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Steel Making on Teeside


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Following Graemes request here a couple of images of steelmaking on Teeside in BSC days, these from 1979.

 

Firstly, a new torpedo ladle on a test run, that's why it's rotated upside down. Sixteen of these 350 tonne capacity ladles were built by British Steel, to a design by the German company DEMAG, at their Distington Foundry in Cumbria specifically for the, then, new Redcar blast furnace. Laden, their all up weight was 700 tonnes and the loco is one of 27, 70 tonne, 760 hp, GEC's. The ladles were used in pairs, an all up train weight of 1410 tonnes, on a 4 mile round trip between the blast furnace at Redcar and the BOS plant at Lackenby. The wagons were 3.3m wide and much of the internal rail route they used was rebuilt and relaid to cope with them.

 

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This is the furnace they served, at the time Europes largest, and still standing though idle. A larger version of Llanwerns No. 3, it was a four column design, belt fed, had a Paul Wurth bell less distributor and was designed for very high top pressure. With a 14m hearth and twin cast house it had an output of 10,000 tonnes per day and was built by Davy International. It was put into blast in late 1979, the initial charge included 6,500 railway sleepers as kindling.

 

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Arthur

 

 

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The Teeside tanks are huge!

 

The GrantRail lads from Scunthorpe often went to Teeside to assist with things like renewals and derailments - when I first went to Scunthorpe and commented on the size od the torpedos there, one just said I should see them at Redcar "right big B******s them!"

 

In fact everything seems bigger there - the blast furnace in the photo must tower over the four queens!

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The Teeside tanks are huge!

 

The GrantRail lads from Scunthorpe often went to Teeside to assist with things like renewals and derailments - when I first went to Scunthorpe and commented on the size od the torpedos there, one just said I should see them at Redcar "right big B******s them!"

 

In fact everything seems bigger there - the blast furnace in the photo must tower over the four queens!

One of the Redcar ones apparently derailed and overturned whilst loaded- it couldn't be righted and so was cut up in situ.

I was struck by how quickly they used to move them around the site- rather more quickly than the ones that BR used to send to Consett, which had a 25 mph maximum speed, IIRC.

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In fact everything seems bigger there - the blast furnace in the photo must tower over the four queens!

 

James, yes, it's a different generation of furnace than those at Scunthorpe. They were american designs typical of their day, two built in 1938 and two in 1954. Without looking up the data they originally were about 25' (8m) across the hearth and stood 200' to the explosion doors platform and yielded around 1,000 tons a day. They have been enlarged over the years and I don't know their current dimensions but still nothing like that at Redcar.

 

The Redcar furnace was heavily influenced by designs from Nippon Steel in Japan and stands 300' to the explosion door platform.

 

 

 

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Thanks for these posts, guys.

There's a cracking issue of Steel and Coal Trades reviews I found from the 1950s, that shows the track layout of the former Jarrow plant, though it's Teesside that's close to my interest.

Looking forward to as much information that can be collected!

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Graeme, I've got a fair amount of information about Teeside steel mainly covering the period 1945 to 1980. The information I have is just about the industry itself, I've nothing on the related main line rail traffic.Is there anything particular in which you are interested rather than me just posting stuff at random?

Arthur

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I'd be grateful for any and all aspects of Steel Making History on Teesside; I'm interested in the whole topic. James' information regarding Scunthorpe and the workings therein provided insight in that regard.

I'd trawled the Internet, to no avail, and I'm grateful that my old post in UK prototype has been transferred to the new industrial section.

Thought it would be nice to collect info on the topic from those in the know, in one place.

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Arthur, I hope you don't mind me putting this link to a few of Teesside steel etc. from one of my fotopic galleries on

 

There are also some on Ernie's site at:

 

David

 

Not at all David, it's an open thread to gather anything related to the topic. Excellent links with a couple of glimpses of Dorman Long's Bessemer blast furnaces, images of which seem to be rare.

 

Graeme, I'll post some relevant information over the coming days.

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Am I right in thinking, that there's a pipe mill in Hartlepool? Would it have taken steel from Redcar?

 

Hartlepool has two mills and used to recieve coil eye to sky on endless BBA's from Lackenby prior to the closure of the coil mill there.

 

After that it recieved coil on BCA, BLA and BZA (recoded BAA with gunshot cradles)from South Wales.

