into the pipeline network as needed. I believe the same sort of thing happens with north sea gas too. This is not much different to the Victorians if course because most urban gas holders were built next door to the local gas works to store the gas being produced then let it out at times of high demand. Gas is stored underground in vast caverns from which (typically) salt has been extracted - though in many case depleted natural gas cavities are used. It is pumped in at high pressure (when the price is low) then let out again when the price is high. There are a number of such facilities about the place but all are totally featureless from the outside, and nowhere near railways! This link is from the US but it describes the basics http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/storagebasics/storagebasics.html Oh, And we nearly ran out last winter... Notwithstanding what grahame says there is nothing wrong with the use of the word Gasometer for this purpose - see:- http://www.finedictionary.com/gasometer.html When ah wer' a lad everyone used the term - I never heard of a "gas holder" until I actually visited a gas works! But maybe Grahame is from south of Watford.... Cheers, Howard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZiderHead Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 yup, nothing wrong with gasometer, and the telescopic ones do provide a measure of the volume of gas contained by their height, even if that isnt their purpose. Interesting thread, I didnt know there were any left Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grahame Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Notwithstanding what grahame says there is nothing wrong with the use of the word Gasometer for this purpose - see:- http://www.finedictionary.com/gasometer.html When ah wer' a lad everyone used the term - I never heard of a "gas holder" until I actually visited a gas works! But maybe Grahame is from south of Watford.... Gas-o-meter is a common colloquialism but that doesn't make it the correct terminology. Even the guys who worked on them were called Gasholder maintenance engineers. Not sure what south of Watford has got to do with it - I worked at sites all over England and Scotland and they were always gas holders, but I do seem to recall that Norffen commoners outside of the industry were less knowledgeable and spoke a different language. . G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 You can still have gasometers on a modern layout! Reason? At Grangetown Gasworks in Cardiff a gasometer was listed by CADW (Welsh equivalent of English Heritage) and could not be demolished - it had been disconnected from the network. There apparently was some architectural feature that required its preservation. Dave My grandfather came to Cardiff from Sheffield and went to work for the Cardiff Gas Light & Coke Co. at their Bute Terrace and Grangetown 'works'. . In January 1941 he sepnt nights on top of the gasholders (that's what he always called them) at Grangetown, with no more than buckets of water, a stirrup pump and buckets of sand putting out German incendiaries that landed on the gasholder before they could do any harm ! . I doubt many would do that today, or would the HSE allow it, even in times of national emergency. . It wasn't the Germans that eventually got him - but the wet asbestos he used to lag the pipes with at Grangetown. Brian R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete 75C Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 I'm sure we all appreciate the English lesson, but my mum used to live next door to a gas holder in Carshalton and everyone knew it as a gasometer. Incidentally she also called the gas maintenance engineers "gasmen". In fact she married one... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRUNFOS Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 In West Midlands Gas we just called them Holders, with the vast amount of the distribution network now steel or plastic pipework the pressure has been increased all around the country thereby increasing internal storage capacity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted July 28, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2013 The last one in Plymouth at the top of St. Levens Road was cut down last year. Another piece of urban history gone, no grade 2 listing's for these industrial icons. SS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danemouth Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 When I joined Wales Gas Board from school in 1965 there was a story about a small North Wales Undertaking, Llanfyllin I think. In the days before Natural Gas their peak demand was Sunday lunchtime - in order to keep the pressure on the district at the required level the manager and his wife used to spend their Sunday lunchtime in deckchairs on top of the gasholder (or gasometer - choice is yours) their weight being just enough to keep things at the right level - that would be an interesting feature on a model of an old coal gas works! There was also a holder behind the offices in Bute Terrace, Cardiff which had been decommissioned before I joined. Not long after I started they removed the holder and of course were left with a large hole that needed filling - lorry load after lorry load of earth etc. duly turned up - I was watching from the canteen one day when the cashier and his acolytes emptied bag after bag of clipped coins and foreign coins into the hole with another lorry load of earth dumped on top immediately - they must still be there 20 feet down! Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danemouth Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 In West Midlands Gas we just called them Holders, with the vast amount of the distribution network now steel or plastic pipework the pressure has been increased all around the country thereby increasing internal storage capacity. There's also the Rough Field out in the North Sea, which when it was life expired in the 80s became a storage facility. I visited it about 20 years ago as part of a senior managers course. In summer they pump gas into it at 3,000 p.s.i. and release it back into the national grid when required in winter. Not sure if it's still operates. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted July 28, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2013 Suppose those coins were from meters? P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danemouth Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 Suppose those coins were from meters? P They were indeed - it seems a popular choice was a halfpenny clipped to go into the shilling slot! I knew one Meter Collector who visited a house in the Rhondda only to find water on the bottom of the coinbox. It seems the tenant had bought a gas fridge and made bits of ice about the size of a shilling and serrated them with a knife - still ended up having to pay for the gas. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted July 28, 2013 Share Posted July 28, 2013 There are still three in use in Reading... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted July 28, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2013 My hometown Clitheroe featured one of the last fixed gasholders in the UK for town gas production. This is it directly behind the still extant station building - I used to live about 200 yards from this. http://www.clitheroecentre.co.uk/Old_Clitheroe/imagepages/image96.html Also visible in the rear of the Clitheroe station signalbox. http://www.clitheroecentre.co.uk/Old_Clitheroe/imagepages/image102.html There used to be an exhibition at the British Science Museum, showing coal gas being made - it featured Clitheroe Gasworks (and my house at the other end of the road!) Abiding memories of the gasworks - avoiding the 16T coal wagons being shunted into the works across the open crossing at the end of the road and the gasworks internal electric steeplecab shunter being removed on a weltrol or similar, when the works closed - although the gasholder remained as a storage facility for many years afterwards. (Now trying to find some dates, but being seriously sidetracked by the photos on the oldclitheroe website I've just found!) Cheers, Mick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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