Nine minute extract of dramatization narrated by  a fictional young local farmer fascinated by the new peat generation station at Portarlington, Co. Laois.

Opening scenes show the young farmer  approaching the station, alongside his donkey and cart.

Features exterior and interior footage of the station including the cooling tower, turbine halls and control panel. Local farmers are featured loading wagons with peat by hand ready for transportation to the station. Keen to discover more about the station, the young farmer hops on a peat wagon and makes his way to the station where he discovers more about the functions of the station. Includes scenes of wagons of peat transported by train to the station, wagons are hoisted up high and tipped down into the stations bunkers where they are then burnt in the furnaces.

Meanwhile the young farmer’s father, living opposite the station is sceptical about the station and the benefits of electricity. Film notes the landowner was fairly compensated.

The young farmer is delighted when he is offered a labourers position at the station and scenes show him on the night shift as an Ashman and working on the family farm by day.

The steam engine featured in the film was known as No. 2 and was built in Scotland in 1949. It was one of only three steam engines that worked for Bord na Mona serving Portarlington Power Station. The steam engine is now preserved at Stradbally Woodland Railway.

Duration: 00:08:57
Format: 16mm, black and white