 

It seems to have accepted wide steel plate on BMA/BNA for quite some time but I am not sure if it is a regular traffic?

 

Mark Saunders

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Yes, it's what was left of the old South Durham Iron & Steel company's works at Hartlepool. The British Steel Corporation closed down the iron and steel making plant and it became a finishing works and part of the Teeside Division. It retained a heavy plate rolling mill and became the main plant for the manufacture of large diameter pipe which is made from rolled plate. Steel was supplied from Lackenby as slabs and coiled plate.

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Here's a 1959 map of Dorman Longs Teeside empire. At one time the U.K.'s largest steelmaker they were still, in the 1950's, one of the largest and, by some margin, the largest on Teeside. Although the map shows just Dorman Long works others, which are in the same geography, were the integrated Cargo Fleet works and the iron making plant of Gjers, Mills & Co. Both were in the old Ironmasters district, that northern bulge into the Tees, at the western end, where Dorman Longs Acklam and Britannia works were located. Works off the map were South Durham Iron & Steel just north of the Tees near Hartlepool and Skinningrove on the coast, south of Redcar. All the steel making plants used the open hearth method and the plant labelled "Bessemer" furnaces are actually blast furnaces, Dorman Long just called that plant the Bessemer plant.

 

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A map of Dorman Long's Clay lane furnaces. This shows two furnaces No.s 3 (1956) and No.s 2 (1957), both built by Dorman Long themselves with 27' 6" hearths, capable of 1,000 tons per day and typical large furnaces of their day. A third furnace, No. 1, was added in 1962 and space was left to add a further three but that never happened. They were served by a system of conveyor fed bunkers rather than the more usual rail served Hi-Line.

 

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A photograph looking north east, No.3 nearest to camera;

 

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Opened in 1954 was the new Lackenby open hearth melting shop containing 5 x 350t tilting open hearths and 2 x 600t active mixers.

 

Firstly a cross section of the plant;

 

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a photograph of the east side of the plant;

 

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One of the 350t tilting open hearths on test. South Durham had similar sized furnaces at their new, South, works, and these were as big as they came. Only SCOW's Abbey works had some larger, 400t, but they were of a somewhat different type. The furnace in the photograph has yet to have any brickwork added and the ends are enclosed in brick flue chambers, that oval port at the end would not be visible. The whole furnace can be rocked back and forth, pouring steel out of the back, and slag down those spouts into ladles under the charging stage, at the front. The pulleys are for the door opening gear.

 

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Hope these are of interest, I'm away for a couple of weeks and will add some more when I return.

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Graeme, the two best publications which I have are ,"A Technical Survey of Dorman Long Steel" 1959, it's one of a series by The Iron & Coal Trades Review, and, from it's successor, Steel Times, " The British Steel Corporation, Teeside Division ",1979. It took me a long time to find them but you might be lucky. I've lot's of other relevant material but spread across many publications and sources which are not devoted entirely to Teeside. Pleased that what I have posted is of interest and when I'm back home I'll add more.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Moorlander, yeah, bit of an own goal that and unbelievably insensitive, half your fans rely on local steel for employment and you buy it in Germany!

 

A bit about Cargo Fleet; Like most of the U.K.'s integrated works Cargo Fleet started off as purely an iron works using the typical Cleveland practice of large blast furnaces. Situated in the heart of Middlesborough's ironmasters district it had it's own wharfage on the Tees and good rail links, though in later years the site became a little cramped. At less than 200 acres, by the 1950's, that was one of the smaller works sites. Cargo Fleet iron works was acquired by the South Durham Iron & Steel Co. in 1901 and the works completely redeveloped, the five blast furnaces were demolished and a new integrated works with coke ovens, blast furnaces, open hearth steel plant and rolling mills based on the best U.S. and German practice. Despite this Cargo Fleet always struggled financially, it's products were rails, beams and sections, all very straightforward and with a lot of competition, specially from cheap, dumped, imports. Cargo Fleet secured a licence to roll Larrsen steel piling which gave it a good trade for over forty years.

 

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Here's the works sometime between the mid 1930's an 50's. River Tees to the north with ore wharf and export dock, coke ovens centre right with three blast furnaces in front of them. Centre left, under the drifting smoke, is the open hearth plant, soaking pit chimneys in front of that and rolling mills cente left foreground. Output was around 350,000 ingot tons per annum.

