British Steel route train in UK

[class37418stag]

Hello everyone 

please excuse my English thank you 

 

so I was in school during 1987 to 1992

i has missed that information and details about British Steel Network Rail of routes

 

Ravenscraig (Scotland)

scunthorpe (Lincolnshire)

corby (Northamptonshire)

two or three steelwork (South Wales)

three steelwork(South Yorkshire)

sheerness(north Kent)

Stockton(Tyne Tees)

 

usually steel wagon -

 

OCA

SPA

BAA

BDA

BBA

OBA ?

SAA ?

 

 Thank you 

I has searched for loads of details and information and photos online for long time 

because my hobby is BR freight steel trains

 

i was watched short time by passed steel freight train at Doncaster station over I was waiting for my train to home in 1990s

 

thank you

 

 

 

[IanGe]

Hello,

One of the steelworks missing from your list is the former John Summers works at Shotton, on Deeside in north Wales. The iron and steel making at Shotton was closed by British Steel at the end of 1997 but the finishing and coating plant was kept open as it was one of the most modern plants in Europe, producing  treated and coated steel strip in coils for eg the car industry. 

So from 1980 onwards 15000 tons per week of steel strip in coils was moved by BR to Shotton. This was made up of 11000 tons per week from Ravencraig in Scotland  and 4000 tons per week from south Wales ( Llanwern and Port Talbot).

I've seen photos of class 37's on these trains, but I don't know about the wagons used. Too modern for me.

The Shotton coating plant is still open as a very successful business.

 

hope this helps. 

 

regards

 

Ian   

[Fat Controller]

13 hours ago, IanGe said:

Hello,

One of the steelworks missing from your list is the former John Summers works at Shotton, on Deeside in north Wales. The iron and steel making at Shotton was closed by British Steel at the end of 1997 but the finishing and coating plant was kept open as it was one of the most modern plants in Europe, producing  treated and coated steel strip in coils for eg the car industry. 

So from 1980 onwards 15000 tons per week of steel strip in coils was moved by BR to Shotton. This was made up of 11000 tons per week from Ravencraig in Scotland  and 4000 tons per week from south Wales ( Llanwern and Port Talbot).

I've seen photos of class 37's on these trains, but I don't know about the wagons used. Too modern for me.

The Shotton coating plant is still open as a very successful business.

 

hope this helps. 

 

regards

 

Ian   

Shotton stopped iron and steel making in March 1980. As Ian says, the coating lines, being fairly recent, were retained; all the coil now comes from South Wales. Hot-reduced coil is carried in BAA/BBA-derived wagons, whilst the more sensitive Cold-Reduced Coil travels in a selection of hooded flats, such as the JSA and BYA.

My Uncle Mac was a chargeman in the steel-making plant; in the 1960s, he, and some colleagues, were sent to India to help develop their nascent steel industry. I do wonder how he would have reacted to Summers having been taken over by Tata, an Indian firm.

A small, but important, flow was from Lackenby to Skinningrove, used for specialist section rolling, such as 'bulb-section' for shipbuilding.

Lackenby supplied slab to Workington for rolling into rail, coil to Hartlepool for pipe-making, and slab to Gartcosh  Dalziel, after Ravenscraig closed.

Sheerness Steel was not part of British Steel; part of East Moors (Cardiff) became a joint venture between BSC and GKN, known as 'Allied Steel and Wire' then became Celsa.

It saddens me to see how many plants have disappeared; I'm the last in my family to have worked in the industry, albeit only during summer holidays, ending a connection going back to the mid-18th century.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Fat Controller

[luckymucklebackit]

One minor correction to your list of workings Fat Controller - Gartcosh closed long before Ravenscraig, the slab you mention goes to Dalziel which is now owned by Liberty House.

 

Jim

[Fat Controller]

2 minutes ago, luckymucklebackit said:

One minor correction to your list of workings Fat Controller - Gartcosh closed long before Ravenscraig, the slab you mention goes to Dalziel which is now owned by Liberty House.

