Abandoned power station

Abandoned WW2 era power station, permission was granted for access to the site for photos. A switchboard fire had put the site out of action and it was locked up. A 5 cylinder and 3 cylinder Mirrlees and 2 Rustons were used for power generation during WW2. The engines are complete and would still be operational.

[@mystiquemelon7044]

The humming is making making me think some of it is still In use

[@whorayful]

If you listen carefully at the end of the video you can just hear another diesel station throbbing in the background. Countryside looks abit Northern Territory to me, perhaps Alice Springs? Excellent video job by the way, nice controlled use of the zoom and no whiplash from sudden moves. Cheers. Ray.

[@steamwally]

If I close my eyes I can just hear the sound of those old diesel engines thundering along, spine tingling! What a shame it's all silent but what a fascinating place, a time warp. I like the grid sync' equipment, very nice.

[@michaelzehrfeld7766]

Phantastic tour through this station....thank you!

[@ryan6920s]

Great video, i have a strange appreciation for old things like this, especially those engines!! well done!

[@rustymotor]

Ryan Adams Thanks for commenting! It sure is an interesting Industrial site and luckily so far has escaped the creative efforts of Vandals to mess things up. The old engines would still run after a little bit of maintenance and fresh Diesel, the place was basically shut down after a switch board fire possibly as a result of snake intrusion over live terminals. The cost of replacing the wiring and switch gear is not economically viable so now the future of that site is undecided, hopefully it wont end up as scrap.

[@ryan6920s]

No problem! That is interesting, shows how something little can stop everything! Hopefully the viable machinery and parts will go to good use and not just to scrap!

[@brotherfiretribe9566]

+rustymotor ww2? australia? i see no connection whatsoever

[@techdavey3486]

I have driven similar engines although they were the six cylinder English Electric L6 type rated at 750 BHP at 300 rpm. 500KW per set were generated. The hard part was pumping-up the lubricating oil to the bearings before starting. One had to get it up to 10 psi by hand with a semi-rotary hand-pump and this required great effort. Once the oil had got to the bearings it was OK to apply the 300 psi compressed air to start it. Done this way the engines lasted for many decades and in actual fact they never wore out as they were standby sets. At another place the staff were lazy and didn't bother to prime-up the oil. The result was that tremendous damage occurred. We were all outraged and said that the cost of the repairs ought to be taken out of their wages! The crankshafts weighed about seven tons and the flywheels about five so turning twelve tons without any oil would be disastrous for the bearings and this was in fact the case. Another place had engines that had starter motors rather like a car. With these starter motors they were forever buying new pinions as it was a poor design. Possibly decompressing the cylinders for starting would have been a good idea. Unfortunately there was atrocious management at that place so nothing was ever done (any ideas not thought up by the boss were by definition no good!). It is so difficult to get the right staff!

[@lewiemcneely9143]

+Tech Davey Caterpillar is providing automatic pre-lube pumps on their quarry trucks. I have seen add-on kits for these in magazines for years. It's a good idea. The Cat pumps would build pressure and then energise the starters. Good system and worked well.

[@rustymotor]

Hi RODALCO, I like your vids and you came to mind when I decided to make up this vid. That old station is a paradise for High voltage enthusiests like you, I imagine you would love to spend many hours exploring all the cool stuff. Its also amazing how much wildlife that has moved into the area, completely undisturbed. Cheers, Ian

[@keithglaysher737]

Great video mate! All old Brit engines & associated gear. I see comments about getting it running again & look outside & see the reason why the failure happened with load miscalculation causing a major fire in the outgoing cables by the looks of it. You may know different but the same sort of thing happened here in pomland with overdevelopment due to some wreckless planning & subsequent failure of infrastructure also the windfarts & solarmongers are at work missing one fact. You cant make the wind blow or the sun to shine when you most need it. You can always repair diesels & fit new cable runs & run em on gas though. End of rant!

