The Freightliner train was delivering coal for the steelworks, this for a time came from Maltby Colliery.
RBT is divided into two parts, the low level(mineral terminal) and the high level(ore terminal)
When I worked these jobs, we used to work from Ferrybridge to the low level, tip the train then run to Grangetown round round and back into the high level to load up power station coal, then return south.
Thanks for posting that, the sight of one coal train discharging at Redcar while another loads makes a lot more sense now!
I was looking at a copy of Freightmaster from 2003 and I notice there are Maltby - Redcar paths listed. I also remember that there used to be trains of limestone from Rylstone to Redcar for the steelworks, originally using the set of JGA hoppers that worked to Hunslet and Dairycoates, then later switching to HTAs. There's a Youtube video of it running through York in 2015 so it must have run right up until the steelworks closed.
Bit of an info-dump here with some Redcar traffic updates, plus some interesting links & videos I found, particularly some Branch Line Society visit reports from Middlesbrough Goods and A.V. Dawson's own Youtube channel!
Redcar - Jumbo Coal Trains
The jumbo coal trains are currently running again daily between Redcar and Scunthorpe, departing Redcar around midnight.
I found a compilation video of the May 2020 workings, which used both HTA and HKA wagons (HKAs are the old National Power coal hoppers):
Channel: Paul21021
Video: Redcar - Scunthorpe - Tees N.Y JUMBO Coal Train May 2020
Apparently Redcar port has the depth of water necessary to handle "Cape size" vessels (i.e. ships too big to use the Suez canal) which may be part of the reason why these trains are coming from Redcar instead of Immingham. I get the impression that when these trains run, they are delivering the contents of a particular ship, i.e a short term flow to shift a large volume of material. From what I've read online, coking coal has to be carefully blended, which may explain the mix of sources and import terminals (Scunthorpe was also receiving coal from Cwmbargoed last year).
I was unsure if the Redcar flow was actually coal or coke, but thinking about it, the old Redcar-Scunthorpe coke flow in HEA wagons was most likely loaded with coke produced at the Coking Plant at Redcar Steelworks, which closed in 2015. Some basic info on the use of coal & coke at Scunthorpe here:
https://britishsteel.co.uk/what-we-do/how-we-make-steel/
Current workings:
00:20 Redcar - Scunthorpe
Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
10:46 Scunthorpe - Tees
Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
18:30 Tees - Redcar
Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Redcar - GGBS
A second train is also currently running twice a week between Redcar and Scunthorpe. I suspect this conveys "Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag" (GGBS), a white powder used as a partial replacement for cement (I mentioned this traffic in my earlier post but was unsure what it conveyed - after a lot of googling I'm pretty sure it was GGBS, so I assume this traffic has re-started). There is a
slag grinding plant at Scunthorpe owned by LKAB minerals which uses slag from the steelworks. The material imported through Redcar is probably additional product to cope with demand. Hanson also have a slag grinding plant on Teesside which would originally have used slag from Redcar Steelworks, but this is now apparently
imported.
Today's timings:
04:42 Scunthorpe - Redcar
Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
12:39 Redcar - Scunthorpe (stables at Tees Yard until almost midnight)
Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
Steel Traffic
The steel on the Scunthorpe to Tees & Lackenby trains is mostly "bloom" (rectangular cross section). On some videos of Scunthorpe - Lackenby trains you can see maybe half a dozen blooms fitting across the width of the wagon. Teesside Beam Mill (Lackenby) makes things like beams and columns for buildings from these blooms. Skinningrove also takes in steel bloom by the look of it, which would make sense for the kind of specialist products they make, like crane rail and other special sections which are long and narrow. Dalzell is a heavy plate mill and the few pictures / videos I can find of loaded trains appear to show much wider slabs taking up most of the width of the wagon.
