I write under correction... the pics you have on the main site of the generators (engines) being removed on a lowbed truck were the 2 that came out in the late 80's. These were taken to Botswana. The remaining 5 engines were removed '99/2000. These were completely dismantled and trucked to CT in 12m containers, repacked and shipped out. Some went to India and the others to Tanzania(??). I have a pic for you for the site, one of the last photo's taken of the engine hall before the station was dismantled.
Was quite a nostalgic time watching them being removed piece by humungus piece. Each engine (only) weighed around 70 tons.
Hi Andy, I knew about the ones that went to India, interesting about the others and if you have any snaps, bring them to Spar, I'll scan 'em quickly......
Thanks
Mike
;)
Here's the famous fire at the powerstation...
There was anothr fire inside the transformer bays?
Ja, but was'nt this the big one?
Quote from: Michael Alexander on June 23, 2008, 06:46:25 PM
Ja, but was'nt this the big one?
Looks like the cooling towers at the back of the power station. Not the big one in 1978.
The cooling towers on the east side of the power station, so the big one was the transformer fire?
Mike the big fire was in the transformer bays, the section next to the survey dep we have a few transformers there for starage if you look from the front side "George circle" you will notice that there is a piece of the building missing on the right side, that whole area was distroyed
Alfred
Check the attachment
Looking at hat pic makes it seem like yesterday Alfred...
The pic was taken about 2 months ago the place looks good since they revamped it I must get another from the other side to explain where the area was
Here was an interesting reply from Bob Molloy!
"Hi Mike,
Greetings and felicitations from a long gone Oranjemunder (in fact so long gone that it is almost forty years since I last set foot there).
I was intrigued by your website and particularly the power station story and pictures of the engines and generators being removed. You may be interested to know that the change was politically driven by the previous government, sparked by the upcoming independence of Namibia (then South West Africa).
The idea was to keep South Africa's hand on the levers of power (literally) by running a high voltage line from the nearest point of the Escom grid at Port Nolloth to the Orange River. The move was ostensibly to supply the Alexander Bay mine with cheap power. The real aim however was to remove the ability of the Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa - or CDM as it was then named - to generate its own power. The problem was that CDM had a perfectly adequate and much cheaper supply right on site.
This was solved by offering CDM such cheap power that it couldn't refuse, so the power station was mothballed for the time being but kept in reserve in case the grid failed. This continued happily until the power station inexplicably had a disastrous fire, destroying much of the generating capacity. Thereafter it didn't make sense to hang onto the now aging equipment and it was eventually sold off. Coincidentally, the cost of power went up sharply. I suppose that could be seen as good forward planning.
On another tack: are you interested in an article I wrote on the ghost towns of the Spergebiet which also includes a little potted history of the discovery of diamonds in the area? Have also a January, 1967, edition of the Oranjemund Newsletter which I can copy and forward if you feel it could be of interest on the website.
Regards,
Bob Molloy"
Mmm .. interesting reading Bob .. so the plot did indeed thicken ....
Hi Mike
Try and get Bob's article on the Ghost Towns on the Ghost towns of the Sperrgebiet.
Quote from: Michael Alexander on December 27, 2008, 09:12:20 PM
Here was an interesting reply from Bob Molloy!
"Hi Mike,
Greetings and felicitations from a long gone Oranjemunder (in fact so long gone that it is almost forty years since I last set foot there).
I was intrigued by your website and particularly the power station story and pictures of the engines and generators being removed. You may be interested to know that the change was politically driven by the previous government, sparked by the upcoming independence of Namibia (then South West Africa).
The idea was to keep South Africa's hand on the levers of power (literally) by running a high voltage line from the nearest point of the Escom grid at Port Nolloth to the Orange River. The move was ostensibly to supply the Alexander Bay mine with cheap power. The real aim however was to remove the ability of the Consolidated Diamond Mines of South West Africa - or CDM as it was then named - to generate its own power. The problem was that CDM had a perfectly adequate and much cheaper supply right on site.
This was solved by offering CDM such cheap power that it couldn't refuse, so the power station was mothballed for the time being but kept in reserve in case the grid failed. This continued happily until the power station inexplicably had a disastrous fire, destroying much of the generating capacity. Thereafter it didn't make sense to hang onto the now aging equipment and it was eventually sold off. Coincidentally, the cost of power went up sharply. I suppose that could be seen as good forward planning.
On another tack: are you interested in an article I wrote on the ghost towns of the Spergebiet which also includes a little potted history of the discovery of diamonds in the area? Have also a January, 1967, edition of the Oranjemund Newsletter which I can copy and forward if you feel it could be of interest on the website.