[@RODALCO2007]

Absolute Heaven, Can hear the diesels in the background throughout the whole video. Frequency meter shows 52 Hz Motor rev meter 428 revs. Love the old gauges and machinery. Nice to see Skippy at the end. Great video.

[@flaplaya]

I take it all the main step-up transformers are long gone or maybe this plant generated and fed directly to the grid. Sweet old plant. For some reason I've always loved heavy industry and especially power plants. Thanks for the tour preserving this piece of history.

[@davidmurphy4550]

what a beautiful old relic thank you for sharing it

[@rupe53]

There is a plant like this not far from my house but it got closed down about 40 years ago because it was unable to meet clean air standards here in the states. Most of the equipment dated back to the 30s when we first went to 60Hz power. The plant now buys power from the grid for local distribution, but the old diesels are still there.

[@KornflakezRandomStuff]

Awesome old power plant site ! Nice Video, thanks for sharing :)

[@SOU6900]

Looks like they still keep it somewhat maintained. I mean I cant help but notice the relatively new smoke detectors and wiring for them, along with the new looking out of service tags on the electrical panels.

[@DyoKasparov]

Turn it on.

[@generatorjohn4537]

The equipment in this station was built to last a very long time. Some of those meters, relay, etc. are probably still functional with a little TLC. Sad to see this place abandoned. Thanks for sharing.

[@WiIdbiII]

It's a beautiful old plant. I kept wondering where it was through the vid. That kangaroo in the end answered the question. Thanks for giving us a look.

[@villiersman951]

i reckon its in the nt or sa

[@robertreite4630]

I just started watching without looking at the description. I wondered where it was. First hint. Frequency meters with mid scale at 50 Hz, so that ruled out the US. I was figuring somewhere in the UK as signs were in English. Then the shot of the kangaroo proved it to be Australia. I figured it was abandoned because diesel fuel got to be too expensive to make it worth while.

[@HDXFH]

Man I'd love a place like that!!

[@Footrotflats251]

love to start it up!

[@MrRichard57000]

good video,love the frankenstein switches and gauges.

[@uhrbexer9134]

Would have loved to see the inside of the Wesinghouse Rectifiers. Quite sure Mercury Tubes, maybe even the very old version with a lake of Mercury in the size of liters.

[@ivic1112]

Whith some maintanance,like gauges and cleaning the contactors,changing some bearings....who knows,maybe it can start again.Would love to see it in full action :O

[@joohop]

brilliant vid rusty cheers

[@lewiemcneely9143]

Sounded like an E.M.D. churning in the background. VERY good job!

[@antjord1]

What a great video !

[@r3tr0nic]

Cool, I reckon its actually quite nice seeing these videos with no voices, no music and etc. Gives the viewers the opportunity to analyse the scenery and make their own observations *^_^* Was not bang on obvious where this was in the beginning, but was clued in with stronger hints from start to end. Starting with @0:11 - 11kV @0:35 - Green medical kit @0:40, @2:52 the multiple 50Hz instruments @1:42 Colour of the three phase busses (old colours) @3:06 Green colour exit sign @4:33 metric pressure measurements @5:38 Fire point @6:23 water heaters being outside @8:58 (Clipsal?) double mech wall plate with switch and lamp mechs Admittedly some of those would only be recognisable by Aussies/tradies, but the Roo at the end deffo seals the deal. Thanks for posting, and thanks to whomever owns (or is authorised to control the premises) for allowing the entry and filming!

[@mustange550]

Love the video.

[@stephencarey5240]

Sweet video

[@marcshark87]

Would love to have some of the old gauges for my collection. Some of those things can be worth alot to collectors.

[@allanwhite8422]

Interesting, much of my life's work was in power stations, recognise every thing in your video. At the end the current diesel power station can be heard running, my guess is Katherine in the NT.

[@rwhb1]

What great British engineering. Should be turned into a education for young engineers. Would not the bearings be damaged due to brunelling?

