Last public DC mains supply in the UK?

[Scott37]

Something I have wondered about for a long time, but never been able to find an answer to: When was the last public DC electricity supply in the UK, and where? Given that AC/DC radios are discussed elsewhere, it cannot have been so very long ago.

[winston_1]

All I can say is that we were converted to AC in Barnes SW London around 1950.

[AC/HL]

An earlier thread on the subject: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=41380

[broadgage]

Following the adoption of the pre-war Weir report into the future of electricity supply, it was decided that all new public electrification schemes were to be 50 cycle, 240 volts, and preferably at 3 phase 240/415 volts.

Other public supplies continued for decades, and minor extensions and improvements of DC was permitted, but no new schemes.

Private supplies could be what ever the owner wanted, but most tended to be the same as public supplies so as to use standard equipment.

DC mains certainly existed into the 1970s, and possibly beyond then, but were rare.
The coal mining industry favoured DC and this was often supplied to miners homes.
Oxshot in surrey allegedly had DC mains until the 1970s.

[The Philpott]

You're probably looking at an island community, but....which one?

[broadgage]

Well spotted ! I suspect that the O/P meant the mainland UK, but it does not actually say so.
There is probably STILL some obscure remote island with DC, maintained by accumulators to reduce engine running hours.

[Radio Wrangler]

The title of this thread just triggered one of those flash ideas.

How about an April the first article announcing the end of old-fashioned DC batteries and that everyone must convert to 'digital' ones?

David

[John10b]

I like it David
Cheers
John

[turretslug]

With the burgeoning use of SMPSUs, it's almost as if more and more things are running from local 330VDC (ish).... Sooner or later, a beancounter will twig that, if the utilities change to supplying us at 340VDC instead of 230VAC, then more power can be delivered into existing cable thickness without having to upgrade existing insulation. Until everyone's switches and MCBs start welding up.

[Jon_G4MDC]

It should go nicely with the digital motors.

As to bean counters, DC is used (for damn good engineering reasons) for long distance transmission.

[Refugee]

They are generating quite a lot of power from DC from solar and wind.
The chopper units run at about 10Khz when they convert it to AC. I can hear them if I walk past the arrays.

[Scott37]

Originally Posted by broadgage

Well spotted ! I suspect that the O/P meant the mainland UK, but it does not actually say so.
There is probably STILL some obscure remote island with DC, maintained by accumulators to reduce engine running hours.

I don't really mind whether it is mainland or not; my emphasis was more on the public aspect.

Originally Posted by AC/HL

An earlier thread on the subject: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=41380

Thanks. I will look for this. As a general principle, is it better to reopen old threads or to start a new one?

[emeritus]

Cardiff used to have both AC and DC public supplies, but by 1969 the only customers using DC were the municipal trolleybus system and the university's electrical power engineering lab. The benches had the special (Walsall gauge) 13A sockets where the pins were rotated 90 degrees for the 240V DC mains and AFAIR the macines lab had a 660V supply for operating DC motors. The trolleybus system was being replaced by buses and I think the last ones ran in 1970. The university had installed a solid state (it might have been mercury arc ) rectifiers in circa 1968 to provide its own DC supply in readiness for loss of the public DC mains. I remember doing lab experiments with the public DC supply. Apparently the closure was a consequence of the DC power station at Colchester Avenue having become life-expired. The docks had used the public DC supply for operating cranes and winches, but the docks were virtually dead by the late 1960's.

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by Scott37

As a general principle, is it better to reopen old threads or to start a new one?

It depends on more than one factor. In general, very old threads are as well left dormant, as old information can sometimes be misleading. If you particularly want to pick up on something, you can ask for it to be reopened, or alternatively just provide a link, which any member can do. A new thread re-focuses the topic too.

[hannahs radios]

Bournemouth had its last DC supply disconnected in about 1974 the last customers were the shops in the posh bit of town they used it for the lifts. There was a mercury rectifier installed which carried on until the 1990s when the last DC lift was retired from service

[1955APREN]

When I left school and started in trade 1955 here
in Mkt Drayton there was a small part of the town that still had dc , high st and a few other st of it. Our shop had list so salesman could refer to when selling radio's tv . I recall that one new salesman forgot to look at list and sold a AC only radio to the wrong address. Poor mains tx in the radio did not like this one a bit.I seem to remember that the DC lasted till about 1958
Regards Derrick

[Richard_FM]

I've heard some DC radios were made for the cabins of cruise ships, I'm not sure what voltage they would have ran on.

[kalee20]

From Wikipedia:

"The Central Electricity Generating Board in the UK continued to maintain a 200 volt DC generating station at Bankside Power Station on the River Thames in London as late as 1981. It exclusively powered DC printing machinery in Fleet Street, then the heart of the UK's newspaper industry. It was decommissioned later in 1981 when the newspaper industry moved into the developing docklands area further down the river (using modern AC-powered equipment)."

[Hartley118]

It's rather interesting from the commercial perspective that supply contracts between consumers and Electricity Boards could include the agreement that the supply be DC.

What's particularly surprising is that contract between consumer and Board would reflect through to the contract between Board and CEGB, who, at least in some cases, were then required to generate DC of the requisite power.

I recall a period in the early 1960s when I worked at the the then relatively new Doncaster 'B' power station that DC was still being generated at the old Doncaster 'A' station by means of substantial rotary converters. The main DC supply was 600V for the trolleybuses, but there was one machine dedicated to the local printing works whose supply contract still required that the Board must provide DC.

I wonder whether there are any remnants of these historic contracts remaining in these complex days of multiple competing electricity suppliers.

Martin