Walking the Dumps..... Memories!

[Gordon Brown]

On the odd weekend in 1968 Ingrid and I would borrow her dad's (Dougie Freemantle) landrover and go courting in this area. Fond memories indeed.

[Alfred Boehme]

Hi Bob

Check these photo's this building is south of the South works plant a substation of some sort, you would have seen this building in much better state during your time and with less ruble stored inside.

-was the u boat engine inside this building?
-due to the wall bushings on top and HT pole did it supply something else?
-the pit just outside with pipes, was this maybe the fuel supply or old oil drain?
-frame was the u boat engine mounted here

Pic - 11 Elec panel
Pic - 17 Frame
Pic - 3 Pit
Pic - 0 Old HT pole
Pic - 19 Looking up inside Sub (building)

[Alfred Boehme]

Som more photo's

Pic - 13 Building with South works in back ground
Pic - 9 the posible frame to mount the engine?
Pic - 5 old VT or CT
Pic - 4 wall bushings
Pic - 20 name plate

[Andrew Darné]

Hi Bob
With regard to your question to Alfred; it's a strange, eerie sensation at any of the abandoned plants. 1 Plant, 2 Plant, parts of 4 Plant, Affenrucken, Mittag, Beverly Hills, 50G, even the old Cental Fields (gefore it was flattened). Knowing what the places sound like at full production and now you only hear falcons and pigeons, the overpopulous crow and the banging sound of loose cladding in the wind.
Regards
Andrew

[Bertie Horak]

Nice picks Alfred.  I would love to walk around in those abandoned areas.  Just something about old places where a lot of souls ventured..., thinking, seeing, smelling, experiencing. Just by being in the same space, even if it's in a different time, lets one share something with history.
Even the bricks/concrete of the pit in the one picture - somebody mixed it, the gravel made a sound when it was added....
Deep, man, deep....  (I didn't smoke or eat any funny herbs from my garden, I'm just a bit spiritual tonight!)

[SandyB]

With reference to  pic 37 .. the  tank stacker in a sad state .. I have posted somewhere else on the site .. but amongst some of the pics i took yonks ago are these , in likellyhood relevant ... correct me  if off track ... last one an old abandoned screening plant .. cant remember where I took these pics ...

[Alfred Boehme]

Hi Sandy the bottom pic looks so much like something that could have been at the same area those pullies and flat belts next time I'm working in the area going to look for something that could be like the pic you posted

Alfred

[Bob Molloy]

Hi Alfred,
                I never saw the sub engine in operation, it had already been scrapped by the time I got there and dumped in an inspection pit in the main building together with various other pieces of electrical equipment. If you can find the inspection pit you'll find the engine, unless the scrap iron recovery team got there first.
Pic 11 is an old fuse/distribution box, would have been part of the low tension circuit i.e. 500v and below, on the works.
Pic 17, this is a moulded cast iron frame, a typical base frame for the larger Siemens motors. The sub engine base would likely have been fabricated on site and as such would not have been cast iron.
Pic 3: no recall here, would need an external view of this building to get more information.
Pic 13: one of the old sub-stations used for stepping down voltages from high tension through 500v to the standard 220v.
Sorry to disappoint you, that's about all I can dredge up at this stage though I did enjoy seeing those old pics.
Regards,
Bob.

[Bob Molloy]

Hi Sandy,
              It looks as if you've been out Mittag way at some stage, that stacker looks very like a post war import from Germany which arrived about '58 and was in operation there for some years. It arrived together with the bucket-wheel machine in the next pic. That was a period during which CDM was being wooed by the Americans to wean themselves off British and German machinery in favour of Yankee junk. The Yanks won the sales pitch, hence that machine was the last major piece of earthmoving equipment imported from Germany. In fact I have an 8mm film taken in 1959, showing myself climbing onto that very machine (then almost new) during a maintenance check. How weird is that?
Regards,
Bob.

[Alfred Boehme]

This is the area where Central fields workshops used to be north of the tank farm with some old track machine in the water and a strange tank?

Alfred

[Alfred Boehme]

This is all thats remains at the Tank Farm _________ I recall this building "Hut" at the entrance to the Tank Farm complex

[SandyB]

Nice memory pics Alf .. Ta ...  my childhood wanderings  being refreshed ...

[Leon Sumter]

Bob, Alfred, Gordon, Sandy et al what lovely photo's and information.

I recall wandering spell bound around this site with it's old buildings and machinery in the mid seventies when doing field service on earthmoving equipment and also experiencing the deep feelings of loneliness/sentiment/nostalgia about an era so long back in time and also thinking of those souls that worked in these windswept lonely workshops and on the old wartime German machinery. I seem to recall seeing a Siemens nameplate on the motor (pic 24) and some other German inscriptions/writing at the time. In terms of earthmoving machinery...there were still a few (pale green) Euclid/Terex? scrapers and LeTourneau pullers? when I started in OMD in early seventies but these were soon replaced by Cat 633, 641, 657 and WABCO (Westinghouse Airbrake Company) Scrapers, 769 Dump Trucks, D8, D9, and Khomatsu Dozers. The WABCO's had V12, 2 Stroke Diesel engines that sounded like Ferrari race cars at full throttle, man what a sound! I remember what a mission it was to drop the very heavy belly plates of the Scrapers to replace burnt out starter motors and then swing them back up again and refit the massive fastening bolts, needing a few strong 'Vambo's to get under the plate and heave them up and quickly finger tighten at least 2 bolts and breath a huge sigh of relief when all the bolts were secured. Amazing how some experiences are never forgotten. I can still vividly recall the sight/smell/sound feel of those sand dunes and the heavy diesel earthmoving machinery grinding and shoving through the sandy overburden as if it was yesterday. The 'OMD/CDM experience' never leaves you and always remains permanently etched into the very fibre of your being.

Alfred,.... on a similar (sentimental note) you need to take a trip (down memory lane) to Elizabucht Bay and locate your Grandpa Paul's little house. There are enough visual clues in the Elizabeth Bay pics that were posted some time back to locate the actual house. It's one of the three closest to the Rec Club? building. Check Google Earth.
Leon

[toonfandangl]

Bertie Horak

Nice picks Alfred.  I would love to walk around in those abandoned areas.  Just something about old places where a lot of souls ventured..., thinking, seeing, smelling, experiencing. Just by being in the same space, even if it's in a different time, lets one share something with history.
Even the bricks/concrete of the pit in the one picture - somebody mixed it, the gravel made a sound when it was added....
Deep, man, deep....  (I didn't smoke or eat any funny herbs from my garden, I'm just a bit spiritual tonight!)



Yes Bertie!! I agree with your sentiments, I am not religious in the sense that I believe in a god (have a dog which is god backwards) but as you have said walking around old place's sometimes the hair on the back of your head stands up.

There are other times when its very calm and serene, there are a lot of times in my life when I have experienced these moments, some are good others a bit scary.

Michael did tell me they had demolished Central Fields!! (worked there for three years) I had looked for it on Google Earth all them years then................................................Gone. 

[Alfred Boehme]

The 4 pics in my second last post is all thats left of the central fields area, all I can do is bring a few pics, to the forum I do often day dream while in the diferent old area's wish many a time I was a generation older to have experianced what happend

Alfred