 

Jim

Thanks for the correction; I wasn't certain which (if any) Scottish mills were left. I presume Dalziel gets its slab from Scunthorpe?

Edited October 29, 2019 by Fat Controller

[luckymucklebackit]

14 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Thanks for the correction; I wasn't certain which (if any) Scottish mills were left. I presume Dalziel gets its slab from Scunthorpe?

 

You were right with Lackenby as the current train runs to and from Tees Yard.  That said there was a flow noted around 2015 from Scunthorpe.  While searching I noted that I was using the wrong spelling, as the works is spelt Dalzell and not Dalziel!!

[Fat Controller]

27 minutes ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

You were right with Lackenby as the current train runs to and from Tees Yard.  That said there was a flow noted around 2015 from Scunthorpe.  While searching I noted that I was using the wrong spelling, as the works is spelt Dalzell and not Dalziel!!

And probably not pronounced as either...I worked with a Glaswegian engineer whose surname was 'Smellie', and he didn't pronounce it like that...

I thought Lackenby had stopped steel production, and now just rolled slab from Scunthorpe? It could be that Tees is just where the slab train divides.

[Steven B]

Several of the British Steel works took steel in slabs from other sites for conversion into section, coil or rod. Most of this traffic was carried on BAA and BBA wagons; The floors of these wagons was built to allow for the hot slabs to cool without damage to the wagon (as would happen on a wooden floor of a BDA). For example, slabs into Workington for the manufacturer of rail were carried on BAA or BBA wagons; There was also flows from northern blast furnaces to South Wales.

 

Once processed the steel would be loaded onto what ever was suitable for the load. This could be covered or open depending on the steel produced. Coil from Lackenby to Blackburn was carried in mixes rakes of BAA and Steel hood ferry wagons (as per Dapol model). Much of the rod was carried from Cardiff in OCA and SPA.

 

By the late 1980s SAA were in use as barrier wagons; They were often found either side of BDA wagons used to carry long sections or pipes.

 

OBAs were used on Pipe and rod traffic but in smaller numbers than OCA & SPA.

 

Steven B.

[luckymucklebackit]

If you watch these videos you will see quite a few steel and raw material flows

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

 

[D6975]

On 29/10/2019 at 10:51, Fat Controller said:

And probably not pronounced as either...I worked with a Glaswegian engineer whose surname was 'Smellie', and he didn't pronounce it like that...

 

 

Dalzell is pronounced DALL-ELL I believe.

Edited October 30, 2019 by D6975

[flyingsignalman]

Here are a few photos of a coil train arriving at Dee Marsh, from South Wales, behind class 37 Tremorfa Steelworks and finally a photo of a covered wagon in the sidings. Taken 23/3/1990.

[JN]

On 26/10/2019 at 12:37, class37418stag said:

Hello everyone 

please excuse my English thank you 

 

so I was in school during 1987 to 1992

i has missed that information and details about British Steel Network Rail of routes

 

Ravenscraig (Scotland)

scunthorpe (Lincolnshire)

corby (Northamptonshire)

two or three steelwork (South Wales)

three steelwork(South Yorkshire)

sheerness(north Kent)

Stockton(Tyne Tees)

 

usually steel wagon -

 

OCA

SPA

BAA

BDA

BBA

OBA ?

SAA ?

 

 Thank you 

I has searched for loads of details and information and photos online for long time 

because my hobby is BR freight steel trains

 

i was watched short time by passed steel freight train at Doncaster station over I was waiting for my train to home in 1990s

 

thank you

 

 

 

 

The steelworks I can remember from memory are:

Cardiff Tidal, Clydesdale, Corby, Dalzell, Hartlepool, Irlam, Lackenby, Llanwern, Port Talbot, Ravenscraig, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Shelton, Shotton, Skinningrove, Treforma and Workington. However, I am aware there were iron and steel works in the South Wales valleys (one at Ebbw Vale and Merthyr Tydfil for a start). These operate at different points as well as having different purposes by 'my era'. There are steel terminals too - Wakefield and Wolverhampton as well as another in the West Midlands, but I can't remember its name right now. There are probably others I've not mentioned.