Some good views of Tees yard in this video, including the Skinningrove train:
Channel: 54A
Video: Trains Around Teesside September 2020
Tees Dock
I was wondering where the gypsum traffic is loaded at Tees Dock. I found a couple of short promotional videos for Tees Dock with some good aerial views:
Channel: PD Ports
Video: Container Platform at Teesport - PD Ports
This video very briefly shows a container train being loaded and departing. Also, pausing to look at the drone footage:
0:03 View looking inland. The blue ship is docked next to the potash terminal (big grey shed). Rail sidings for potash are on the other side of it. The red ship is docked at the container terminal, the rail loading point for containers is further back. On the right is the bulk terminal where steel and gypsum are handled.
0:11 View of the same area, looking in the other direction. Rail container loading at bottom right. Potash wagons just visible going through unloading shed next to big grey shed.
0:16 Closer view of potash sidings on the left
0:27 Container loading by reach stacker onto the two sidings nearest the concrete pad.
0:49 Overhead view of rail container terminal and potash terminal. Note the second container quay beyond the rail sidings on the river Tees.
0:51 Tracks curving around to the main line and also to the bulk terminal on other side of the dock...
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Channel: PD Ports
Video: Teesport Bulks Terminal
0:53 Note the bogie bolster (steel) wagons to the left (they look like BDAs), and the piles of steel on the dock there, with tracks visible in the concrete of the dock. This is a newly laid area of quayside.
0:57 Beside the white ship in the background, the old dockside tracks are visible (also shown on quail map).
1:13 This must be inside the enormous shed closest to the edge of the dock (see 0:38). This shed does not have a rail connection into it, but there are 2 sidings close to it, one on the dock itself. I think the material here is gypsum. PD Ports have a contract to supply British Gypsum sites at Sherburn-in-Elmet (by road) and Kirkby Thore (by rail).
1:30 This must be inside the long, thin shed next to the larger one. This is the steel export terminal. It's hard to tell, but there appear to be sidings within the concrete - one at each side, with a connection running on a diagonal across the picture (which would match the two tracks visible entering this building on Google Maps).
1:39 Note the siding running the length of the dock
----------------------------------------
Channel: Institution of Civil Engineers
Video: Teesport
This video mainly consists of an interview describing the "newly constructed number one quay," a 5-year project started in 2014 to create the new Teesport Bulks terminal. It also has some of the drone footage from the above videos but minus the text on the screen, making it a bit clearer.
3:00 Note the building at top right labelled "Steel Export Terminal" - this is the one with rail access.
---------------------------------
The interesting thing about all this is that it means the tracks currently on the quayside were freshly installed, rather than being historical leftovers. Looking at the satellite images on Google maps I drew a quick sketch of this area (attached). I don't have the latest eastern quail map yet (which hopefully shows this already) but compared to the 4th edition, the layout has been altered as follows in this area: On the quail (Eastern 4th edition), there are two tracks going over a level crossing leading into 4 roads marked "steel export terminal." On google maps the two tracks join before the level crossing, then split again into two sidings which enter the steel export terminal building. Beyond the two short loco sidings (marked as M on the quail) the layout has been renewed as part of the construction of the new quay. There are a few disconnected sidings remaining at the south end of that quay (the 4 sidings below the white circles on my quail map). There is also a siding marked "cripples" on the quail map, which has an intermodal twin wagon stabled on it on google maps. As per the quail, this siding continues to the quay but is unused beyond the cripple siding and appears to have a building built over part of it.
(There are also a few disconnected sidings on the other quay at the container terminal - these also appear on the quail map and can be seen in the overhead drone footage). On Google Maps, depending on whether you are in the 2D or 3D version, either the bulk terminal quay is shown part-completed, with steel piled on the dock, or after completion with what appears to be a pile of gypsum next to the rail sidings.
So... the bulk terminal, on the other side of the dock from the container and potash terminals, is obviously where steel is (occasionally) loaded or unloaded, and where the gypsum is loaded. In additional to receiving occasional loads of steel from Scunthorpe, Tees Dock has also dispatched a few trainloads of steel for Dalzell in the past couple of years, although normally Dalzell receives its steel from Scunthorpe (via Tees yard).
