PIPELINING - JUST FOR THE CRAIC !! **

PIPE HOME LINCOLNSHIRE FIRST STEPS STRINGING FRONT END INSPECTION COATING LOWER & LAY TIE-INS & FABS SIDEBOOMS AUGER TUNNELING HD DRILLING TRENCHING & BACKFILL PIPELINERS REINSTATEMENT THE LAST TIE-IN OLD TIMES DEREK's 1966 Have Your Say TOM THOMSON

After the Daily Grind - Appreciate your achievements

Remember, if you want to let pipeliners know about any Births, Weddings , or God forbid, funerals, leave me a message on the Guestbook. Any funny stories, pictures of the lines you were on way back then, when you hand-balled the pipe into the trench, and stuck 'em together with fishglue, or pictures of where you are now.... happy to find space.

 

Farningham to Hadlow 48", Pipeline, Murphy Pipelines, Sidebooms, Horizontal Directional Drilling, Road Crossings, Tunnelling, Borough Green, Wrotham, Plaxtol, Roman Bathhouse, Tom Thomson, Sideboom Cowboy,

 

NEW : See Derek's 1966 Pipeline Pics: Derek's Page

I came to Borough Green in the late 60's, working as a bomber (weld radiographer) on a Murphy gas pipeline from Kemsing to Tunbridge Wells. I met my future wife Jackie at the local garage, and the rest is history. I stayed on the lines a while longer, but then settled down to the rural life, first working in the local quarry, and then starting with one truck, spent the rest of my years in road haulage. ( http://www.mike-taylor-haulage.com/ )

That would have been that, except in 2009 Southern Gas Networks contracted Murphy to build another local line from Farningham to Hadlow.

As a Borough Green Parish Councillor, I knew people had concerns about such a major project, and got permission to run features about the progress of the pipeline on my local news website ( http://www.boroughgreen-news.com/ ).

BUT......

FARNINGHAM TO HADLOW

Southern Gas Networks contracted Murphy Pipelines Ltd to lay 22Km of 1200mm pipe with a heavy duty wall.

The job was made difficult by two motorways, an AONB, an ancient woodland, a railway, miles of narrow country lanes, but worst of all, although this is a rural area, it is quite densely populated. There were almost more fabrications, tie-ins and road crossings than actual mainline.

On the way three separate archeological sites were discovered, requiring major changes "on the hoof".

Nothing is ever as simple as we expect. I got over 2500 photos, and 6 pages about the pipeline on the website. People being people, hands on the line started to follow what was being printed, I got even more help, and access to areas an outsider wouldn't get to. Every day I had to carry discs of the pics so far, everyone wanted them.

It occurred to me, that although this was their daily grind, now they could see it through someone else's eyes, they started to appreciate the excitement I felt at what they were achieving.

This website will be firstly a historical record of the professional way Murphys conducted their operation through my home town of Borough Green. As such it will be useful to other communities "threatened" by a pipeline, a chance to understand what will happen, and the sheer effort that goes into mitigating the effects, both local and environmental.

I hope it will be used by the guys I got to know as a reminder of what they achieved..... but also as a resource for them, a way to show the wife and kids what Dad does. As they disperse across the country, or even abroad, I hope they use the guestbook to let us know what they are up to, send pictures, send stories, keep in touch.

The effort involved will be my way of saying thank you to those pipeliners for their help and friendship whilst they were here.

This track is "Sideboom Cowboy"

GREAT NEWS!!   TOM THOMSON HAS SURFACED!!

Thanks to Liz Martin, who had Tom as a recent wedding guest (Congratulations, Liz), Tom has now been in touch, as you can see on the guest page. His new CD, that contains all our favourite pipeline songs, and a few more, is now available by emailing Tom at  dalginross {at} hotmail.com  I hope to persuade him to give me enough pics to make a "Tom Thomson" page, lets have a celebrity of our own.

Music excerpts from "Pipeliner", a CD by Tom Thomson, the "Mutthill Man". John the Lube put me onto his music.(c) Tom Thomson

I was on the trace talking to some of the guys the other day, and we were talking about the BBC "Coast" programme, and the Norwegian plant that cleans the gas before piping it to Easington. I found this YouTube clip that might interest you.....: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hur7uQx1nA 

 

 

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** Just for the Craic =Craic (pronounced crack) is a great Irish word. Definitions vary, but typically it is agreed that when the craic is good, there will be great, raging, entertaining, wide ranging, spontaneous conversations about everything that life throws at you.

Pictures (c) Mike Taylor, Tony Theaker, Pete Gillin and SGN