 

I'll share with you some of the information I've been able to obtain (I'm trying for an 'early 1990s Thornaby/Tees Docks' model railway, so steel traffic is important...) and the following are trains I've been able to identify:

6M01 BSC Lackenby - Wolverhampton Steel Terminal

6M05 BSC Lackenby - Wolverhampton Steel Terminal

6M13 Tees Yard - BSC Shelton

6M47 BSC Lackenby - BSC Corby

6M51 BSC Lackenby - Blackburn

6M58 BSC Lackenby - Blackburn

6M71 BSC Lackenby - BSC Workington

6Z95 BSC Lackenby - BSC Corby

 

6E09 BSC Shelton - Tees Yard

6E28 Wolverhampton Steel Terminal - BSC Lackenby

6E30 Dalzell - BSC Lackenby

6Z39 BSC Shelton - Tees Yard

6E40 BSC Corby - BSC Lackenby

6E41 Blackburn - BSC Lackenby

 

These trains were comprised of a variety of wagons: BAA, BBA, BDA (sometimes with RRA 'runner' wagons), IHA, KIA, POA/SSA and SPA. Then there are the Cargowaggon flats and vans (sometimes used for other trains as well). Some trains were block formations of all the same wagons. Some trains were a mixture and/or never in the same wagon formation on two consecutive trips. I've even seen photos of hopper wagons on steel trains. Presumably a cripple wagon to be tripped to a wagon repair facility or an 'out of place' wagon from its diagram for a similar reason to be tripped back to the marshalling yard.

 

However, as you might be able to see there is at least one freight I've left out (due to not being able to find it, but it would be 6S?? BSC Lackenby - Dalzell).

 

Then there are the trains serving the steel works:

6E21 Hardendale - BSC Lackenby

6E43 Hardendale - BSC Lackenby

6N54 Redmire - BSC Redcar MT

 

6M41 BSC Lackenby - Hardendale

6M46 BSC Redcar MT - Hardendale

6N53 BSC Redcar MT - Redmire

 

Unlike Scunthorpe and the Scottish steel works, raw materials were largely transported by ship and put directly into the blast furnace from the ship (or something like that). I'm not sure what the situation was at Port Talbot. This is why there isn't quite the same procession of bulk minerals (coke, iron ore and limestone) through Tees Yard as there is through Barnetby.

 

The working timetable information, whilst taken (I don't believe the people who shared the information on Flickr were deliberately out to deceive me) and now shared in good faith, could be wrong. I've mostly learnt it from the captions of photographs. Unverified, second-hand information, isn't the best. However, the information does seem to be consistent across multiple people. I'm not a railway expert. I'm also not all that fussed as, whether false or true, the working timetable information has given me an ordered operational framework.

 

Anyway, I'll stop waffling and I hope this helps.

[black and decker boy]

A couple of other destinations from that era:

 

Etruria (Stoke on Trent)

Westhoughton (metal box)

 

The whole complex at Lackenby-Redcar is now closed and mostly demolished. The symbolic Dorman Long tower being blown up a month or two ago. I think the deep water dock & bulk terminal BBC are still present and in use though.

[scottystitch]

Removed

Edited November 23, 2021 by scottystitch

[Tom Burnham]

The Sheerness steel plant was much smaller than most as it used electric arc furnaces to re-process scrap iron and steel, rather than making iron from ore in a blast furnace. The flow of raw materials was therefore quite different. There was a small rolling mill not far away at Queenborough, which at least latterly by used steel imported by sea via a nearby wharf. It used its own rather idiosyncratic railway system to move stuff about. So you can find prototypes for quite small scale operations.

