The pipeline to Grangemouth must have been bidirectional as it is assumed to have supplied Mountblow.  A major part of its work was/is pumping crude oil through to the refinery in Grangemouth.

Bidirectional flow on a pipeline such as this seems fraught with technical and logistical problems.

Although referred to as a pipeline, which might be notionally suggestive of a single pipe running along its length, as it would be carrying different product to and from the refinery, might there be two actual pipes, each serving in the appropriate direction?

I have no detailed knowledge of this installation, nor any idea for the moment where to dig some up with reasonable ease.

I would be surprised if itwas just one  pipe given the work it has been expected to do but I do not know for sure and the answer may well still be classified.

Classified

I don't know how they deal with multiple product and the need to transport different materials in both directions, but since a refinery is a continuous process that doesn't like to stop, I imagine simultaneous flow of different materials in both directions at once is almost a necessity, as you can't tell a tanker to hold on for a few day while they finish processing a batch. and the tank farm can only hold so much.

Crude oil arriving for refining can be like black tar, and heavy fuel oil not much better (if it's still used) while diesel/kerosene and petrol aren't going to be popular if mixed in for customers that don't want them. Presumably there will still be the byproducts like tar and pitch to be shifted as well.

On the other hand, we're forgetting that there are docks at the refinery - what is loaded and unloaded there?

Perhaps one end is used for receipt of crude oil, while the other is used for despatching refined product, and there is only the need to have multiple flows around the terminals, so they have the required material being pumped in to, or out of, their tank farms?

Turning out to be an interesting question

All that expensive education must have been worth something then... even if it didn't help be find the terminal in the Gaz - wonder what I did wrong (ah! just thick).

Crude (20 inch) and product (12 inch) nicely separated.

I guess "Innovene operates a 12-inch multiproduct pipeline" means that there might be multiple feeds running within the 12-inch outer, unless they run batches to allow the pipeline to clear!

58 miles of 12-inch pipe would hold rather a lot of material, and I don't think they're likely to just open the tap and let it run until it's empty before they shove something different down it (just kidding by the way, just in case ).

They probably send a pig down the pipe between batches.

There is a junction in the pipe on the banks of Loch Lomond where the pipe for Mountblow branches off. The disused one can be seen above ground at one point close to the junction. If any one wants to see it then let me know and i can give you better directions.

You can get the lat/lon/ngr from our cunningly titled Map lat/lon finder page  

We could even add that to the main page as something of interest.

Handy page!!
The junction compound is in the walled off section
(:gma-point lat=56.0157373 lon=-4.6112376
(:mlat:56.0157373(:mlon:-4.6112376(:mngr6:NS373833
(:gma-map

The pipe is located here
(:gma-point lat=56.0153595 lon=-4.6094728
(:mlat:56.0153595(:mlon:-4.6094728(:mngr6:NS374833
(:gma-map

To avoid suffering from an overload of happiness, these is a checkbox that allows one to Disable Smiles? on the Post Options just under the message box - it can be useful on the odd occasion

Bit unfortunate about the coincidence of character combinations sometimes, especially if you like to stuff stuff inside brackets.

I've added the markers quickly, as I'm partway through adding some more detailed info and revamping the page (it's not done yet, so no pointing out errors).

To avoid suffering from an overload of happiness, these is a checkbox that allows one to Disable Smiles? on the Post Options just under the message box - it can be useful on the odd occasion

Bit unfortunate about the coincidence of character combinations sometimes, especially if you like to stuff stuff inside brackets.

copyright William Craig

This photo [on the Garelochead- Arrochar road] was taken just to the south of the main gate of the Finnart terminal - the gatehouse of which tis on the left. The gatehouse to the landward tank farm is on the right. Behind the dyke - on the right - is a deep natural and ragged cutting which a fast flowing burn flows through down to Loch Long, over the burn at this point the two pipelines cross.  

Nice pic catching the two lodges together, I think it will end up on the page.

I think it's more or less up to date with the info we have.

I was trying to add some more info I managed to dig up about the two houses, but when I started testing it, it started to fall apart in the detail, so I eventually decided to cut my losses and abandon it.

I still need to work in a mention of a fountain at the front of the now derelict Finnart House, which I just spotted in the detail of an old map dating from within a few years of the build

Well done Captain B!  Goood info.  

There is also the question of the spur from the main pipeline that went to Rosneath Naval Base built by the Americans according to the Rosneath website.

It also occurs to me that the small refined products pipeline must have been connected to the AvGas storage depot between the bonded warehouses to the east of Dumbarton.

The other thought is that these lines must run through the city!!

Can you find the specific mention of the Rosneath spur? I had a quick look to refresh the details, and maybe make it a bit more noticeable, but can't find the note anywhere in the story. I might be looking in the wrong place of course.

Careful with those word choices It may be better to play safe unless or until something turns up, and just suggest that the other storage depot was connected to the Finnart pipe. It just might have been piped in as a supplement to one of the other tank farms.

Intriguing thought about the city

I suspect the reality will be that it skirts much of the area, and will have been routed across country, and there is also the earlier mentions we had in the canal tales, where there was a note somewhere about the pipeline following the route of the canal because it made the job quick and easy.

If we plot too many bits that we find, maybe the security services will "Have a word"!

The reference in the Rosneath Peninsula website has been edited out.  The site has undergone considerable change since the last time I looked at it.  The disappearance may not mean it was found to be untrue as the revised site seems to have a format of all pages being  much the same size and with a few pics added there may have been pressure on space.

Ther used to be a lengthy reminiscence from an Ameriacan ( I think) which does not apear to be there either.

Finnart was built during WWII as was the pipeline and at that time the city did not extend as far north as it does today!

Not so much extended, more joined up the dots and filled in the spaces separating former settlements along the edge

There's always debate about Glasgow and Greater Glasgow - Hey! The city's population is falling guys. Oh that's ok, we'll just move the edge and make it a bit bigger

Glad you found the Rosneath pages changed too - I was beginning to wonder if I was imagining things!

Probably goes without saying I don't approve of cutting material once found (unless it's truly irrelevant to the subject of course)

Know the story you mean, Harve's story is now just a link to his original site.

I don't doubt the voracity of the story due to its apparent removal, but since I tried to find it by doing a batch of searching last night, and came up empty, it means we're missing the validator of a reference for a little known "fact", and that's a bit sad, since there was a perfectly good one.