Turbine Hall Operator Level

The operator level of the turbine hall at White Bay Power Station runs along the side of the hall at the height of the turbine casings, a steel-grating walkway with handrails on the open side. From the walkway, the tops of the turbines are visible across the hall: the casings, the bearing covers, the valve clusters, the access plates on the upper surfaces. Pipework runs overhead along the structural framing of the building. The walkway decking is darkened from decades of foot traffic; the handrails are painted in the standard pale industrial green of the plant, worn to bare metal at the grip points. Daylight comes through high windows on both sides of the hall.

The operator level was where the turbine-hall watch ran during every operating shift. Operators walked these walkways many times per shift, reading temperature and pressure indicators on each turbine, checking for vibration or unusual sound, responding to alarms from the control room. White Bay ran continuously from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983, built in four phases completed 1917, 1928, 1953 and 1958. The walkway in this photograph carried decades of working foot traffic. After closure it has not carried a working shift since.