ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby eob » Mon May 05, 2008 9:15 am

Thanks lads,
yes that is the ammonia sphere where my dad primarily worked.

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The highlighted area is the same as the area seen in the railway siding photo here

Surely there must be lots more photos of the plant in operation, there is very little information about it on the net.
I think I'll pop over at lunch and take some pics with my camera phone.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby maxpower » Mon May 05, 2008 11:16 pm

There are very few photos of the plant in operation, that I've ever seen anyway. There's the 1974 photo by a Bob Bryden that I posted a long time ago in this thread...

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...and there's also this nice earlier photo from Stevenston: The Kernel of Cunninghame:

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Interesting to compare the two photos in that the large cooling tower is missing in the first photo after it collapsed in 1973.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby eob » Tue May 06, 2008 2:10 pm

Thanks for the photo, Awesome! :o

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My office window is at the point of the red arrow. ::):

Check out the size of that cooling tower. 8O
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby cell » Sat May 10, 2008 4:07 pm

Can anyone point out where the power station was? and does anyone have any details about it? I'm collating information on electricity generation in scotland and I'm after any details that anyone might have ie size of station, number of boilers and genrators, when were they installed, when generation stopped etc. Any info about other petrochemical sites in scotland would also be gratefully recieved.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby maxpower » Sat May 10, 2008 4:28 pm

The power station was (or actually, is) to the south of the Nylon Works, so would be just off camera to the right in the above photograph. Its still intact but unused I think, and the building's chimneys can be seen from a few miles around. The two chimneys in the photo I posted at the bottom of the first page of this thread (the photo with the football pitch in it) belong to the power plant I believe. There's a photo and a proposal for its reused here.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby cell » Sat May 17, 2008 5:14 pm

Maxpower, thanks for the info, with it I was able to track it down on microsoft maps. Does anyone have any info on the history of this station or any other connected with the petrochemical industry, I know the refinery at Grangemoth has a station and I think Roche had/s? one but what about other plants including the old ICI works at Grangemouth.
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Pyroninja » Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:24 pm

Ok so id just like to say sorry for bringing up an old post but there was nothing to really show the site itself so here it is, ICI Ardeer in all its ummm former glory :)

Founded in 1871 by Mr Alfred Nobel in order to produce his shiny new invention, Dynamite. The business then grew and moved onto the production of other explosives such as blasting gelatine, gelignite, ballistite, guncotton, and cordite. The workforce grew until it reached a peak of nearly 13,000 employees. In 1926 the result of a merge between Brunner, Mond & Company, the United Alkali Company, and the British Dyestuffs Corporation with Nobel Industries LTD resulted in the creation of ICI. The site was descirbed as the worlds largest explosives facotry, more like a town than a factory with an on-site bank, travel agent and dentist. A train station was once present to which transported workers to and from the factory. A nitric acid plant was built in the 1960's but was only operational for 12 years before being decommisioned, a large cooling tower was to be found in this area but this was destroyed during bad weather.

All production has now been centralised to a smaller part of the site leaving a lot of the old buildings lying disused and abandoned...

Photos are from visits between March and September.

The Bunkers

One of the bunkers from outside
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Switchgear
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Equipment
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Emergency Instructions
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"ICI EXPLOSIVES - AEROSPACE & AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH

NOTICE TO VISITORS AND STAFF
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES - BUILDING WPP3

SITE TOXIC GAS ALARM
FIRE ALARM SOUNDING
AN ACCIDENT REQUIRING AN AMBULANCE

SITE TOXIC GAS ALARM
This is a siren alarm, when heard you should proceed immediate to the GAS SHELTER, for this is located in the Garnock West farm house. The way to the shelter is indicated by white arrows on a green background with the door to the gas shelter marked with EMERGENCY GAS SHELTER in white on a green background. Do not leave the gas shelter until the alarm has stopped, and the person in charge allows you to leave.

FIRE ALARM
This is a loud klaxon

If you discover a fire immediately inform a member of the department who will set off the fire alarm and call the fire brigade.

