tarboat's photos with the keyword: duisburg

The first mining at the Rheinpreußen mine took place in 1876, although the sinking work on shafts 1 and 2 had been repeatedly delayed by technical problems such as quicksand collapses. The development of coal mining and sinking of new shafts over the next century extended the mining area from Duisburg-Homberg to Moers. This shaft, known as the "Gerdt" shaft (Rheinpreußen 8), was sunk east of the main shaft system in 1941 as a ventilation shaft and put into operation for Rheinpreußen 5/9 in 1945. An expansion from 1955 to 1959 made Shaft 8 ready for winding. The winding tower for this was planned by the architects Fritz Schupp, a well-known figure in the Ruhr area. Winding here was abandoned in 1967. 1971 saw the shaft become part of the new Rheinland Mine and then through merger into the Freidrich Heinrich/Rheinland Mine in 1993. It became part of the Walsum Mine in 1994 and was abandoned and filled-in in 2004. The shaft was 573m deep and 4.5m in diameter. The winding drum and controls remain at the top of the tower.

The former Meiderich works of ThyssenKrupp in Duisburg is now a focal point of the Lanschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Public access to the blast furnaces and other structures provides a fascinating view of how iron was smelted here until closure in 1985. This view from funace No.5 looks down on what I believe to be part of the hot blast process although these towers look different from the Cowper stoves normally associated with the process.

Meiderich ironworks, Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. The gasholder in this preserved ironworks site is now filled with water and used for diving. It was constructed in 1920 and had a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres of blast furnace gas. www.landschaftspark.de/en/industrial-heritage-circuit/gasometer

The Duisburg-Walsum power station was built in 1928 to use coal from the adjacent Walsum coal mine. It has subsequently been expanded and modernised with increasingly large generating plant. The latest is Block 10 on which construction started in 2006 with a view to commissioning in 2010. Unfortunately the use of a low-alloy steel, designed for higher pressures and temperatures, in the evaporator section of the boiler led to over 3,000 leaky welds and after rectification more leaks during the testing process in May 2011. The faulty section had to be replaced with tried and tested steel and it was not until April 2013 that the boiler was fired for the first time using oil. Sunsequently the boiler has been run on hard coal and after problems with the Hitachi generator were resolved the plant has been able to generate up to 800Mw and commercial operation began in December 2013. The late completion of the plant has led to a number of damages claims running to hundreds of millions of Euros.

The Schwelgern in Duisburg is one of the largest and most modern coking plants in the world. It is operated by Kokereibetriebsgesellschaft Schwelgern GmbH with a staff of just over 300. The main customer is the adjacent integrated steelworks of Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG. Construction started in 1999 and the first coke was pushed in March 2003. Annual consumption of coal is 3.8 million tonnes for a coke production of 2.5 million tonnes from two batteries of 70 ovens each of which produces 55 tonnes of coke every 25 hours.

Next to the Rhine near Duisburg is the Glunz fibreboard plant which has been shut down for some time.

These anaerobic digesters at the Emschermündung sewage plant produce methane for resale into the energy market. The structures look a bit distorted due to the use of a wide-angle lens. They are constructed of reinforced concrete with a metal cladding.

The view from one of the blast furnaces at the former Meiderich works of ThyssenKrupp in Duisburg is full of interest both near and far. The second furnace is visible on the left and both sets of Cowper Stoves still stand too. The plant was closed in 1985 and is now a focal point of the Lanschaftspark Duisburg-Nord.

The Sterkrade colliery was sunk in 1903 and operated independently until 1933 when it was absorbed into the Osterfeld complex. Shaft 1 at Sterkrade was eventually used to wind men and materials whilst the coal was raised at Osterfeld. Closure came in 1992 and the site has been cleared apart from the headframe and associated pithead building.