It's perhaps not surprising that the containers are loaded at the container terminal and bulk products at the bulk terminal at Teesport, but it's encouraging to note that most of the rail infrastructure here has been renewed over the past few years, with the opening of the container terminal to replace Wilton FLT, and the new quay, sidings and steel export warehouse at the bulk terminal. Another thing that occurred to me about Tees Dock: The Freightliner service to Felixstowe is unusual in linking two East coast ports. I think the containers arriving by sea into Tees Dock are mainly from Europe, while Felixstowe has more deep sea connections. The old Wilton FLT functioned as an inland terminal for Wilton ICI and Teesside - I wonder if this is still the function of the Felixstowe train, or if some containers on it arrive by sea at Tees Dock and leave Felixstowe by road?
I find the Marine Traffic website fascinating, with real-time tracking of ships complete with current locations and photos - you can see which ships are at Tees Dock (or anywhere else) - pick one from an overhead map and click on "vessel details" to get info on origin or destination:
MarineTraffic Live Ships Map. Discover information and vessel positions for vessels around the world. Search the MarineTraffic ships database of more than 550000 active and decommissioned vessels. Search for popular ships globally. Find locations of ports and ships using the near Real Time ships...
www.marinetraffic.com
Last time I looked, at Tees Dock were a bulk carrier which came from Illinois, and a container ship destined for Riga, amongst others...
Middlesbrough Goods
I was pleasantly surprised to find a report of a 2018 Branch Line society visit which involved a mini railtour around the site in the BLS's own converted ferry van "Molly", hauled by one of the resident 08 shunters. Complete with track plan and pictures! The ferry van was confusing me as it's visible on google maps satellite views and I had no idea what it was!
https://www.branchline.uk/fixture-report.php?id=390
Additional photos of same event, with stocklist:
http://www.pleg.org.uk/events/avd/2/avd_g2.html
Photos from 2017 Ayrton railtour the previous year:
https://www.branchline.uk/album.php?id=292
Middlesbrough Goods Traffic notes - refer to the BLS map in the 2018 report linked above:
The original "Ayrton Railhead" was a private terminal opened in 1988. This comprised the fairly compact area of sidings beyond the "Forty Foot Road" level crossing.
Warehouse: - steel coils were unloaded here until the much larger "Automotive Steel Storage Terminal" was built.
Undertrack loading facility: Discharge location for hopper wagons of potash and later polyhalite from Boulby (used as fertilizer).
Tank Loading: This must have been where tank wagons (a couple at a time) were loaded with nitric acid and despatched to Sellafield - this traffic has not run for several years.
Automotive Steel Storage terminal: New warehouse for deliveries of coil from Port Talbot / Llanwern, ultimately destined for road delivery to Nissan. There was also a steel train trial from Seaforth a few weeks ago.
Cobra: On the other side of the goods yard, rock salt is unloaded from hopper wagons in the discharge shed alongside the Cobra warehouse. Cobra use their own Thomas Hill loco (01567).
Tees Riverside Intermodal Park: The two dead-end sidings alongside the container storage area which end before Forty Foot Road LC. The "tar tanks" from Port Talbot are unloaded here (by-product from coke/steel production used as chemical feedstock). These sidings also pass beneath the "rail canopy," a covered storage area created for the loading of gypsum (or other bulk products). The GBRF gypsum trains to Hotchley Hill don't appear to be operating at the moment, with the gypsum containers currently in use on Drax to Kirkby Thore services. This set of wagons appears to use Middlebrough Goods as a stabling location when not required on the Drax flow. Hopefully the Hotchley Hill trains will resume at some point.
North Sea Supply Base Wharf: Not currently in use for freight, but clearly still maintained as the BLS tour visited it.
Dent's Wharf: Siding out of use and has been built on.
A.V. Dawson videos:
There are some good blink-and-you'll-miss-it views of Middlesbrough Goods / TRIP (Tees Riverside Intermodal Park) e.t.c on A.V. Dawson's own Youtube channel- worth watching at 1/4 speed and pausing...