If the fire alarm sounds leave the building immediately by the nearest safe exit and proceed to the FIRE ASSEMBLY AREA, for WPP3 this is located in front of Garnock West farm house, and is marked with a sign of a white circle on a green background.

AN ACCIDENT REQUIRING AN AMBULANCE
The ambulance point for WPP3 - No. 19 - is located at the front of Garnock West farm house.

From the manual labled 'ENERGETIC POLYMERS DRAFT-MANUFACTURING METHODS' "

Corridors which run along the spine of each bunker, motors would have sat here which would have operated Tangye presses in the rooms in which they are connected to
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One of the presses
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Various pieces of scientific equipment, scales, oscilliscope, glassware etc
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Another Corridor
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The Mixing houses

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Nitroglycerine vats, notice the holes in the wall, should anything go wrong water would have been pumped through these flooding the entire mixing area
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Small building used to load/unload materials onto the carts which ran on the many miles of narrow guage rail track connecting the whole site
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The Laboratories
Between this and the first visit I got a new camera, as a result...better pictures ;)

Test vault
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Viewing corridor
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Outside labs from 'The Street'
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Testing ground, small detonations and left overs from experiments would have been destroyed here
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Plate cameras, hooked up to a unit which would have allowed the cameras to shoot one after the other allowing the caputre of a detonation
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Glass plate negative, not from previously mentioned cameras. This shot showed the damage done to 2 sheets of glass at an overpressure of 100psi from an explosion, one glass cracked the other blown completely out the frame.
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Large mortar to test the power of explosives.
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Inside one of the labs
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The biggest one :D
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Monitoring equipment
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Archive room, probably my favourite part of this whole site, full of photographs and records of experiments, the outcomes and details of world first pioneering research for explosives and methods used today can be found in here, shaped charges for example used in modern demolition and warheads were discovered and created here.
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The Power Station
An industrial gem, a giant in comparison to all the other smaller buildings here. It generated electricity for the facility and steam which was distributed throughout the site in insulated pipes for heating..Had a peak output of around 16MW

External
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In the belly of the beast
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I was expecting an air tight chamber with a big blast door, flashing lights, gas masks and hazmat suits..instead it was only a make shift staff room with double glazing and a pretty normal wooden door, you can only imagine the dissapointment...
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Boiler faces
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Turbines
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Up and into the boiler towers
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At the top of the boilers
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Gantries above the coal hoppers
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Some juicy control panel goodness
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Switchroom
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80KA, yes 80,000 amp fuse :D
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Underneath one of the boilers
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Control panels in the tiny control room
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Coming back down, time to go home
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Marcia » Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:09 am

Thanks for those great photos. :D
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Vinegar Tom » Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:06 am

Wow. Thanks for posting those.
Glasgow ya bas!
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Doorstop » Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:21 am

Great set .. sterling effort. 8)
I like him ... He says "Okie Dokie!"
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Josef » Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:54 am

Pyroninja wrote:Archive room, probably my favourite part of this whole site, full of photographs and records of experiments, the outcomes and details of world first pioneering research for explosives and methods used today can be found in here, shaped charges for example used in modern demolition and warheads were discovered and created here.
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To say the least, that's a bit of a shame.

Thanks, P
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby BenCooper » Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:11 am

It is, but it's in hand - Ayrshire Archives will be getting all this stuff...
www.transientplaces.co.uk
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby BrigitDoon » Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:24 am

A thoroughly engaging set - thanks for posting those. Now, how do we go about restoring the place to working order? :D
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby BenCooper » Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:46 am

If you want working order, then ROF Bishopton is a better bet :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologi ... 370176214/

BAE Systems get a bit stroppy about visitors, though...
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Re: ICI Ardeer - Nylon Plant

Postby Pyroninja » Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:24 am

Sorry to steal your thunder from ICI Ben, I know you've done a lot on it but aye you're safe in the knowlege I can't touch you on Bishopton, it's all yours haha.
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