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Old 29th Jul 2018, 5:23 pm   #21
Nymrod121
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

The 'doughnut' on the concrete tower is at the 870' level (historically, this platform housed equipment such as Outside Broadcast link reception and rebroadcast standby receiver racks).
If memory serves, the Band III and UHF cylinders go up to 1084' and are accessed via a ceiling trapdoor in the platform roof. The internal lift goes as far as the OB room but it's a vertical ladder the rest of the way. No doubt Martin c/o Arqiva can correct any errors in my recollection/give us an up-to-date report ... ?
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Old 29th Jul 2018, 8:14 pm   #22
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

The gallery was originally intended as a viewing gallery but the lift wasn't classed as suitable for visitors.

Back in the day I dubbed it "The non-revolving non-restaurant" and it was amusing to see the name propagate around Huddersfield.

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Old 29th Jul 2018, 8:37 pm   #23
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

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Originally Posted by dtvmcdonald View Post
That left hand tower is like nothing I have ever seen for a TV tower! What's it like,
all that fat base? The right tower looks perfectly normal. How high are they?
1,084 feet making it the tallest freestanding structure in the UK
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Old 29th Jul 2018, 8:46 pm   #24
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

I used to have an excuse to go up the tower, as we had some equipment in there. From memory the observation room had very little in it. That trap door is as high as you can go whilst they're transmitting on full power. The lift takes about 7 minutes to go up. There's a second lift, much slower, that only goes to the microwave gantries relatively low down. ISTR there was a 2M repeater at that level too.
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Old 29th Jul 2018, 8:48 pm   #25
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

An I'd thought I'd better mention the excellent transmission gallery @ http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery

Has loads of excellent pictures of nearly every LW/MW/FM/DAB/TV transmitter in the UK Inc. pictures of the construction of the Emley Moor temporary mast.
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Old 29th Jul 2018, 10:48 pm   #26
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

Here are a couple of pictures of the mast and the observation room taken a couple of years ago when I made the trek over to the transmitter site.

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Old 30th Jul 2018, 8:25 pm   #27
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

" The observation room is not open to the general public ".

I've been there!

In the 1980's l was a G8 on two metres and four of us Manchester lads formed a Tuesday net which quickly turned into a drinking club. We travelled to Camra pubs throughout the North.

One night there was only me and Mike, who was a BBC transmission engineer, so he drove me up to the Tower and blagged me in!

The lift is an open frame. Imagine a phonebox being hauled up the side of an 800 foot ladder! To make it worse, it was a rack and pinion lift and halfway up a couple of the teeth were dodgy so that the lift shuddered and felt like it was going to drop!

The view from the top was incredible. Mike pointed at a church in the distance.
"See that church with a roof thats half new and half old? That's where we'd land if the tower fell over!"

"fxxx me!" said I, "That's miles away!"

He then proceeded to show me how, by leaning forward and putting your head on the glass, you could look down and see the Base of the tower, as the windows are canted inwards at the bottom.

Happy days!
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Old 30th Jul 2018, 11:17 pm   #28
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

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"
"See that church with a roof thats half new and half old? That's where we'd land if the tower fell over!"

"fxxx me!" said I, "That's miles away!"
He knew that, of course, because that was the direction the previous mast came down in 1969.
A local counselor and the Church Warden had lucky escapes, but I don't think the organ ever played again.
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Old 1st Aug 2018, 7:37 pm   #29
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

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The lift is an open frame. Imagine a phonebox being hauled up the side of an 800 foot ladder! To make it worse, it was a rack and pinion lift and halfway up a couple of the teeth were dodgy so that the lift shuddered and felt like it was going to drop!
It was an 'Alimak'

Some interesting stuff here courtesy o' t'Examiner

https://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west...-moor-14670362

Last edited by Nymrod121; 1st Aug 2018 at 7:43 pm. Reason: add H.D.E. link
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Old 1st Aug 2018, 8:16 pm   #30
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

A bit off topic but that name brings back memories "Alimak" They were testing an Alimak raise climber in one of the mines I worked down.

Lawrence.
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 7:35 am   #31
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

Thanks for "Alimak" and the news link Nymrod.

I should have mentioned that Mike also took me to Winter Hill one night. He let me start the backup generator for something, I forgot what, using those huge "Igor" switches favoured by mad scientists!

He also told the (apocryphal?) story of an insulation failure which gave rise to a four inch spark broadcasting Radio Two throughout the building!

Edit: It might have been Holme Moss rather than Winter Hill, it was over Thirty years ago!
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 9:00 am   #32
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

The original 'Twin Towers' at Emley Moor from a picture in the 1969 ITA year book.
By the time this book was published the new 1265ft tubular steel mast on the left had collapsed. [19-3-69] I remember the news pictures very well! John.
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 10:44 am   #33
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

Flashovers sometimes do 'talk'. I suppose the arc only conducts one way, a bit like a crystal detector.
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 11:01 am   #34
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

The shorter of the original twins is now at Craigkelly, Fife. What's left of the collapsed one is a racing control tower at Huddersfield Sailing Club (except a few souvenirs, I have a couple of connector caps somewhere but I expect some larger items survive)
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 2:02 pm   #35
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

Impressive night time photo of the two structures in place currently. I remember the lattice tower collapse in the 1969 winter. It was quite a major incident, news tory and a big shock-especially if you lived in Yorkshire. I suppose I did... as I was in Hull August to May 1970-although that was a sort of place apart then. We received a consistent pictures there however and Anglia Television when the local shut down. The Beeb kept showing this odd program tucked right away after after the Epilogue on Sunday nights, as if it embarrassed them. Monty something or other

They did quite a good job over at Emley Moor getting a scratch TV service back up and running within a few days. It's true [as Wikki says] that those locals who weren't terrified by the sudden collapse were equally unhappy with the loss of a TV Service. The regular type of tower was going to be out of the question, especially in the Yorky Winter-hence the tapering concrete column, now Grade 2 listed. I wonder if the shape was lifted from Russia as they seem to go in for that design in the Eastern Bloc eg in Moscow!

It might be the poet in me but the thread title seems to scan like "The Bridges of Madison County"...great Clint East wood film.

Dave

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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 2:28 pm   #36
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

I believe the temporary mast was the Belling Lee one that had been used for initial site surveys at various sites.
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 2:53 pm   #37
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

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Impressive night time photo of the two structures in place currently. I remember the lattice tower collapse in the 1969 winter.
Wasn't the collapsed tower a tubular one, same height as Belmont and same as the slightly smaller on on Winter Hill?
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Old 2nd Aug 2018, 4:34 pm   #38
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

Yes a cylindrical steel tube Frank. I don't know where I got lattice from but steel tube or not, the locals certainly didn't want more of the same

Dave!
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Old 3rd Aug 2018, 6:30 pm   #39
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

G9AED perhaps?
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Old 3rd Aug 2018, 7:19 pm   #40
dave walsh
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Default Re: The twin towers of Emley Moor

Yes could it be. I had thought maybe I was focused on what was there originally or during the emergency set up, rather than what replaced it It's a bit 'ot generally as well currently which beffudles the brain!

Dave
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