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Hi all,
I couldn,t help but comment on this thread, I worked for the C.E.G.B. commissioning Fiddlers Ferry in the 70,s..I then lived in Runcorn.
at the start of its life the power station,had four coal/oil fired boilers. and four Gas turbines, The merry-go round system in use then was almost none stop (24/7) bringing coal in from as far as Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, 1 , 1000 tonne train could keep the boilers operational for approx 6 hours , to keep ahead of the requirements. at full generating capacity. The advent (or so it seemed) of cheap foriegn coal,(poland, Venazuela, etc ) did hurt the UK mining industry very hard. many of the Pits around here (Sheffield) where i now live , were closed forthwith , because of the cheap imports, however several are now being reopened, to supply our power stations again..the actual mining of the coal is mostly nowadays done by mechanised machinery, which takes rock and all ,but as power stations use pulverised fuel (coal dust) a bit of rock doesn,t matter,
just thought i would throw this into the mix as it were
best regards derby
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