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The Galloway Hydro-electric Project.
Of all the hydro-electric power schemes in Scotland, the largest and most recent [ in the 1930s] is that inGalloway. Numerous dams, aqueducts, tunnels and other engineering works were built to provide the power for five generating stations which supply current to the Grid.SCOTLAND is an ideal locality for the development of hydro-electric power schemes. There is enormous potential energy in this land of innumerable lochs, many of them over 1,000 feet above sea level. At everyturn the roar of a mountain torrent may be heard, in every valley a considerable stream rushes down to loseits energy when it meets the sea.Until comparatively recently all this power has been wasted. In a country so sparsely populated little usecould be made of the water's energy. The main industries, as in England and Wales, were centred in thecoal-bearing districts. The increasing use of electricity made it possible to consider using this latent natural power.To see a Scottish loch high up in the mountains collecting all the waters that pour down from the snows,and emptying those waters down through the valleys, is to visualize a great barrage by which all thatwasted energy may be conserved. The reaction is automatic in any imaginative mind. Modern engineeringhas been able to make that ideal a reality. The natural energy of mountain waters can be made to operateturbines, can be translated into electrical energy and transmitted as required to other parts of the country.
BUILDING THE CARSFAD DAM. The workmen are engaged on building the spillway channel which diverts the water that spillsover the gravity dam back into the bed of the River Ken. The end of the straight gravity section of the dam, where it joins the archsection, can be seen to the left of the picture.
This is what engineers have already done in Scotland. In numerous districts dams have been built and thewater power has been controlled, to be used for man's various requirements. Already a continuous output of more than 300,000 kilowatts comes from Scotland's hydro-electric stations. The majority of these stationsare situated in the Highlands, where the average rainfall is about 80 in. a year, reaching a maximum of 164in. on Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Great Britain. In Southern Scotland the rainfall is less. Althoughnot so mountainous, the Lowland country is everywhere hilly and often extremely bleak and wild.In the south-west of Scotland is a district of hills, moors and valleys known as Galloway. Numerous riversand lochs cover the landscape in this area, which has an average rainfall of from 40 to 60 in. a year. Thetwo main rivers in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright are the Rivers Dee and Ken. These rivers have their sources in hills which rise to a height of more than 2,500 feet.
 
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CARSFAD DAM AND POWER STATION are situated in scenes of majestic desolation. The- dam across the River Ken at Carsfadhas a length of 1,270 feet. The western arm forms the eastern bank of the intake channel, which leads the water through sluice gates totwin reinforced concrete aqueducts of 13 ft. 6 in. diameter. These aqueducts were laid in an open trench. The photograph clearly showsthe tailrace from the power house to the Ken, the spillway channel (centre) and the fish ladder provided for salmon to pass the dam.
Under the Galloway Water Power Act of 1929 a great scheme was embraced for the development of thisarea as a source of electrical power for industrial use. From a catchment area of 400 square miles it wasestimated that power equivalent to 20,000 kilowatts at continuous load could be developed.So far-reaching is the project that engineering works have altered the topography of the area. Theheadwaters of the Dee have been impounded to form a large artificial loch, Clatteringshaws Loch, whichhas a capacity of 1,250 million cubic feet. The waters of Loch Doon naturally empty through Ayrshire. Now the waters can be used to supplement the Galloway water area. The Black Water of Dee used to joinLoch Ken. Most of the waters are now carried in a tunnel 19,050 feet long to Glenlee Power Station and pass into the River Ken about, ten miles farther upstream than before. In all, the scheme comprises fiveseparate power stations, several reservoirs and a large number of dams, tunnels, aqueducts, pipe lines andother engineering works. The scheme, which was completed in 1936, cost about £3,000,000.One of the largest engineering works involved in the scheme was the building of Clatteringshaws Dam,which created a reservoir about two miles long. The dam has a length of 1,500 feet and is built in a curvewith a radius of 3,000 feet. Work started in September 1932. Percussion drills excavated holes 20 feet deepto carry the foundations into solid natural granite. Pipes were inserted in the holes and grout was forced inso that the entire length of the dam between the extreme abutments was founded on cemented rock. Thedam was built up in sections about 50 feet long. Heavy steam jib cranes, running on rails, with a capacity of up to fifteen tons supplied concrete from the main crushing and mixing plant, which was placed near theeastern end of the dam.
 
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AN OPEN AQUEDUCT, or canal, leads the water from the eastern end of the Ken dam to the reservoir formed by a dam across theBlackwater Burn. The water is then led to Kendoon Power Station. The canal aqueduct between the two reservoirs is lined withconcrete and runs for 2,500 feet
.Between the 50-feet sections a clear space of 6 feet was left to allow for the contraction of the concrete oncooling. When the concrete had fully cooled and contracted, the spaces were filled in. While the work wasin progress openings through which the river passed were left in the structure. One of the provisions of theAct. was that the flow should not be allowed to fall below twelve million gallons a day at a point sevenmiles below the dam. Thus special attention had to be paid to the outlet in the centre of the dam. The outletconsists of a 72-in. steel-plate lined culvert through the dam, closed on the upstream face by a free rollingemergency gate. The flow is controlled by a mechanically-operated needle valve.
Tunnel 19,050 Feet Long
THE water from the reservoir is taken down to Glenlee Power Station in the Ken Valley through a tunnel of horseshoe section 19,050 feet long. The intake to the tunnel is not near the dam itself, but some one and ahalf miles away on the eastern bank of the reservoir. The water from the reservoir is diverted to the intaketower of the tunnel through a canal 44 feet wide and 2,300 feet long. The sloping banks of this canal or channel were lined where necessary with concrete, although at many points the natural rock formed asuitable revetment.So that the intake tower may be inspected, water gates across the canal can be used to stop the flow of water. The intake tower is a reinforced concrete structure with a total height of 98 ft. 9 in. It is a circular shaft with an external diameter of 17 feet above ground level, and below ground level the walls areconcreted solid against the excavated rock. The base of the tower is connected to the tunnel through a bell-mouth opening with vertical sides lined with reinforced concrete. The transition from the elongated mouthto the normal tunnel takes place in a length of 22 feet.
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