Heaviest load ever moved on British roads
 

No, it's not a new age, but a massive transformer from Didcot. It's going to Germany so they can generate electricity there instead. It's not like we need them or anything? :lol1:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...tion-4mph.html

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...14_634x343.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...99_634x423.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...88_634x472.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/...52_634x437.jpg

Guy in the second to last pic looks like he's trying to lift it. Hahaha

Thought this was a thread about Adele going on tour...

I was involved in something like this a couple of years ago with the same haulage contractor, again moving power generation kit. It was interesting to see how they this do this, I think their maximum speed during the move was 8 mph and the vehicle was about 16 feet wide.

Street signs, and all manner of other things had to be removed, to enable the wide load to get from point a to b.

The cost to move this stuff must be massive. I was asked to remove some street furniture to enable the the transporter to get around a corner. It cost around £10K to have this work done at short notice, then reinstated. Robert Allely told me, that he would cover the cost without arguement as it was just one of several things that needed to be removed to make the route viable.

when i saw the thread title, i thought a mp had fogotten to claim expences for a month or so lol

I bet his road tax is even higher than a new shape Subaru impreza wrx sti !

Guess what, not that I was looking for one, but I saw ample scoobs since Friday around here. There has been a rally on in my local. Got stuck in a traffic around Corwen today near the rally venue, saw quite a few road scoobs parked on the side as well as some numbered ones with decals going in to do a run.

Memories of my old scoob flooded back to me, and I did miss it today.

Anyway, go back to the topic now.

Sorry.

Terry Wogans ego?

Proof if anything that UK doesn't need extra generation capacity - if we're selling the equipment overseas.

You know, if nPower carry on raising my prices after getting this little sweetener in the bank balance then I'm buying a 1950's Lister engine genset and I'll be running it off veggy oil and going off-grid...that confuse the green lobbyists (an inefficient and polluting engine/generator being used on a renewable resource :D )

Where did it say it was going to Germany? All i could find in the article is that it's being shipped to Cottam power station in Nottinghamshire. Besides, it's a privately owned piece of equipment that would have been put up for sale/tender. If NPower had no further use for it and a German company was prepared to pay more than a UK one then so be it.

Don't see how that proves anything :lol1:

What I don't quite understand is that the only thing they are moving is that grey-beige coloured box thing? All the red-coloured equipment is part of the transport vehicles? That grey-beige box doesn't actually look that big so why do they need all the rest just to lift and support it??

Surely that box thing could fit on a heavy duty flatbed lorry instead and make the job 10 times easier..... Or is it just precautions gone mad?

I imagine that thing is solid metal

640 tonnes? I doubt a heavy duty flatbed would take that load.

I hope they put winter tyres on that thing.

If it's going to Cottam, it will probably go by sea to Immingham, then take the motorways right past us here in Scunny.

I was once co-driver on a similar load coming from Germany to Bromborough docks on the Wirral. It was a Dutch firm bringing in two similar trucks, one with a huge crane on, the other with the base and stuff. It was my job in the lead truck to liaise with police in each area as we reached it, they would then tell us to continue of await an escort.

Met him at 6.30 am at Immingham, we arrived at Bromborough around 7pm, just time to get a train home.

Since you can't generate electricity with a transformer, it proves nothing really ;)

Its a 400kV supergrid transformer :lol1: That guts of that grey box will be mostly copper and iron, all of which may (although i doubt it) be submerged in insulating oil. So yeah, all in there quite heavy.

Matteyboy could still toss it about with one finger mind

I believe these were part of an expensive upgrade to Didcot in the late 00's, now they go back to Siemans in Germany for use in a new German coal fired station? Didcot gets closed and 'broken up' into spares. Our money goes into wind?

Random quote there :lol1: But yeah. The transformer that was removed last Saturday (02/11) was being sent off to Germany, by the sounds of it that one is staying in the UK.

The moneys hardly going to the wind, I'd be surprised if Npower don't get anything back from the sale/recycling of parts from Didcot.

No I mean Didcot is being shut - I think - cos it is old and 'dirty', so we sell the bits to Germany so they can build a new coal fired plant and instead we go for 'renewables' in a general strategy?

We can't afford to lose gross capacity that is for sure just from my limited knowledge of the industry. The loss of Didcot is being made up for.

Ah I see, I thought it was 640 tonnes total weight, I.e all the transport vehicles too. So it isn't necessarily the size then, it's the sheer weight of that grey box?

Might be but something like copper is very dense, almost 9 metric tons per cubic metre. A pure copper object 4m3 is almost 600 tons. So you can see how it can easily be that heavy.

Well seeing energy suppliers say we need more generation capacity - that means that more transformers will be needed to meet that if another power station is built or upgraded.

Selling this to me says "We have no intention of upgrading or building any new power stations, therefore this transformer is surplus to requirements".

Why aren't they buildingor upgrading any? Maybe because they simply don't want to, or they don't need to?

Of course the transformer could have been offered to another UK supplier and the Germans outbid them, in which case; fair play - money talks.

I'll reach a bit here and suggest that wind turbines each carry there own small. transformer to step up the voltage, or at least they use smaller ones than the massive ones at Didcot which are designed to be used with very large (and fewer in number) generators you get in coal or gas fired plants. Big generator = big transformer, small generator = small transformer.

When did they move Nottingham to Germany then and why wasn't I told about it?

"The transformer will next be transported by sea to the Cottam power stations near Retford in Nottinghamshire!

2 go to Germany and 1 stays in the UK I think?

Ah well we will probably need them when Angela shuts down all our Nuclear power stations for being dangerous.

Pretty much (although the transformers for a wind farm will be in a smaller local substation).

The issue is we're decommissiong more and more of the large capacity power stations to keep us in with EU emissions legislation, how ever nothing is being built to replace them. Stuff like wind/solar is simply to variable to provide the normal baseline supply and the smaller capacity powerstations simply don't have the capacity.

Ultimately none of the big generation companies really have any incentive to build new high capacity powerstations. The government is currently geared towards encouraging the uptake of renewables, so that's where most companies are putting there money.

:lol1: that is one of the best knee jerk reactions I've ever seen. As if Germany is prone to earthquakes/tsunamis.

Hang on Neil, haven't the Germans ALREADY decided to phase out nuclear power in favour of coal-fired?

Some time last year, afaik?