 

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Considerable development took place post war including new a new ore wharf and extra coke ovens. Two of the blast furnaces were rebuilt in the 1950's by Ashmore Benson Pease & Co., No.1 in 1952 with a 20 ft hearth and No. 3, shown here, around 1956 with a 22ft 6ins hearth. No 3 cost just over £1 million and these were typical medium sized units of their day. Between them stood No. 2, you can just see it's downcomer in this shot, and I'm unsure how much it worked from this period on. These were the furnaces which supplied the Consett Works in 1969 with hot metal via a 63 mile run over B.R. rails. Cargo Fleets coke ovens closed in 1961 and coke was brought in after that, possibly from the new batteries at South Durhams new South Works.

 

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The largest post war development at Cargo Fleet was the building of the Universal Beam Mill, seen to the right in the colour photo, to compete with that at Dorman Longs and take advantage of the demand from the building and civil engineering trades. This cost South Durham over £4 million and was commissioned in 1962. A universal beam mill is fed with a billet, something like a large bullhead rail in section, and is then able to roll every facet of the beam, and produce a deep 'H' section, in a single stand though it is not a continuous mill, the section needs to be rolled back and forth.

 

The beams produced can be used as they are or provide other options;

 

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As nationalisation approached in 1967 Cargo Fleets future was bleak, it was a small works with little space for development and dependent on open hearth steel making. It was one of the first works, around 1971, to lose it's iron and steel making capacity under the British Steel Corporation. Cargo Fleet became a secondary mill under the Steel Corporation producing rails, beams, sections and piling from it's Heavy Section and Universal mills.

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Great aerial shot of the Cargo Fleet works, the area has of course changed quite a lot since those days but it's amazing how much can still be identified today. The office building is still there, probably saved by being taken over by the local council after the works closed. It is currently being refurbished and tuned into the 'Cargo Fleet Business Centre' and during the work this has been uncovered.

 

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They seem to be doing a good job of the refurbishment and even the plastic windows do not look out of place.

The following photo was taken from beside the beck, seen just over the road on the aerial shot.

 

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There are some lovely gates there also.

 

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Going back to the aerial photo, The green (although just how green at this time would be debatable) fields at the bottom are now part of the Skippers Lane Industrial Estate. The A66 goes through about where what looks like a cooling tower is on the far right, the bridge over the railway just above it is still there and still goes nowhere! The large garage like building bottom right was the trolleybus depot, poles can just about be seen along the road. To the bottom left on the site of the low north light building and part of the large building is now the Redcar Bears Speedway track and the site of the blast furnaces is now the cart track. The stock yard (?) above the offices is the speedway track car park. The building far left running SW-NE is (although perhaps replaced by now) still there. Historical details thanks to Bri Gladders of Redcar Bears.

 

Keep the great photos coming Arthur and have you got any shots of local ironstone trains in the mid 50's?

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  • 2 weeks later...

 Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for the photos and current update, it's good to see that at least something has survived of what was once one of the UK's most progressive ironworks. Sorry but I'm afraid that I don't have any photos of local ironstone trains, my collection covers pretty much the works themselves. I will be posting some photos of Dorman Long's internal rail operations later on.

 

Some more on Dorman Long;

 

Firstly two of the three Bessemer blast furnaces as they were in the 1930s and 40s.

 

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In 1947 they were modernised and rebuilt with 18' 6" hearths and in this form two of them lasted into the 1990s, outlasting the more modern Clay Lane furnaces. One of them was assigned to the arduous duty of smelting ferro manganese, Dorman Long was one of five companies in a government supported manganese cartel. Manganese and it's ferro alloys were of strategic importance as manganese was essential in the production of armour plate. It was used generally to make hard wearing steel e.g. parts of track turnouts.

 

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Two of the Redcar blast furnaces were modernised in 1953 with 18' hearths and they supplied basic iron to the Redcar open hearth shop for conversion into steel for the plate mills.

 

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An aerial photo of Dorman Longs Cleveland works complex from the mid 1960s.

 

Top left is the River Tees with the South Bank ore wharf and the ore stocking grounds behind. To the the left rear of the gasometer are the South Bank coke ovens and, to the right rear of the gasometer, the sinter plant. Running between the sinter plant and the gasometer is the Middlesborough-Redcar main line. In front of the gasometer are the three Clay Lane blast furnaces. Running vertically from the centre lower edge are the Bessemer coke ovens and blast furnaces. To their right is a crowded complex of rolling mills bounded top and bottom by the Cleveland North and South open hearth melting shops respectively. Open hearth plants are readily identified by the row of evenly spaced chimneys serving the individual furnaces.

