Manors Power Station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tramway Generating Station | |
|---|---|
 Manors Power Station in 2009 | |
 | |
| Official name | Manors Power Station |
| Country | England |
| Location | Tyne and Wear, North East England |
| Coordinates | 54°58′20″N 1°36′18″W / 54.9721°N 1.6050°W |
| Commission date | 1901 |
| Decommission date | 1936 |
| Operator | Newcastle Corporation |
| Thermal power station | |
| Primary fuel | Coal |
| External links | |
| Commons | Related media on Commons |
grid reference NZ253642 | |
Manors Power Station or the Tramways Generating Station is a former coal-fired power station located in the Manors district of the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear in North East England. The station's turbine hall and other remaining buildings are Grade II listed.[1]
The station was commissioned by the Newcastle Corporation to supply electricity to the Newcastle Corporation Tramways system, that was in the process of electrification, and to contain the organisation's offices.[2] Construction of the station was initially delayed by a bricklayer's strike, but laying of the building's foundations commenced on 14 January 1900.[3] The construction of the station was completed in 1904.[2]
The station generated electricity until 1936. The origins of this action dated from the 1920s. A parliamentary report by Lord Weir led to the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926 (repealed 1989), which created the Central Electricity Board and the National Grid operating at 132 kV (50 Hz). Manors Power Station was deemed too small in generating capacity and its associated plant operated at 40 Hz. Thus it suffered the same fate as many other municipal power stations and ceased generation.[citation needed]
However, it was still retained for electrical function. The introduction of the Newcastle Corporation's trolleybus system, together with the commissioning of new electrically-driven cranes on the Corporation-owned Newcastle Quayside in the 1930s, turned the Manors site into the central control point for the many suburban substations used by the trolleybuses. These substations took the 6 kV AC distributed from Manors and transformed and rectified this to the 550 V DC used by the trolleybuses and rapidly diminishing tram fleet. Manors itself became a substation and supplied the city centre area with the DC power for the trolleybuses and Quayside cranes. The electrically-operated lifts used on the Tyne Bridge were supplied by Manors station.[citation needed]
Operations
The coal burned in the station's boilers was delivered to the station by rail from Trafalgar South Yard, on the East Coast Main Line at Argyle Street.[4] From here the hoppered waggons were moved along a high timber and steel staith from which they could discharge the coal directly into bunkers above the boilers. From these bunkers it was fed by automatic weighing machines into automatic stokers.[5]
Circulating water used in the station's surface condensers was taken from the River Tyne, which was around 0.2 miles (0.32 km) from the station and at around 90 feet (27 m) below the level of the station's engines. A pump house was located on the river's quay wall, to pump water to the station. Two 24 inches (610 mm) diameter pipes ran between the station and the pump house, one for sending water up to the station, the other for discharging it back into the river.[5]