Channel: AV Dawson
Video: Port of Middlesbrough -Announcement
www.youtube.com
0:01 View from the siding marked as "outlet" on my quail map. "Inlet" road to the left, and to the left of that the siding leads into the covered loading area seen better at 0:14. The "outlet" road is part of the access to the Ayrton terminal and also the steel terminal in the background (points for the junction into the steel terminal are visible near the gate). Potash wagons and gypsum wagons stabled in the yard to the right.
0:11 View inside the Automotive Steel Storage Terminal with coil wagons after unloading.
0:14 View of the two sidings beneath the covered loading area "rail canopy" where a train of gypsum containers is stabled. Next to that the inlet & outlet lines join to go around to Ayrton terminal, and there are potash/rock salt hopper wagons stabled in the yard over to the left.
0:16 Brief glimpse of BTA pipe wagons in the yard, I'm not sure what those were doing there ???
0:20 Brief glimpse of steel wagons propelling into warehouse
0:28 One of the resident 08 pilots moving potash wagons past the steel warehouse around the curve past TRIP (these will be unloaded at the "undertrack unloading facility". On the left are tar tanks on FKA wagons. AV Dawson have 3 Class 08s - 08598, 08600 and 08774 while Cobra use a Thomas Hill loco numbered 01567.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Channel: AV Dawson
Video: AV Dawson - Narrated Services Film
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
0:20 Class 66 backing into new Automotive Steel Storage Terminal
1:14 Bucket loader for bulk rail loading
1:29 Sidings at TRIP
2:52 Containers in TRIP
3:09 Looking towards main line with Cobra terminal in distance. Yard to left of fence, line into steel terminal to left of pond, inlet & outlet roads to right of pond, 2 sidings on right access TRIP through the bulk loading facility.
3:12 Steel wagons being propelled into warehouse
3:16 Freightliner hoppers being loaded (with coal?)
3:35 Automotive Steel Storage Terminal
5:12 Drone View of site. Back of steel warehouse, unused line from quayside nearest. Line curves round into Ayrton terminal past the blue containers in TRIP and over Forty Foot road crossing.
Potash/rock salt wagons in the yard with Cobra warehouse, piles of rock salt and exit to main line beyond.
5:21 Sliding hood of steel wagon being opened
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Channel: Durema Drone Services
Video: AV Dawson - TRIP
Showcase for the TRIP Terminal at AV Dawson, Middlesbrough
www.youtube.com
Notes: Drone view of TRIP. The rail canopy (covered bulk loading facility) has since been built next to the domes.
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Channel: AV Dawson
Video: Services Film
(Reuses various footage from the other clips)
Better connectivity across Road, Rail, Land & SeaTeesside Freight Logistics Terminal is a 40-hectare freight-handling facility on Teesport in Middlesbrough. ...
www.youtube.com
1:56 Better view of Cobra terminal with shunting loco discharging rock salt hoppers in the unloading shed.
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Channel: AV Dawson
Video: Automotive Steel Store
www.youtube.com
2:25 Drone view of site
2:31 Steel wagons on inlet road next to drainage lagoon
2:33 First train backs into warehouse with 66162
3:01 Time lapse of trains arriving and unloading as warehouse fills up
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Middlesbrough Goods has obviously seen a lot of investment since this video was shot in 2010:
Channel: Jonny66004
Video: 66623 Middlesbrough Goods 01.11.10
Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com
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This video has a nice shot of the tar tanks leaving Middlesbrough goods (just after the 6 min mark):
Channel: Robert Townsend
Video: Railscene today Volume 4 Part 5
Heavy haul freight aroud Teesside North East England, Taken during my years as an award winning freelance photographer.
www.youtube.com
It also has a great shot of the Redcar - Scunthorpe boxes at Tees Yard, clearly conveying a white powder, as if the steelworks ordered the wrong kind of coke. The video commentary describes it as gypsum, but I'm fairly sure it was the GGBS mentioned already.