[Fat Controller]

Port Talbot imports coking coal and iron ore via the adjacent deep water tidal wharf; more coal comes from an opencast mine (Cwmbargoed) at the head of the valleys. It despatches semi-finished slab to Llanwern, and coil to Trostre, Llanwern, Corby and Hartlepool.

There are arc-furnaces, using scrap, at Cardiff, Stocksbridge and possibly other locations around Sheffield and Rotherham.

[russ p]

2 hours ago, JN said:

 

The steelworks I can remember from memory are:

Cardiff Tidal, Clydesdale, Corby, Dalzell, Hartlepool, Irlam, Lackenby, Llanwern, Port Talbot, Ravenscraig, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Shelton, Shotton, Skinningrove, Treforma and Workington. However, I am aware there were iron and steel works in the South Wales valleys (one at Ebbw Vale and Merthyr Tydfil for a start). These operate at different points as well as having different purposes by 'my era'. There are steel terminals too - Wakefield and Wolverhampton as well as another in the West Midlands, but I can't remember its name right now. There are probably others I've not mentioned.

 

I'll share with you some of the information I've been able to obtain (I'm trying for an 'early 1990s Thornaby/Tees Docks' model railway, so steel traffic is important...) and the following are trains I've been able to identify:

6M01 BSC Lackenby - Wolverhampton Steel Terminal

6M05 BSC Lackenby - Wolverhampton Steel Terminal

6M13 Tees Yard - BSC Shelton

6M47 BSC Lackenby - BSC Corby

6M51 BSC Lackenby - Blackburn

6M58 BSC Lackenby - Blackburn

6M71 BSC Lackenby - BSC Workington

6Z95 BSC Lackenby - BSC Corby

 

6E09 BSC Shelton - Tees Yard

6E28 Wolverhampton Steel Terminal - BSC Lackenby

6E30 Dalzell - BSC Lackenby

6Z39 BSC Shelton - Tees Yard

6E40 BSC Corby - BSC Lackenby

6E41 Blackburn - BSC Lackenby

 

These trains were comprised of a variety of wagons: BAA, BBA, BDA (sometimes with RRA 'runner' wagons), IHA, KIA, POA/SSA and SPA. Then there are the Cargowaggon flats and vans (sometimes used for other trains as well). Some trains were block formations of all the same wagons. Some trains were a mixture and/or never in the same wagon formation on two consecutive trips. I've even seen photos of hopper wagons on steel trains. Presumably a cripple wagon to be tripped to a wagon repair facility or an 'out of place' wagon from its diagram for a similar reason to be tripped back to the marshalling yard.

 

However, as you might be able to see there is at least one freight I've left out (due to not being able to find it, but it would be 6S?? BSC Lackenby - Dalzell).

 

Then there are the trains serving the steel works:

6E21 Hardendale - BSC Lackenby

6E43 Hardendale - BSC Lackenby

6N54 Redmire - BSC Redcar MT

 

6M41 BSC Lackenby - Hardendale

6M46 BSC Redcar MT - Hardendale

6N53 BSC Redcar MT - Redmire

 

Unlike Scunthorpe and the Scottish steel works, raw materials were largely transported by ship and put directly into the blast furnace from the ship (or something like that). I'm not sure what the situation was at Port Talbot. This is why there isn't quite the same procession of bulk minerals (coke, iron ore and limestone) through Tees Yard as there is through Barnetby.

 

The working timetable information, whilst taken (I don't believe the people who shared the information on Flickr were deliberately out to deceive me) and now shared in good faith, could be wrong. I've mostly learnt it from the captions of photographs. Unverified, second-hand information, isn't the best. However, the information does seem to be consistent across multiple people. I'm not a railway expert. I'm also not all that fussed as, whether false or true, the working timetable information has given me an ordered operational framework.

 

Anyway, I'll stop waffling and I hope this helps.

