# Doxford Engines, Sunderland, May 2008



## LeatherDome (May 26, 2008)

I was there before dawn, so running around windowed offices with a flash gun would have been silly, so it was basement straight away. The whole site is built on such a steep slope that there’s no real going down involved, just the bottom flight of the stairs.

First off is the boiler room. And let’s get the gauges over with right away.






All this looks like new. The latest sign off from the British Gas inspection was 7/10/88 and the first was 23/9/86, so I guess the stuff was all new and they only got three years out of it at most.





Compared to some of the older facilities, like this butler sink from around 1850.





Back out into the stair well and the long corridor looms. Don’t be fooled by the power of the mighty SB800, this was all pitch black It’s been quite some months since I ventured into a totally dark confined space and this felt slightly disconcerting. Part of the deal, eh? 





To the left, there’s a large heater exchanger blower contraption. Again this is like a new installation. It’s a Keith Blackman Gilled Tube Air Heater and my guess is that this takes heated water from the boilers next door, warms the air with it and fills the offices with that warm glow us office layabouts so relish.










Aw... A sweet little flash packet curling up to the oily jar. It’ll all end in tears though when oily doesn’t clean up his act.





In the same space was the er, you know, the water tanky... tappy thing. You can never have enough taps on these, is what I always say.





Lecky, no touchy. Most of this is left turned on and the meter in the bottom right spins at a fair old click. No telling if this really is new and required for the site and I had no compulsion to find out.





Ah, maybe a relic of what Doxford used to make. Some real man bolts there and a segment of turbine blades.





Ooh, these are so cool. Black Smoke, electrically detonated pyrotechnics. So very old they are, as well. The only thing I can think of is that these were somehow used during the war to try and hide the yard. They look old enough and with the no nonsense instructions you only seem to need them when you need immediate black smoke.

“BLACK SMOKE – CAUTION. Extend the wires to the necessary length and connect ONE wire ONLY to positive terminal of a 4 volt battery. When the smoke is required, touch the negative terminal with the other wire. The smoke is then instantaneous. STAND WELL CLEAR“.





The next room was absolutely super. Full of chest of drawers.





Look, some bloke’s gone and put the wrong labels on. I’m no fool, you know. It’s bloody obvious you’re not gonna be able to keep many ships propellers in there.





Unfinished project.





Bit of office comedy coming up. You’ve gotta love it.















We’ve even got a Frenchman trying it on. Seems he ran some sort of exposing/developing lab in here. He hasn’t got me too worried though, I don’t see much peril in being prodded at with a white flag.










Upstairs is an open office space, it leads on to a sort of wing.





Dead Magpie. Kindred spirit of the Pikie.





To lots of empty - except for a load of ‘jumble’ – hardboard offices.















Stairs back to reception.





Don’t know what this is. Any Ideas?





And the bloke who worked in here obviously wasn’t a team player. Had his own blind to pull down on the windows next door.





Looks like someone’s tried redecorating here some. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen need not have fear.





Cheers... LD.


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## Scrub2000 (May 26, 2008)

LOL good report dude - love the many taps on the tank...weird!!!

:thumb


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## reddwarf9 (May 26, 2008)

Great place great report there, super pics too, thanx for posting.

Found this info about Doxford engines - I luv reading about this stuff.

So what is a Doxford Engine?
It's a special type of engine used for powering large ships. 
Ships powered by Doxford Engines imported cargoes such as iron ore from Spain, Australian Lamb, butter from New Zealand, wheat from Canada and bananas from the Windward Islands. They delivered manufactured goods from Britain to worldwide markets. 
Many Doxford Engines were very big - the size of several three-storey terraced houses! The largest have cylinders bigger than four dustbins stacked end to end, and each of these cylinders is as powerful as two or three Spitfire engines. 
Most Doxford oil engines made after 1954 could run on cheap 'heavy oil', a thick, tarry by-product of oil refineries. 
Doxford engines are an important British innovation; the first one was tested in 1914, and the last one was built in 1980. Doxford engines were developed in Sunderland, but they were also made on Tyneside, on Clydeside and in several countries abroad. 
Hundreds of people worked at the Doxford Engine Works in Sunderland, designing, building, installing, repairing, and making spare parts for the engines to keep them running.
It is little known that one third of all merchant ships built in the UK were built on the river Wear in Sunderland. Most of these ships were powered by the famous 3-cylinder Doxford Economy Engine which saved Britain from starvation during the Second World War. They had to run at full speed to keep up with the convoys in the North Atlantic using only six tons of fuel per day. If this engine had not existed, it is likely that Britain would have been forced into submission by Germany due to starvation.


rd


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## Sabtr (May 27, 2008)

Another excellent report.  I can only marvel at these places - I would spend hour upon hour scratching round in there!! Thankyou for sharing with us.


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## digitalxspace (May 27, 2008)

Great report!!! I love places like these. Great pics and a great read


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## LeatherDome (May 27, 2008)

Thanks all,

I hadn't researched this as it was a spur of the weekend sort of thing and Reddwarf9 got me googling on Doxford. I'd recommend anyone mildly interested in ships (I am a diesel engineer but not a marine one and that makes me an interested ignoramus) have a go at that. An interesting company history has Doxford.


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## reddwarf9 (May 27, 2008)

LeatherDome said:


> Thanks all,
> 
> I hadn't researched this as it was a spur of the weekend sort of thing and Reddwarf9 got me googling on Doxford. I'd recommend anyone mildly interested in ships (I am a diesel engineer but not a marine one and that makes me an interested ignoramus) have a go at that. An interesting company history has Doxford.



I'm an ex diesel engineer too but also not marine, hence my interest  It certainly has a fascinating history.

rd


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## Atomager (May 27, 2008)

Nice pictures and an interesting site. I'm struggling to find anything not done to death in Leeds.

Whats with all the jumble and poundland bags in that room? Has somebody been dossing down there?


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## LeatherDome (May 27, 2008)

Atomager said:


> Whats with all the jumble and poundland bags in that room? Has somebody been dossing down there?



It's rumoured that somebody lives in he gatehouse of this place, though what sort of life they lead I can't imagine. Think _car boot sale_ and it just about sums up the junk that was in there. Think _car boot sale Baron_ and these would be his horde rooms. There's a ton of it.


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## The Duke (May 28, 2008)

A brilliant header to the Magpie pix!


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## spacepunk (May 29, 2008)

A nice humourous report. Good stuff.I'm liking that tanky tappy thing.


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