Later in that video it describes a train of MBAs as en-route to Redcar to be loaded with gypsum, but I suspect it's actually the Newbiggin - Tees Dock gypsum empties. Elsewhere in this series of videos we are treated to views of "Tees Dock signal box" (surely Grangetown?) and a DB container train out of Tees Dock is described as going to Felixstowe when it must be the evening train to Mossend. The photography is excellent though, with some unusual vantage points around Teesside. Part 3 is also well worth watching -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMn2WfxOxic
Seal Sands Branch
A look at some of the
poolieboy07 videos (and their descriptions) on Youtube gave a bit more info on flows on the branch after the end of chemicals traffic at Haverton Hill. The movements shown from Simon Storage North (Seal Sands) are all caustic soda tanks (for Dalry I think), plus the fuel oil tanks, but the other chemical I was trying to remember being loading there was called
acrylonitrile (used to make acrylic fibres amongst other things). I think it was dispatched in small quantities in tank wagons via Enterprise but I can't remember where it went - my best bet will be to look out for any pictures showing tank wagons with the UN code 1093...
Other random movements on the branch after the end of the HCN trains (referring to various poolieboy07 videos):
The "47292 belasis lane 31 7 03" video and "66527 balasis lane 27 8 03" show open containers filled with what I think is containerised slag. In a 2003 copy of Freightmaster there is a 6L01 Port Clarence - Chesterton Junction and 6D38 return train described as containerised slag. This flow is a bit bizarre but there was a large area of derelict land at Chesterton (former sidings I think) that was redeveloped, and slag can be used as a kind of base layer of aggregate when putting formerly contaminated land to new uses. That's my best guess anyway, although why it would be loaded at Port Clarence, and why containers are involved, is a bit of a mystery.
"66550 66531 belasis lane 4 8 03" shows the containers again, but also a Freightliner coal set emerging from Haverton Hill . I think this was being used as a convenient (and secure) stabling or maintenance point as per post #34
"47802 Belasis Lane 14 9 05" / "47815 belasis lane 14 9 06" / "47237 47802 belasis lane 24 1 06" show DRS 47s dropping off and picking up empty flat wagons on movements to/from Carlisle. Same thing with 66s is shown in "early drs class66's belasis and ferryhill 8 06-2 07" and "66554 29 7 05 66403 66404 Belasis Lane 31 8 05". Presumably the Haverton Hill site was being used for DRS wagon maintenance at the time. In the 2003 Freightmaster there is a 4Z43 path from Carlisle described as "empty flats for repair."
"37057 port clarence 22 8 02" shows an EWS 37 stabling / shunting tanks at Port Clarence yard, the location mentioned in post #33. The TTA tanks were used on the fuel oil flow from Seal Sands ("fuel oil" can just be read on the side of them) and the bogie tanks would probably be in for maintenance from Port Clarence refinery (other videos on the same date show 37057 at Seal Sands with both fuel oil and caustic soda tanks).
"56102 port clarence belasis lane 15 8 03" shows the fuel oil tanks on a 6G34 Seal Sands - Ferrybridge. The 2003 Freightmaster also had a 6G50 to West Burton and 6G51 return which I remember seeing on one occasion at Doncaster, taking the South Yorkshire joint line past Down Decoy sidings.
"66552 Port clarence 6 11 03" shows a Freightliner 66 hauling boxes of what is described as "contaminated ballast for llantrisant." That sounds very odd as a destination for contaminated ballast, but could this possibly be another flow of slag? Looks more like aggregates / ballast of some kind in the wagons. Llantrisant would possibly be another location with old rail sidings that have probably had houses built on them, but I'm not sure about this flow at all. Answers on a postcard...
I didn't originally expect this post to be so long, I kept adding to my notes without getting around to posting!
There is certainly some interesting info and video on the web when you look for it. Going back further in time, a Youtube search for "Teesside Freight" returns some interesting videos including some BR-era footage.