[@joycethomas8868]

When you film, don’t just pan past the gauges, stop for at least a second on the gauge so we can read it and see what it does. Same goes for any equipment, panning past shows us nothing. Other than that, nice video.

[@wolfcatsden]

it would of been neat to restore what was needed and runs this an running museum. any powers could be sold back into the grid to keep the place funded

[@krz8888888]

Looks serviceable, fire it up!

[@UQRXD]

The second I saw Do Not Start, my brain said they must be started.

[@zerarita]

Looks like the the power house I use to work , brings back memories . The site is also perfect for a zombie movie .

[@hiteck007]

That place is in exceptionel condition for its age. Wish i could see that in person. I hope it gets saved

[@wimalasenawijethunga1668]

Good video 👍

[@workonitm8]

Some of the old equipment was WESTINGHOUSE. I worked for W until they sold to Siemens. Wound many motors and generators during my time there.

[@coshyno]

BETTER BE SAVED

[@iw3ioj]

fantastic place!!!!!!!

[@deathkeys1]

I could set up a secret lab in there, looks great!

[@jamesheina496]

Those are not cheap engines can't believe that they where just abandoned... they could have been sold or auction off along with related eqipment

[@rustymotor]

I am not sure of the sites future, there was talk of preserving the site however some of the walls are unstable which would be a costly repair. Possibly the site may end up being torn down.

[@thieltech1]

awesome

[@arthurmario5996]

I would love to sneak in and try to start one! (It might not be that hard w basic diesel knowledge)

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Awesome old power station. I love seeing these old places. What a shame about the switchboard fire. It surprises me they would decommission a station because of that. There must have also been a newer stataion nearby or some other reason to mothball it. Do you have any idea when the last time the engines were running?

[@rupert5390]

fantastic bit of mechanical history

[@MoosesValley]

So many beautiful guages ... and the entire place is in such great condition. Wonderful to finally see a site that copper scrappers and idiot vandals have not destroyed. Nice red roo at the end. :)

[@paul19067]

Wow, think of all that copper scrap that could be harvested

[@billmoran3812]

Looks like 1950's vintage. British diesels Mirrlee's. The old instruments are worth salvaging for collector value. Everything else is scrap. Problem is most likely the site is so polluted that it's not worth int

[@cowtippingrocks]

that's interesting! I wonder how many megawatts it produced.

[@Footrotflats251]

2:59 what are the power meters for?

[@lebrassedidier8258]

Great and must make it a musuem:)

[@nfsking2000]

The thing at 0:58 is an automatic voltage regulator (BBC).

[@adearthical]

The camera you used with the roadkill and crows wasn't available for this footage, ay?

[@victoryfirst2878]

Where is this location ????? Really good video for sure !!!!!!!!!

[@cameronwright8634]

Love this. Was that black object some sort of siren or alarm, and out of service tags? Really?

[@bobl78]

wow, very interesting..but why isn´t it demolished and removed ? I think These transformers are still full of toxic oil containing PCB that was used back then

[@kieronbower8549]

Theres still a diesel running there somewhere. I can hear it

[@edpatt1]

I'd like to see a place like this in operation during a natural disaster

[@RJones112538]

I used to work in a power plant like this in Hawaii....mid 80's. We would demagnetize ships with them.....

[@mman454]

Rick Jones Sounds pretty neat! What do you mean by demagnetize the ships? Like causing their compasses to freak out or is that some actual process the ships are put through?

[@RJones112538]

We would wrap the vessel in these heavy duty cable, put electrical current thru them and set the magnetic signature of the vessel according to its mission.....kind of like take a piece of steel bar...wrap it with wire, then connect the wires to a battery...and it makes a magnet.....like in science class....I took care of the engines supplying the electricity for this service.....I don't understand how it all works but it was a rewarding job....and I enjoyed my time there.

[@mman454]

Rick Jones Wait, did they call this process called degaussing where you worked?

