Souvenir of the official opening of the Extension at the Kearsley Power Station : Lancashire Electric Power Company : 1936 : pages 18 & 19 : LEP electric locomotive
A booklet giving details of the extension to the Kearsley Generating Station of the Lancashire Electric Power Company that was formally inaugurated by the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Derby on 21 December 1936. It gives details of the history of the company and its generating stations that were situated at Radcliffe, Padiham and Kearsley.
The LEP Co. was formed in 1900 with generation and supply powers to a large area of Lancashire south of the River Ribble. Its first station was opened at Radcliffe, on the River Irwell, on 9 October 1905. The company was required to develop a large system of distribution mains and cables to serve its area of supply. During WW1, to help cope with the demand for electricity from industry, the LEP entered into a coordination scheme with two of the municipal undertakings that had at first opposed the company's powers; Manchester and Salford. These inter-connections across Lancashire pre-dated the schemes that were developed with Government backing from the 1920s onwards that were to make bulk supply of electricity a more effective arrangement and to the development of the National Grid. The company's second generating station, at Padiham, opened in 1926 and this was followed in 1929 by the first stages of the station at Kearsley, again on the Irwell and just north of Salford's Agecroft station. These can be seen in the maps included in the booklet.
The booklet gives details of the extension at Kearsley that were undertaken to the requirements of the Central Electricity Board that was helping to undertake a standardisation across the British electricity industry and promoting better efficiency in the generation field. As part of the CEB's schemes all three of the LEP's stations were "selected" and they frequently held records for thermal efficiency. It gives details of the equipment including the new turbo-generators by the British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd and the associated works.
The LEP would be Nationalised in 1948, the three generating stations passing to the British Electricity Authority, latterly the CEGB, and the distribution and supply network to the North Western Electricity Board. Radcliffe was closed in 1959, Padiham "A" in 1969 although the Padiham "B" station opened in 1959 survived until 1993, and Kearsley was decommissioned in 1981.
The station had its own internal electric railway for handing coal and ash. The photos show this system including Locomotive No. 2 and LEP coal wagon No. 195; the latter would have been used to supply coal from local collieries. The system ran on 550v DC and eventually had four locomotives several of which are preserved.
Souvenir of the official opening of the Extension at the Kearsley Power Station : Lancashire Electric Power Company : 1936 : pages 18 & 19 : LEP electric locomotive
A booklet giving details of the extension to the Kearsley Generating Station of the Lancashire Electric Power Company that was formally inaugurated by the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Derby on 21 December 1936. It gives details of the history of the company and its generating stations that were situated at Radcliffe, Padiham and Kearsley.
The LEP Co. was formed in 1900 with generation and supply powers to a large area of Lancashire south of the River Ribble. Its first station was opened at Radcliffe, on the River Irwell, on 9 October 1905. The company was required to develop a large system of distribution mains and cables to serve its area of supply. During WW1, to help cope with the demand for electricity from industry, the LEP entered into a coordination scheme with two of the municipal undertakings that had at first opposed the company's powers; Manchester and Salford. These inter-connections across Lancashire pre-dated the schemes that were developed with Government backing from the 1920s onwards that were to make bulk supply of electricity a more effective arrangement and to the development of the National Grid. The company's second generating station, at Padiham, opened in 1926 and this was followed in 1929 by the first stages of the station at Kearsley, again on the Irwell and just north of Salford's Agecroft station. These can be seen in the maps included in the booklet.
The booklet gives details of the extension at Kearsley that were undertaken to the requirements of the Central Electricity Board that was helping to undertake a standardisation across the British electricity industry and promoting better efficiency in the generation field. As part of the CEB's schemes all three of the LEP's stations were "selected" and they frequently held records for thermal efficiency. It gives details of the equipment including the new turbo-generators by the British Thomson-Houston Co. Ltd and the associated works.
The LEP would be Nationalised in 1948, the three generating stations passing to the British Electricity Authority, latterly the CEGB, and the distribution and supply network to the North Western Electricity Board. Radcliffe was closed in 1959, Padiham "A" in 1969 although the Padiham "B" station opened in 1959 survived until 1993, and Kearsley was decommissioned in 1981.
The station had its own internal electric railway for handing coal and ash. The photos show this system including Locomotive No. 2 and LEP coal wagon No. 195; the latter would have been used to supply coal from local collieries. The system ran on 550v DC and eventually had four locomotives several of which are preserved.