Seabank Tank Farm, Invergordon, August 2009

[zimbob]

I've been meaning to do this place for a while, after visiting the underground storage tanks at Inchindown. Inchindown Report - sorry, 'tis on another forum ...

This was the next logical step, as the fuel-oil was stored here, in massive above-ground tanks for more immediate use, having been pumped down the hill from Inchindown. Due the viscousity of said fuel-oil - basically one step away from crude oil, heaters had to be installed at regular intervals along the length of the pipe to assist the flow.

The site back in the day, with Naval vessels in the foreground (c/o InvergordonArchive) :



And as it is now - Flashearth - Linky


The Tank Farm ( along with it's smaller sister-site, Cromlet Tank Farm, now demolished and replaced with housing ) was built shortly after WW1. The Admiralty apparently de-commissioned it in 1956, or at least scaled back operations there drastically, and handed it back to the town in the mid-eighties. Certainly, some of the signage, and lighting there suggested it was still being used up until then.

On 15 February 1941 a Junkers 88 made a daring attack on the Invergordon base. Diving to 40ft east to west over the oil storage tanks, it dropped two 500K bombs. One went through a tank, into the next one and exploded without causing a fire, but tons of oil flowed out on to the railway tracks and nearby station. The second bomb went through another tank, but failed to explode after landing in the oil slick. The Junkers made a sharp bank to avoid a church steeple then machine gunned a Sunderland causing slight damage before speeding off. The attack had lasted four minutes without the defences reacting to what was happening. Two civilian workmen on Top of the tank when the attack occurred slid down to safety. One ran off home while the other reported to the nearest hostelry for a medicinal dram!

There are conflicting stories as to whether or not both, or even one of the bombs actually exploded, there was certainly no fire. Tank 13 was completely destroyed however, and there is still a gap where it stood to this day. There was only a single casuality, the local bin-man's horse, which died after the fuel-oil got into it's hooves (hoofs?) .

Aerial photo taken by the RAF shortly after the attack, showing the destroyed tank, and the damage to the adjacent one ( c/o InvergordonArchive again ) :



On with the pics - the internals were hand-held, so high ISO and one or two glasses of Fizz too many the night before goes some way towards explaing the poor quality...

First impressions :



These were big :



And stretched as far as the eye could see :



Plenty of pipework etcetera still extant - no scrap-thieves have been here





This is not as random as it may seem - apparently some of the tanks to the west of the site were used for fresh-water storage :



As someone had away with the ladders, Miss B sought an alternative route to the top!





But we both thought better of it ...

If she couldn't get up, she was going to get in though!



It would have been rude not to follow ... Inside these tanks was absolutely filthy, be sure to wear old gear if you ever go here. The acoustics were absolutely fantastic though, and the space inside was somehow reminiscent of a film-set :





These appeared to be 'element' type affairs, presumably to keep the oil from getting too 'sludgy' :



Miss B was determined to get to the top ( excuse the shaky shot! )



It was about this stage we'd both had enough in here - the heat was incredible, and the fumes were getting us a little...

Onwards, to a wee brick-built pump-house :





Oddly, two of the tanks here were brick-clad, we'd assumed these to be the bombed ones when we saw them, but now realise that not to be the case, so it's a mystery...



Baby tank with it's big brothers, say 'Awwww'



All the tanks had windlasses, c/w cables running up to the tops :



Looking over to the town :



And over the tanks :



Then we started heading back, past another, larger building, with a decent-sized genny-affair in it :



Made by 'Paxman-Ricardo' if that means anything to anyone?



And a lonely transformer .



And some serious underground piping :



Time to go, our route back :



Machine-sheds along the way included the store for the 'Foam Cannon' - sounds ace !



And the rather cute 'Grass-cutting Machinery' shed :



Last look back :




Really enjoyed this, weather was great too. Missed a fair bit also, and I know there's a couple of other folk who want to see it, so I'll be back...

[KingElvis]

very nice thread mate. Cracking.

I would love to visit.

[boxfrenzy]

I like this one, particularly the interiors of the round building. Nice report mate

[acen2006]

Thanks, loved the inside shots of the tank.

[S8]

You're right, that is an element, if you leave bitumen and other derivatives of crude oil without heating, they set like concrete...

NIce thread

[Muse]

Very nice report and pics. Love the inside shots.

[manof2worlds]

The interiors of the tanks look like a Bond movie set!!! Excellent

[Cuban Bloodhound]

Quite an interesting report, never seen inside one of those tanks before.

[superkev]

Great stuff, the internal shots of the tank were really something!
was there a big clean up operation on the site after it shut down (environmental stuff n all that)?
Or has everything just been left as was?

[sqwasher]

Nice stuff Zimbob-inside that tank looks ace! Well worth the mess no doubt!