Exploring a 1920's Coal Power Plant in Philly - Richmond Generating Station

today i'm going to take inside of richmond generating station which in my opinion is one of the most attractive power plants ever built this neoclassical structure was opened in 1925 by the philadelphia electric company and operated only up until 1985. the station's interior is defined by massive open spaces and has a ceiling that towers 130 feet above being so magnificent it's actually been used in a few big budget films such as 12 monkeys and even transformers [Music] that said let's go check it out all right so definitely activity going on here i'm almost thinking if i was able to just get in the outer building i want to go in there anyway the coal coal building and then go up the coal conveyor that'd be kind of cool well definitely new fences going up here and there's quite a few cameras around i wonder if the ship's coming you got the bridge up over there and the train had just come by i tell you i got this place locked down really good i mean each of these windows that are within reach are blocked with steel more tugboats going under the bridge so in case nobody else noticed coming up that so these concrete and steel roofs are just completely falling apart definitely gotta watch we step i mean this is it's done for very unsafe all right much tighter in here and as i'm looking at these these are actually the old fireboxes holy smokes see this was all covered in insulation at one point but they stripped all that off you know windy days are tough because it's like there's so many noises going on in the building you don't know if it's somebody or just the wind but these the firebox doors going along here oh yeah they got it roped off but there you go there is the inside of one of the fireboxes at least i assume so definitely a heat exchanger no doubt piles of efflorescence all over the ground as i walk around this is uh like all the salts come from the concrete and look at that it's completely solidified soaked up these chunks of glass into it too pretty neat concrete above deteriorating looks like might be what we came for up here oh yeah this is the turbine hall look at this thing wood railing up top oh i should have brought my drone in this is absolutely stunning looking so you know i wasn't going to come here because there's already so many videos on this place but i am glad i did i mean i don't know if this camera does this justice but walking around here is extremely hazardous because this whole ceiling is concrete and glass and there's just big chunks of it hanging down in fact i gotta say a windy day is probably not a good day to come definitely not during the snow never ever come here during the snow because i don't know if you can see it in the camera but a lot of these are hanging on by a thread of thin rusted rebar and uh so you got to be very careful as you're walking around here silent killer all right how cool i can't get through over here too ah feels a little safer under here at least i got something covering my overhead i love that the sun came out too so this over here is the main control room it's obviously been stripped i'm gonna take a gander through anyway oh look at this running this thing being able to look down at the whole plant god this is such a neat it would be a neat job it really would be a little emergency hatch here it's probably actually to get down all the wiring and stuff for this whole room but yeah imagine being able to sit here and oversee operations it's got to be a couple feet of water down there there's probably all sorts of good stuff if you look through here the drawings of how all the controls worked in the plant richmond station combustion turbine card axe test and bring some of this stuff home good reading materials all right let's take a final walk around and then we'll head head on down there that's this little access gate would not want to fall down that you bump your head on one of these things see on a windy day you just never know when a piece of this concrete is gonna come down on you so i wouldn't suggest coming in here it's actually you know it's not super heavy concrete i don't know what this is this is like a concoction yeah it's a little soft actually the rusty steel wire inside though will take care if it's not too heavy to knock you out check out this 20s construction all these plates riveted and stacked together it sucks that all rods away but you know it wouldn't have if if they kept if they put a new roof on the place i love how all the wiring's just so exposed well was so exposed here too like and everything's just so neat like i'm sorry it's probably pretty dark in here but look at this all these fuses along the wall and then the other side's all access to the conduit it just wraps around in this perfect shape everything is just perfect what are these things resistors i didn't find too many other ways down where i gotta go so this will work i'll tell you i don't know how i'm getting out of this place because they got locked down pretty good and it's gonna be tough finding the way back pretty tough hi we're out in the open of the danger zone again so being very cautious watching up that uh nothing's gonna hit us right wearing my good boots so i don't think i'm gonna go walk it across that doesn't look too uh pleasant alrighty so not too sure on this setup but this looks like it might be the high pressure turbine side if it is a multi-stage and then it's low pressure turbine anybody else know be cool to comment that below suppose let's take a peek inside nice oh yeah there she is that's the big low pressure turbine there this is the exhaust oh man the wind just kicked up a bunch i don't like that thing about this place is there's no getting out i mean every window on ground levels weld and shut like this you can see out like these guys are working right now so definitely active place but um yeah there's no getting out somebody took some of the copper out of here brass oh yeah they took that whole big face plate off of it wow they tried getting this one too it's probably worth a few hundred bucks you might be wondering why i'm not wearing gloves and that's because i forgot them okay got my sucks well i'm sorry not because i forgot them because i wasn't planning this that's why i was just driving home from philly and decide why they make this hole so darn small it's ridiculous all right now i see why they close this place yeah ain't no saving that that's dumb for hey look there's still some copper left how about that that's as high as they went the big crane that rolls across the whole thing on this track so this is the what i'm walking across is the crane track hmm cool made it to the roof this you may not want to walk across of course they put this net over it too i wonder why they did that maybe to hold the chunks oh this thing's awesome i trust the steel work do you trust the arch absolutely damn as you look down into that turbine hole it's a little sketch up here i like to keep my hand on something at all times really see this is what's coming apart but it's actually pretty lightweight well here we go this is the center most point this place is perfectly symmetrical and uh i'm probably not gonna climb out there i could but it's not worth it let's do a quick hike test here i guess i gotta climb this with the inside it's got the safety cage too which is nice wow i'm really glad this cage is on here and it's ultra windy holy smokes holy smokes very cool i think we're back before we came in yep so the roof is always the clear path to take absolutely now we just gotta make it down this place has got workers driving around it non-stop so i don't know if you guys just seen him it's a little risky a little bit you know i really shouldn't be showing how i got into this place because a lot of people hate on that big time like don't show how you got in just show the inside i guess because i want to seal them up the entrances so other people can't come in but truthfully there's always going to be a way to get in humans are like squirrels man they're going to climb scale the building as long as they get to the roof they can get in this place it's impossible to seal it up completely the truth of the matter is is it really worth it though because you got security coming around this the whole time uh well not necessarily security but pcg workers i'm sorry workers are not in jersey and um yeah is it really worth it interested i don't know you tell me my choice is yours [Music] [Music] oh [Music] now okay [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you

Channel: NoNonsenseKnowHow

Views: 37,828

Keywords: NoNonsenseKnowHow, kzguy2, exploration, proper people, the proper people, urbex, urban, philly, philadelphia, richmond, port richmond, richmond generating station, transformers movie set, 12 monkeys movie set, power plant, abandoned, abandoned power plant, richmond power plant, richmond power station, boiler, electricity, power, forgotten buildings, hospital, trenton nj, turbine, pseg, 1920's, neoclassical architecture, haunted, forgotten, phila, delaware river, 1925, philadelphia electric company

Id: vYzaMK0w3kw

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 08 2020