 

There was also a lackenby Etruria and return can't remember the outward headcode but return was 4E34 ISTR  l,ater 6E34 when 60s arrived and BBAs were downgraded to 60mph

[JN]

16 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Port Talbot imports coking coal and iron ore via the adjacent deep water tidal wharf; more coal comes from an opencast mine (Cwmbargoed) at the head of the valleys. It despatches semi-finished slab to Llanwern, and coil to Trostre, Llanwern, Corby and Hartlepool.

There are arc-furnaces, using scrap, at Cardiff, Stocksbridge and possibly other locations around Sheffield and Rotherham.

 

Stocksbridge - yes, I missed that one. Well, the whole Don Valley really.

 

I was tempted by a Sheffield area, but can't really find any information on trains during the early 90s. Perhaps those steel works were more workshops where finished steel would be turned into a final product rather than a finishing-process plant, say, like Shotton. I'm surprised because I remember seeing, several times from the train, the giant blue warehouses on the left of the line going into Sheffield from the North/East... Plus the added attraction of creating an export/import port with an Immingham/Teesside model.

 

I did think about Boston/Ellesmere/Gladstone/Mostyn Docks as a basis just because of the size of space I've got too - enough for 12 HAA/TTAs or 6 BBA/TEAs + loco in a head shunt and another head shunt. That said, my Dad says '5=8 coaches' due a lack of space. Mine would be more like 1=3 possibly 4/5 wagons.

 

Only now, I'm liking Copy Pit as well. Lackenby - Blackburn/Return steel trains and the 'operational challenge' of moving the transformer to act like climbing Copy Pit. I've also thought about Mirfield/West Yorkshire, that sort of area. However, I do like shorter freight trains with mixed wagons (not every steel train, even from/to Teesside, was the 28 wagons of https://www.flickr.com/photos/151904976@N08/45484925034). I know. I'm indecisive as you can probably tell. The only things I've really settled on is:

- The era (early 1990s)

- Layout design (a 15x6 tail chaser, with two siding, so I can have from/to journeys for my freights - one siding to be a dock)

- I'm not all that fussed about passenger trains, but I'd like to run my locos from childhood and I inherited from my Uncle as specials (I even saw on Flickr a photo of 31 hauling a football excursion from Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Sunderland)

- Gauge/Scale = OO largely to do with the point above, but I could also say it's a 'reasonable' compromise between size/price/detail...

 

Admittedly, my layout is more about my fondness for and interest in coal and steel trains rather than an affinity for a particular area. I like freights. I like secondary routes. Think more 'interesting' than 'whoosh'. I know as well that I can still combine things too. Just put it down to a moment of panic and peak or weakness because I realised "having this means I can't have that, but that would still be interesting to me".  Anyway, sorry, I'll stop waffling/thinking as I'm typing (not least because I'm taking the thread off topic).

[JN]

17 hours ago, russ p said:

 

There was also a lackenby Etruria and return can't remember the outward headcode but return was 4E34 ISTR  l,ater 6E34 when 60s arrived and BBAs were downgraded to 60mph

 

Thanks for that. Shelton/Etruria are roughly interchangeable when talking about steel works, but I'm nit picking (I don't do it deliberately, but I just like to be as precise as possible).

 

I thought 6E34 was Corby - Lackenby empties. Sorry, I missed that off my list when I was compiling the list for the OP and others. I'm not saying you're wrong because codes can change. I realise now that might have seen 'Corby - Lackenby empties' and just assumed same train = same headcode etc. That reminds me - I should also look up the meaning of the headcodes (I know what a headcode is and their constituent parts as well as the first two characters, but I don't really understand the latter part)...

[JN]

19 hours ago, russ p said:

There was also a lackenby Etruria and return can't remember the outward headcode but return was 4E34 ISTR  l,ater 6E34 when 60s arrived and BBAs were downgraded to 60mph

 

Sorry - I got confused between 6M34 (Lackenby -Corby loaded), 6E34 (your point here) and 6E40 (Corby - Lackenby empties) in my previous post...

 

Thanks for the correction/help/pointing it out.