Regards,
Bob Molloy"
Hi Bob
I recall the power station fire when the substation was build inside the mining area near mooimiesies on the eastern side of the tar road, did they not rush to get the substation on line due to the fire?
Greetings Alfred
Bob, am interested in all matters relating to Sperrgebiet and would love to read your history of the ghost towns of the Sperrgebiet. Am sure other Oranjemunders will be just as interested. Can you put them on the site for all to read. Have a few stories of my own about the early diamond mining days around Luderitz, Kolmanskop, Meob and Conception Bays etc. Kind regards Gordon Brown (Dougie and Pat Freemantle's son in law)
Well just over 2 years later and I found the picture that I promised of the engines in the station... probably one of the last pics taken before the dismantling begun.
Great pics. I hope Jack McBride in England sees that photo.
JOhn,
Jack proberly has photos of the old Ruston that used to be in the Town Power station.
Somewhere in the Attic I have photos of Frank Quirk and Roy Fields when we were working on one of the Mirrlees engines
Clive, do you remember Mr Bryant -I think worked in one of the PS? They lived next door to the Laughlans - Jean I remember. I remember Frank, Roy and Ginger.
These gens were diesel driven, right? If so was there a fuel line from the tank farm directly supplying the power station or was the diesel tankered in?
If it was the fuel line, where is that pipe today?
are-you-there
Mike, the diesel was supplied from the tank farm to receiving tanks in the yard at the power station.
As to where the line is now, I would imagine that it is has been capped but still there, as I cannot remember any pipe being removed from the station or surrounding area.
Well...lets assume that the distance between the Tf and the station to be at least 2,5 km... now if we knew what the diameter of the pipe, and if the pipe was capped on both ends, then I should have enough diesel to power my bakkie for 5 years?
nice theory....
are-you-there
Mike A, take a drive towards PCC along Mine Road, as you reach the last houses on your left, look next to the white "paaltjies" along side the cycle track all the way to the Industrial road intersection... I think that must be it. It used to be covered by a heap of sand until they prepared that section of ground for development. The pipe is empty in town and on the mine side.
There is a section of the pipe still visible in the mine between the old 38G and the newer 37G substations and runs alongside the power lines where it would have come from the Tank Farm to the west of 37G sub. I'll try for a pick when I'm in that area again.
Nice idea for beating the once again rising fuel costs. Be cautioned though... they tried using reclaimed fuel from the decommissioned fuel line in the mine that ran between Uubvley and 2 plant... the result was not pleasant.
The quality of Diesel from then to now is in all llikelyhood chalk and cheese ... and these were marine diesel engines they could run on just about anything .. consider the car diesel engines of now to 10 years ago ... most new engines now demand low sulphur finer quality for effiency .. what you put in is what you get out .. trouble ... down to lubrication my one colleague after his Renault Scenic was out of its warranty period and service plan decided to go to a regular garage for serviceto save money .. prob is the engine a 1.9 TDI requires a good semi synthetic oil .. two weeks after the service by the regular garage his oil level was dangerously low ... he was lucky he almost wrecked the motor .. he went back to Renault they did a flush and pout the correct oil in .. no more probs ...
The reason why engines today with up to 50 % more output for same cc if well looked after can last 300000 ks plus is finer tolerances and better engineering but yes finer products to support the output .. the old afrikaans expression of " goedkoop koop is duur koop can apply " //
Guys look at these two clasic's I've found, the question is are they old or are they OLD
Nice snaps Alfie, I always wondered what the idea was behind constructing a power station in the middle of the town was?
Hi Mike,
The pic, judging by the housing background and the old electrical workshop (where Gunter Machts held sway) was taken in the early 50s. As to why a powerstation should be built in town and not elsewhere, it was presumably to balance the load on the grid.
Apart from a few electrically operated scoops, tanks and excavators north of town, the town itself would have taken a healthy portion of the load, added to which were the old South Workings and the pumps at Swartkops. Hence at the time the placing of the p/s centrally i.e. in town, would have seemed logical.
Of course, as with all best laid plans, the growth in power loading caused by the HMS and the steady accretion of new screening plants creeping further and further north eventually made the decision look very pointless indeed.
At one stage it was described as "the largest diesel-driven power station in the southern hemisphere". It was heavily damaged by a rather dodgy fire, made even more dodgy by the fact that it occurred coincidentally just as an apparently purposeless spur line from the SA national grid was built from Springbok to within a bull's roar of the Orange River.