[@RJones112538]

yes......Or it was called Magnetic Silencing Facility...

[@exoticunderdog7769]

Toxic oil not good for humans and living things. But probly cranks over 3 vettes synchronized. Crazy horse power. Love it tho.

[@MRRARK1970]

Where is this power station please?

[@zordmaker]

Location? (not exactly, just which part of the world)

[@kylelewis6603]

Lets start it up.

[@mrpenguin2676]

There are other knockings in the site,maybe someone else is there

[@rubber20021]

Hard to believe its not functioning~!

[@madhusudanpandey5871]

Why was it abandoned?

[@robertfeeley9738]

50 cycle?16 Pole?

[@scottso241]

wish you where able to crank it up. turn it on another words

[@mrjn5786]

people very smart before how they build the power plant like this. im just sad because they dont support maintainance to keep it run. :(

[@765kvline]

What is the location of this plant and who owns it?

[@jhettish]

+765kvline The pant is obviously in Australia or the animal seen running away in the last little bit of video was a very large two-legged rat. I was intrigued with the crates, still sealed. Makes me wonder it they were full of repair parts never used. There were paint marks at 50 hz on the more modern meters. Meters after 1970 would be labeled "HZ" while earlier meters would be marked "Cycles", which is in reality what the sine waves really are, cycles per second. Some day some guy named Jones will come up with a measurement for a natural phenomena and ever after that unit of measurements will be called "Jones(s)"

[@rupert5390]

are you abel to say where this power station is -

[@ericmoeller3634]

oh Australia i was thinking the UK cause the speed limit sign then the kangaroo

[@jamesheina496]

Possibly natural gas too

[@albertcarpentercats]

How about a abandon tv and radio station.

[@Redavisunwind]

I thought power was output at 60 hz.

[@uhrbexer9134]

Not in civilised countries. :)

[@diego.e.a]

kangaroo jack was stalking you O.o

[@ramo7963]

sa pourrait faire un musé !! dommage !

[@albertcarpentercats]

How about abandon old computer rooms.

[@donnaperry1654]

Is the place haunted?

[@papabits5721]

There’s enough copper in there to make someone fat and happy

[@rustymotor]

Hi there, location Northern Territory, Australia

[@KuntalGhosh]

Donate this to Africa! They need power!

[@MasterBaker2020]

I have seen engines like those run. They suck diesel oil like no tomorrow

[@papabits5721]

So the kangaroo means it’s somewhere in New York State?

[@kieronbower8549]

A verry old looking alfa laval

[@davidstoker6665]

Why not try to start one I couldn't help my self I would

[@ElliottHurst]

probably no fuel

[@Kohlberger91]

Hello, is in the US??? by 2:51 is 50Hz. in the USA is 60Hz not 50Hz ;) in Europe is 50 Hz! sorry I do not understand:/ ask for enlghtenment. Thank you. Sorry my English is not good, i come from Bavaria by Germany and Austria ;)

[@Kohlberger91]

+CoolNZDude 2015 a okay, Thank you :)

[@brotherfiretribe9566]

+CoolNZDude 2015 ww2 australia pick one

[@coopertommawaski1071]

Urban people was the guys that took this then stolen from my channel this guy did not do this

[@benguthrie3286]

you should have started the machines

[@claybornlewis276]

some torches in a flatbed truck I would take the whole plant to the scrap yard lots of money in scrap there all those old gauges fueled by those to make steampunk flights out of lots of money in scrap in that place some Backwoods piece of shit country would probably buy those big diesel generators

[@rupert5390]

you're an idiot - you'd scrap these fantastic machines - moron

[@stonenpebble]

clayborn Lewis people like you, greedy tossers just see money instead of history and gladly scrap the lot. irreplaceable engines right there

[@nfsking2000]

I would love to get my hands on these voltmeters and others.

[@gregcarney3820]

i can get off,watching a turbine?