Didcot

[Efrogwr]

Why did I leave?

Like most of us - you HAD too?

Close. I got a better offer in Noth Wales. And if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have met Mrs E (and, consequently, E Minor).

[Jaded]

Didcot is iced up.

It looks like the end of the world.

[PaulF]

Actually this morning I felt it looked quite pretty from afar poking out of the fog with the sun rising from behind.

Then I descended into the gloom

[mattc]

Dear Readers

It falls upon me to bring you sad tidings.

The shutdown of Didcot A has been brought forward, and is now scheduled for this Friday, 22nd March*.

(so when I ride the Dean 300k on Sat I will need other landmarks to guide me home )

If you've been meaning to visit, dont put it off any longer! You can take in the flooded Sustrans route - which gets you the closest possible to the cooling towers - at the same time.

Lots of Love,
Your Didcot Correspondent


*Subject to various variables - if you all turn off your tellies now, it might get a few days grace. Or run the microwave continuously, and it might finish tomorrow.

[Jaded]

This is why I ave scheduled a trip through Didcot on Thursday. Today too, as it happens. Then I shall stay away for the funeral and return to see the memorial later in April.

[mattc]

Shame - you'll miss the laser light show scheduled for 1830h. Gonna be on telly, too, so you can still experience the fun.

[rogerzilla]

Some enticing new additions to the Didcot forum:

SCUM
Car deliberately putting oil/smoke down in Didcot
360° Panoramic views of key locations on Ladygrove Loop (I assume this is a link to a highly gynaecological porno)

[Efrogwr]

Has the power station been turned off? If so, has it caused the death of this thread?

[slope]

Has the power station been turned? If so, has it caused the death of this thread?

IMPOSSIBLE (adamantly he chuckles from the comfort, safety, distance and cover of a few Welsh mountains - Didcot resident from 1954 to 1972 - it's in me - it will not die)

[Efrogwr]

It was living in Didcot for a while that helped me make up my mind to re-emigrate, but to the lumpy end pf Wales. 

[slope]

yeahbut - the orchestral larksongs over TALL (they were in my day, swaying too) cornfields between the Hagbourne's church bell peelings, riding my bike to escape. Snogging under Clifton Hamden bridge (the bike got me there again) or was I just practicing love bites on my upper arm? Cycling through the floods under Marsh bridge just for the joy of water up me shorts. Getting pelted with blackboard dusters in Science lessons at St Birinus. Watching me dad score yet another winning goal in the mud down Station Road. Trying to ride home at dawn after a Wittenham Clump trip wearing an army great coat passing the egg factory (wrong turn). Morlands and Morrells warm and dangerous. Packets of puke inducing 10 Players No 6. SAMOR Foods' canning factory belching stewed prunes. Ernie Jackson's corrugated tin shop by Vauxhall Bridge. Sciving to hang around Didcot Girls School cul de sac entrance - pretending to look grown up with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed TRIGGER shift and white socks.

[rogerzilla]

This thread cannot be allowed to die, at least not until it becomes the #1 Google result for Didcot.

[Dibdib]

Has the power station been turned off? If so, has it caused the death of this thread?

Only Didcot A, the coal-fired unit. Didcot B is a gas-fired generator and should be going strong.

I am vaguely hopeful that the gubbinment's recently announced subsidies for biofuels conversions might mean that we could see a return to both units firing sometime in the future. Long shot, though.

(disclaimer: while I do work in the 'biz', nobody tells me nothing. this is purely conjecture from what I've seen on telly.)

[Efrogwr]

There is no entry for Dicot in the Basque version of Wikipedia, but there is one for where I live now.

[Kim]

Has the power station been turned off? If so, has it caused the death of this thread?

Only Didcot A, the coal-fired unit. Didcot B is a gas-fired generator and should be going strong.

Does this mean the Class 66 locomotives will be leaving their spiritual home?

[rogerzilla]

Has the power station been turned off? If so, has it caused the death of this thread?

Only Didcot A, the coal-fired unit. Didcot B is a gas-fired generator and should be going strong.

I am vaguely hopeful that the gubbinment's recently announced subsidies for biofuels conversions might mean that we could see a return to both units firing sometime in the future. Long shot, though.

(disclaimer: while I do work in the 'biz', nobody tells me nothing. this is purely conjecture from what I've seen on telly.)

Are they mothballing it or demolishing it?  I can imagine, at the first sign of the lights going out, everyone screaming at the Govt to do something and them remembering that we are sitting on 250 years' supply of coal.  Face it, someone's going to burn it one day, and it pales into insignificance compared to what China is doing 

[Dibdib]

Has the power station been turned off? If so, has it caused the death of this thread?

Only Didcot A, the coal-fired unit. Didcot B is a gas-fired generator and should be going strong.

I am vaguely hopeful that the gubbinment's recently announced subsidies for biofuels conversions might mean that we could see a return to both units firing sometime in the future. Long shot, though.

(disclaimer: while I do work in the 'biz', nobody tells me nothing. this is purely conjecture from what I've seen on telly.)

Are they mothballing it or demolishing it?  I can imagine, at the first sign of the lights going out, everyone screaming at the Govt to do something and them remembering that we are sitting on 250 years' supply of coal.  Face it, someone's going to burn it one day, and it pales into insignificance compared to what China is doing 

Sadly I have no idea. It's a big company, and I'm in the wrong department of the wrong bit of it. In short, nobody tells me nuffin'.

Kim, no idea about the trains either sorry.

[rogerzilla]

I don't think the Class 66 locos have anything to do with the power station.  They just  prowl around the station looking vaguely menacing.  They're the equivalent of a load of chavs down the bottom of Regent Street in Swindon, looking for a Friday night fight after a long week at work.

[rogerzilla]

Didcot has a gang, the "Didcot F***in' Rebels"!  Straight Outta Sutton Courtenay, mofos.

http://www.knowhere.co.uk/Didcot/Oxfordshire/South-East-England/info/worstthings

[andyoxon]

The moment it happened...



http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/hsdidcotnews/10309369.Didcot_Power_Station_switched_off_by_the_man_who_turned_it_on/

[Dibdib]

I've been in there! I was gobsmacked at how retro the control room still was. A classic case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

As lame as it sounds, I'm glad I got the chance to get the guided tour while it was still going. From reading the article it seems they're definitely going ahead with decommissioning and demolition, which scuppers my biofuels hopes. Bit of a shame really.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I know pretty much nothing about power stations, but ten or so years ago I translated a load of specs for a coal-burning power station being built in Poland. At least, I can't quite remember that they were design specs and I'm not sure how sure I was at the time (it's sadly the norm for techy things to be translated by people who know the words but not the tech) but I do remember being surprised at the amount of power the station took for itself.

[rogerzilla]

About 10%, isn't it?  The coal needs to be pulverised and blown into the furnace, a lot of water has to be pumped around and the manager wants to boil a kettle for his tea.

[mattc]

I think the fusion guys up the road at Culham would be quite pleased with just 10% (there is a "+" sign at the front of that, right?)

[Cudzoziemiec]

I don't recall a % figure but there were lots of outputs for own use.