Boiler Valves

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 21mm · f/8.0 · 4s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Cast valves, thick flanges and machined fittings crowd a vertical run of pipework above steel grating in the boilerhouse. Each valve is frozen with corrosion, the metal muted under dust. The grating below is worn from decades of footfall. This assembly isolated and regulated the steam and water pressures the boilers worked at.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

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Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

Boiler Valves at White Bay Power Station, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Boiler Valves at White Bay Power Station, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Boiler Valves at White Bay Power Station, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Boiler Valves
Series: White Bay Power Station
Catalogue: WBP-026
Process: Giclée
Captured: 13 November 2015
Camera: NIKON D7000
Lens: 14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/8.0
Shutter: 4s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 21 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 297 × 210 mm
Location: Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

A row of boiler valves at White Bay Power Station sits along the steam main from one of the boilers, the cast-iron bodies bolted into the high-pressure line with flanged connections. Each valve is sized for the steam conditions of the original A Station boilers: 205 psi at 588 degrees Fahrenheit. The hand wheels are heavy cast-iron, the spokes painted in the standard plant green, worn to bare metal at the grip points. Brass nameplates on each valve body show the manufacturer specifications and the line designation. The pipework around the valves is supported by steel hangers from the structural framing above; the line lagging has been removed in places, exposing the bare steel underneath.

Boiler valves at White Bay handled isolation and regulation across the steam, feedwater, and drain circuits of the boiler installation. Operators worked these valves continuously through every operating shift, opening or closing the lines as boilers came online or went out for maintenance. The plant ran from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. After closure the valves were closed off and the steam mains drained. The valves themselves remain in place; heavy industrial cast-iron valves of this kind were not worth removing for scrap.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

A cluster of cast-iron gate valves and stop valves sits bolted to a vertical steam header between the boiler face and a large cylindrical downpipe. Handwheels, flanged joints, and heavy couplings crowd together in close arrangement. Every surface carries a uniform grey patina of oxidation. Steel grating underfoot. A Kelvin gauge mount is visible near the top of the assembly. The light is flat, industrial, diffused through the boiler house structure behind.

Brett Patman

The series

White Bay Power Station

124 photographs

White Bay Power Station is a former coal-fired power station on Wanngal Country at Rozelle, at the head of White Bay on Sydney Harbour, built to power Sydney's trams and suburban trains and in service from May 1917 until December 1983. The New South Wales Department of Railways designed it in its own drawing office and began building in June 1912. The turbine hall, boilerhouse, switch house and control room stand on a 38,000 square metre site behind two steel chimney stacks, the main steelwork stamped with British manufacturers' names.

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05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.