 

 

 

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Should you feel inspired to model this lot, here is a plan. Let me know before you buy any track, I'll get some PECO shares......

 

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and a drawing of one of the Clay Lane furnaces, around 250' high, so in 4mm, thats 1 metre or 40".

 

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Bit of a diversion, and not a great photo, but worthwhile because Gjers. Mills and Co., were one of the longest established of the Teeside Ironmakers. Their Ayresome works, in the old ironmasters district, was established in 1870 and produced high quality hematite iron for the foundry trade. After the first, brief, period of nationalistaion in 1951 they were acquired by the Millom Hematite Ore & Iron Co., of Cumberland. The demand for such high quality foundry irons dropped sharply after world war two and the ageing plant, by then down to a single operating furnace, closed in 1965 with the loss of 400 jobs.

 

The image (probably mid 1950s) is looking south across the Tees with the row of blast furnaces to the left. There appear to be four or five standing, they are small, hand charged and a real anachronism. Hand charging means that the raw materials are gathered at the foot of the furnaces in wheeled skips, hoisted to the top in a hydraulically powered elevator and then wheeled out across the 'skip bridge' linking all the furnaces and tipped manualy onto the top bell. The elevators, there seem to be two, are the brick towers between the second and third and third and fourth furnaces. Open pig beds are in front of the furnaces complete with overhead crane and the plume of steam could be from a cast being cooled.

 

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And this is hand charging, Brymbo in 1964, hard graft in all weathers and with the ever present risk of carbon monoxide poisoning atop the furnace.

 

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  • 1 month later...

This may start to answer a question I've been wondering about for years.

In 1969 not long after the moon landing I was working on a cargo ship that had docked at Teesport- roughly where the white rectangle- is to load bagged fertiliser from ICI.

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It was an utterly bleak place even for an industrial quayside- nearest bus stop about a mile away, nearest pub about three miles away, nearest railway station (Grangetown now closed) about two and every so often on the tips behind the port a train would appear with two or three wagons and dump a load of white hot slag. This was quite impressive particularly at night but it was an inhuman landscape and I pitied the inhabitants of the few houses in the area.

 

Anyway. One day I walked from the ship down the road along the edge of the river (right to left on the photo) and after about a mile or so passed a wharf that was connected to the works behind by a SG railway with OHE and I saw at least one fairly massive electric loco. I'd not seen industrial electrics before (though I went to college in South Shields a month or so later where the Westoe Colliery railway was still in full swing) so I've always wondered what it was that I saw on Teeside. Can anyone shed more light? I think the location where I saw this chunk of heavy industrial railway was roughly where I've marked the circle

 

Our next port of call was Hamburg and that was a far better place to be.

 

David

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Something on Dorman Longs extensive railway system and an answer to Davids question above.

 

Firstly a schematic showing the railways serving the various works.

 

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A close up of the lines serving the ore wharf at South Bank, circled in Davids post above, showing the electrified lines.

 

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A couple of shots showing the ore unloaders and the electric locos at work.

 

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The electric locos were used on a captive circuit moving ore from the wharf to the stocking grounds just south of it.

 

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Ore wagons were hauled, by rope, up the gantry shown in the next photo and their contents dumped onto the ore stocking piles beneath.

 

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DL had some 45t capacity hopper wagons built for this service.

 

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Along with a large fleet of conventional steam locomtives in the 1950's DL took into service some Sentinels for use at the Clay Lane plant. shown below is the single, double ended, articulated locomotive used on coke traffic.

 

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Fireless locomotives were used at theLackenby open hearth plant for moving ingot bogies.

 

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Another specialised wagon was this bogie open used for moving crop ends, the ends of rolled blooms which contained flaws and slag, which were returned to the open hearth plant for re smelting.

 

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Two photos of sidings serving the Clay lane works, the lower one shows some of the colour light signaling used for traffic control at this busy point.

 

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And finally, two photos showing the hot sinter transfer car. Sinter required cooling and DL's method copied that used at coke ovens. The transfer car was loaded with the hot sinter, run out onto the gantry and the hot sinter dumped onto the bench for cooilng. Not a method I've seen used elsewhere.

 

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Edited by Arthur
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