[russ p]

4 hours ago, JN said:

 

Stocksbridge - yes, I missed that one. Well, the whole Don Valley really.

 

I was tempted by a Sheffield area, but can't really find any information on trains during the early 90s. Perhaps those steel works were more workshops where finished steel would be turned into a final product rather than a finishing-process plant, say, like Shotton. I'm surprised because I remember seeing, several times from the train, the giant blue warehouses on the left of the line going into Sheffield from the North/East... Plus the added attraction of creating an export/import port with an Immingham/Teesside model.

 

I did think about Boston/Ellesmere/Gladstone/Mostyn Docks as a basis just because of the size of space I've got too - enough for 12 HAA/TTAs or 6 BBA/TEAs + loco in a head shunt and another head shunt. That said, my Dad says '5=8 coaches' due a lack of space. Mine would be more like 1=3 possibly 4/5 wagons.

 

Only now, I'm liking Copy Pit as well. Lackenby - Blackburn/Return steel trains and the 'operational challenge' of moving the transformer to act like climbing Copy Pit. I've also thought about Mirfield/West Yorkshire, that sort of area. However, I do like shorter freight trains with mixed wagons (not every steel train, even from/to Teesside, was the 28 wagons of https://www.flickr.com/photos/151904976@N08/45484925034). I know. I'm indecisive as you can probably tell. The only things I've really settled on is:

- The era (early 1990s)

- Layout design (a 15x6 tail chaser, with two siding, so I can have from/to journeys for my freights - one siding to be a dock)

- I'm not all that fussed about passenger trains, but I'd like to run my locos from childhood and I inherited from my Uncle as specials (I even saw on Flickr a photo of 31 hauling a football excursion from Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Sunderland)

- Gauge/Scale = OO largely to do with the point above, but I could also say it's a 'reasonable' compromise between size/price/detail...

 

Admittedly, my layout is more about my fondness for and interest in coal and steel trains rather than an affinity for a particular area. I like freights. I like secondary routes. Think more 'interesting' than 'whoosh'. I know as well that I can still combine things too. Just put it down to a moment of panic and peak or weakness because I realised "having this means I can't have that, but that would still be interesting to me".  Anyway, sorry, I'll stop waffling/thinking as I'm typing (not least because I'm taking the thread off topic).

 

Sounds a very interesting layout. I was a driver at Thornaby back then. You could stretch it that the pacer loco hauled replacements lasted a bit longer 

[JN]

Some other steel flows not mentioned:

6B21 MX MARGAM T.C. - TROSTRE WORKS

6B56 MO CARDIFF TIDAL T.C. - TROSTRE WORKS

 

https://www.alamy.com/a-class-56-diesel-locomotive-number-56076-british-steel-trostre-heads-west-along-the-south-wales-main-line-at-marshfield-with-a-loaded-steel-working-image341260358.html?imageid=13D61B05-5929-4E1A-B18F-E3368B82F256&p=567659&pn=1&searchId=0b4e940667a78dab9bc2d8f00f7b5bf1&searchtype=0

 

As well as:

Llanwern/Cardiff Tidal - Margam

Margam - Mossend

Margam - Round Oak

Margam - Tees Yard

? - Boston Docks

 

Usually, from the photographs, BBAs or BDAs, but the linked photo above shows a train with loaded aluminium carriers. Cardiff ISIS (almost exactly opposite Canton depot) apparently used steel conveyed in IWBs. This, though, was usually a Distribution, rather than Metals sector, apparently coming from Wembley. Still a good, short, train to model - as I reiterate constantly, not every steel train is the Lackenby - Corby Tubeliner of 30 BBAs!

 

Limited, but relevant information can be found on

http://www.swanseadocks.co.uk/docksnewsite/railwaystrains.html

 

About 14 covered SEAs were also used for Cardiff Tidal - Wakefield Cobra. I cannot think of anything else, right now, but will let you know if I learn about or anything else.