Despite the rather limited damage an instant decision was made to close the station and hook up to the new line, just a hop, skip and jump across the bridge. But wait, isn't the bridge the hell and gone out of town? Well, as it happened, the company had just completed a heavy duty HT line to Swartkops, ostensibly to replace the original which powered the water pumps. Oh, and what the hell, at the same time decided to throw a heavy duty HT cable cross the bridge to light the guard office at the other end. I think it had a single 60 watt bulb and perhaps a switchplug on the wall by the door in those days.
Out the window went the world's largest diesel station and with it a multi-million rand infrastructure - pipeline, tank farm etc. All this of course to the sound of Namibian independence bells ringing, leaving SA with a hand on the tap should it ever be needed. As any journo knows, the best stories never get written.
Yes Bob the real story will never be knowm as to why the decision to shut down .. the decision to go onot ESKOM .. .. the timing very well .. you know ...
Of course the next next is why the powerstations were not kept .. they could now have been piumping excess capacity into our now strained power grid .. I mean ESKOM as a power supplier let the larger southern africa down with its lack of foresight to supply for growth ..
Yes, Thanks Bob, I heard that Eskom has/was providing cheap electricity to the mines at below cost to encourage investment and development.....
I also could never understand why they shut the place down...... Can you confirm that the Powr station building was a rebuilt building that came from Kolmanskop....? I heard the mine store (magazine) also came brick by brick from the old german mines
idontknow
Yes indeed, much of the ironwork and cladding for the powerstation came from Kolmanskop as did the early brickwork for the Magazine.
From around the early Forties the ghost towns of the Namib were steadily cannibalized for materials, not necessarily as a cost saving but rather because there was a dearth of building material due to the war. Practically all of the old wooden houses came down from the north in bits and pieces and were reassembled in town. From '50 onwards the emphasis moved to use of breeze block (cement blocks) cast on the spot. Later even these were trucked in by the ever reliable Jowells Transport.
Re the ghost towns per se: I think I sent you a copy of an article I did on that subject which included pix. Perhaps this could be run again somewhere on the website?
Looking at the power station 1 and 2 pics circa 1950's it seems as if the building was reduced in size in the 60's or seventies. The section to the right of the big door seems to have been removed.
These two photo's are posted under Oranjemund 1930 I just added them to this topic being relevant
Quote from: Leon Sumter on February 16, 2012, 06:36:27 PM
Looking at the power station 1 and 2 pics circa 1950's it seems as if the building was reduced in size in the 60's or seventies. The section to the right of the big door seems to have been removed.
The section right of the big door was removed due to a fire arround 1978 I think, I recall mention of a Transformer or two that blew up, I will go get a photo the Transformer bases are still there and the top section was made into a open veranda don't know the reason behind this.
Alfred
There was a fire in the transformer bay a few years after I left,Roy Fields told me in a letter at that time it was on one of the units we had changed the feeders from the generator to the step up transformer. The problem at that time was the replacement cable was solid aluminium,we questioned that decision at that time as the connections on the transformer were copper,and that can cause a problem long term with a chemical reaction between the metals. There was a paste we put on the connection this was supposed to counter act that process. Im not saying that caused the fire as I wasnt there but it sure was more than a coinsidence especially on that unit.
looking at these photos again reminds me once again how big the OMD power station actually was.
This picture is a nice shot of the power station. Not sure of the picture's date.
Let's try date your pic Leon..... There is a helipad already on St George's square.... There are no ATM's at the bank yet, but the new section has been added on....
Tommy Visser of the Penny Farthing build a building on the empty lot, opposite the Single Quarters..... it ain't on the pic yet....
So let's deduce the pic must be before 1989....? Anyone else pick up on anything?
I don't recall the helipad......so after 1981.
Aluminium cables .. the worst .. our factory was outfitted with them .. we had a huge blowout due to hot connections and each year we now have a infrared survey and its continous maintenance .. cheap at outset but expensive in the long run....
Must have been '78/'79. There are still trees in the swimming pool enclosure. Those trees were removed after the great windstorm in middle '79.
Quote from: SandyB on February 17, 2012, 08:32:57 PM
Aluminium cables .. the worst .. our factory was outfitted with them .. we had a huge blowout due to hot connections and each year we now have a infrared survey and its continous maintenance .. cheap at outset but expensive in the long run....
Did they use these (http://static.carroll.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/BML16-10W.jpg)
In the past they used tin coated lugs and ferrules but these days they can fuse copper and aluminum together, this stops corrosion and hot connections.
The contractor used ordinary lugs with a compression crimper .. tuns out bad choice ..