Meadow Lane gas holder painting.

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sat 21 Apr, 2012 7:31 pm

geoffb wrote: TykeI worked at Meadow Lane from 1971 to 1974 when the works closed.I was shift engineer for the last 2 years of operation. Dont remember the high silver gang, eas that with Maurice Wilson and co. I remember the PIM gang who maintained the Reforming plants in the summer shut down, now they were a hard working bunch of lads who played hard as well. Could tell some tales about that lot! Hi geoffb I worked at Meadow Lane and Savill Town for Humphreys and Glasgow on the Reforming plants from the mid sixtys untill i think sixty nine with a flash title of Hydro Carbon Reforming Plant Fitter.I also could tell a few tales of my time working on the PIM gang.

Tyke · Post by **Tyke** » Sat 21 Apr, 2012 7:50 pm

Dennis was our direct boss and another good guy. He used to drive a Frog Eyed Sprite and a Jag to work and p**s off the other higher boss's as he had better car's. Did you ever work on the bullet stations in Leeds there were 2 I remember, Moortown near King Lane and 1 near Golden Acre Park. The one in Moortown was in the Middle of a council estate, I don’t think they would allow that today.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Sat 21 Apr, 2012 8:59 pm

Interesting thread. I wonder what are 'bullet stations'?

Tyke · Post by **Tyke** » Sun 22 Apr, 2012 1:10 am

Excess gas at times of low demand used to be pressurised in long cylinders so that it could be feed back into the system during times of high demand, there were 3 stations that I remember in the Leeds area Moortown Becketts Park and Golden Acre. People don’t realise the complex network that it took to get gas out to people and I am proud to say that during the time that I worked on the system no one area in the Leeds Area lost supply due to governor failure. My dad used to joke to me that after we got North Sea Gas that we got salt water out of the gas fire but the funny thing was that after conversion ( another story ) we had to start humidifying the gas system.

geoffb · Post by **geoffb** » Sun 22 Apr, 2012 11:37 am

tilly wrote: geoffb wrote: TykeI worked at Meadow Lane from 1971 to 1974 when the works closed.I was shift engineer for the last 2 years of operation. Dont remember the high silver gang, eas that with Maurice Wilson and co. I remember the PIM gang who maintained the Reforming plants in the summer shut down, now they were a hard working bunch of lads who played hard as well. Could tell some tales about that lot! Hi geoffb I worked at Meadow Lane and Savill Town for Humphreys and Glasgow on the Reforming plants from the mid sixtys untill i think sixty nine with a flash title of Hydro Carbon Reforming Plant Fitter.I also could tell a few tales of my time working on the PIM gang. H&G built those works. Reforming Naphtha into towns gas. The H&G fitters were paid much more than the Gas Board fitters, there was a lot of resentment at the time. A fair few transferred to The Gas Board when all the commissioning was completed.

geoffb · Post by **geoffb** » Sun 22 Apr, 2012 11:41 am

Tyke wrote: Dennis was our direct boss and another good guy. He used to drive a Frog Eyed Sprite and a Jag to work and p**s off the other higher boss's as he had better car's. Did you ever work on the bullet stations in Leeds there were 2 I remember, Moortown near King Lane and 1 near Golden Acre Park. The one in Moortown was in the Middle of a council estate, I don’t think they would allow that today. We worked on the bullets on Firtree Approach Moortown but only to shut them down prior to demolition. The site is now a housing estate.Dennis immigrated to New Zealand I think.

Tyke · Post by **Tyke** » Sun 22 Apr, 2012 11:51 am

geoffb wrote: Tyke wrote: Dennis was our direct boss and another good guy. He used to drive a Frog Eyed Sprite and a Jag to work and p**s off the other higher boss's as he had better car's. Did you ever work on the bullet stations in Leeds there were 2 I remember, Moortown near King Lane and 1 near Golden Acre Park. The one in Moortown was in the Middle of a council estate, I don’t think they would allow that today. We worked on the bullets on Firtree Approach Moortown but only to shut them down prior to demolition. The site is now a housing estate.Dennis immigrated to New Zealand I think. We used to visit the sites after decommition not sure why though but I do remember the Moortown one had a small wood and it was allways a good place to get the Christmas holly. I wondered what happened to Dennis.

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sun 22 Apr, 2012 9:04 pm

geoffb wrote: tilly wrote: geoffb wrote: TykeI worked at Meadow Lane from 1971 to 1974 when the works closed.I was shift engineer for the last 2 years of operation. Dont remember the high silver gang, eas that with Maurice Wilson and co. I remember the PIM gang who maintained the Reforming plants in the summer shut down, now they were a hard working bunch of lads who played hard as well. Could tell some tales about that lot! Hi geoffb I worked at Meadow Lane and Savill Town for Humphreys and Glasgow on the Reforming plants from the mid sixtys untill i think sixty nine with a flash title of Hydro Carbon Reforming Plant Fitter.I also could tell a few tales of my time working on the PIM gang. H&G built those works. Reforming Naphtha into towns gas. The H&G fitters were paid much more than the Gas Board fitters, there was a lot of resentment at the time. A fair few transferred to The Gas Board when all the commissioning was completed. Yes the pay was good i think we were paid London rates i too went to work for the Gas Board but had to leave its a long story one of the things that happen in life i thought i would be there untill i retired.I must say i did not get the sack from the job though.