FAYID POWER STATION
As Remembered By James Grassom
I arrived in Port Said in March 1950. Went to Moascar then to DCRE Fayid. In the first two days we had a sand storm and, as I was an Electrician, I was out repairing the overhead Power lines after the sand storm. The two new boys, Jock Moffat and myself, were given the job of walking all the Power lines from the Power Station to the end. If I remember correctly there were five which fed all the Military Camps in Fayid and Fanara. About June/July I was posted to Fayid Power Station.
In the Power Station we had four mobile generators which were mounted on Railways tracks and had been built for the Russian Front in WWII. The instructions on the units had Russian script at the rear of the building. We had 6(?) Diesels. This was the biggest Power Station under the control of the British Forces. Somebody wrote in the Soldier Magazine about the size of one in Singapore, I sent off a letter stating we had the largest and was given a rocket for "writing without permission". But nobody claimed to be bigger. At the end of the line at Fanara, beyond the detention barracks, we had a stand-by generator in the transmission field where we had a mixed unit – 2 Sappers for the generator, 4 Royal Signals and a squad of native signalmen and 4 Royal Navy Signals.
In February 1951 I was posted to East Africa and I only saw the Power Station
on my return to the Canal Zone in February 1952, as I passed it going up and
down as a member of the Middle East Tn. Rect. The Power Station was across the
road from the Station. We had 4 permanent living quarters – one for each
shift and one for camp staff and office. There were 4 tents for staff at the
Transmitter Station.