Steel Making on Teeside

[Adam]

 

 

Yes indeed, as soon as Mike Edge releases his Sentinel kits there'll be a couple going under the soldering iron here.

 

Yes - they'll be one here too... 

 

Adam

[Mark Saunders]

The end of iron and steel making again as of 11:30 this morning the plant was officially mothballed, the only two loco's on the grids were 277 and 261 both Tata GEC's, the Norwegian locomotives all appear to be at Tees Dock in the Steel Sidings! 

 

Mark Saunders

[Mark T]

http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-steel-strides-ahead-1961/ Good film, Shows the electric line and articulated loco in action

[Mark Saunders]

This new book "Teesside Cast Products" from the Industrial Railway Society may be of interest?

 

http://irsshop.co.uk/epages/c06e4627-fbe4-483c-833b-6f5529d3cffe.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/c06e4627-fbe4-483c-833b-6f5529d3cffe/Products/90

 

Mark Saunders

[kryten65]

After finding out about Dorman Long's Clay Lane site in Middlesbrough via this thread, i've been doing a bit of digging and stumbled across these two videos on the you tube, lots of intersting shots of the Hot metal Wagons and tipping of slag

https://youtu.be/4UfrT9QnvpA

https://youtu.be/q3y48PIilyU

 

And more up to date, is this one about the lackenby complex loco's

https://youtu.be/-DQENyueqI0

https://youtu.be/jnzrjSARRx0

 

 

Dave

[Trevski]

Great photos, any more or anything else of interest?

 

I believe that one of them is still full of cold iron. The traditional way of getting it out is to tap as much hot metal as is possible into the ladle, remelt the cold surface and quickly tip it out. Repeat the proceedure until empty. Of course, if you get it wrong, it just gets worse....

I've just come across this post whilst searching for something else. I was a loco driver at Teesside works from 1976 until the closure in 2010 and the derailment in question was caused by an axle snapping in half on the torpedo. The torpedo was indeed full. When full the weight was around 660 tonnes if my memory serves me correctly. The torpedos weigh around 300-320 tonnes when empty. It took around 6 days to replace the full carriage and was done by lifting one end of the torpedo by cranes. They had to bring extra cranes in encaustic the first crane couldn't lift the weight. The iron did indeed go cold and it was sent to Redcar blast furnace where they tilted it on its side and used lances to burn some of the iron out which took weeks. They had someone working around the clock until a small trough was made then we filled it out with molten iron and tipped onto the nearby iron ponds. Eventually the torpedo returned to service. If anyone wants anymore information then I can answer questions about a lot of the steel works from 1971 which is when I started working after leaving school. I worked on the traffic department as we called it then from 1976 until 2010 and I drove sentinel 0-4-0 sentinel 0-6-0. Titan twin engine and GEC diesel electric locomotives and I returned to the site when SSI took over and worked for GB Railfreight driving DI 8 locomotives.

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello Arthur, what a fascinating thread you are to be congratulated.  I grew up 'on Teesside' (SS please) in the 1950s and 60s and had lots of friends whose parents work was connected with the iron and steel industry.  If you didn't work for Dormans then you would, like my father, work for ICI.

 

I went off to be a civil engineer with what was then WS Atkins and Partners who in the early 1970s undertook a lot of design for British Steel, including I believe the new and proposed blast furnaces at Redcar.  I worked on proposals for a new Plate Mill at Seal Sands which was eventually shelved.  Whilst not directly relevant I also undertook design work for rebuilding at Normanby Park works, Scunthorpe - now long since gone.

 

I still have my Dorman Long Steel Designer's Manual - along with a slide rule which were the 'must have' design tools pre the computer.  One of my parents friends was responsible for putting the Design Manual together and made frequent visits to Hong Kong (amongst other places) to advise on the use of Dorman Long Materials.  Another close family friend worked for Cleveland Bridge and I remember being shown some large prefabricated steel beams that were under construction.  The point being that prior to heat treatment the fabrication looked nothing like a steel beam and my friend thought I should be made aware of these conditions - for when I was proposing to use these sections in design!

 

I see there is mention of Dock Street - I cannot let that go by without mentioning my father in law (age 96) who used to walk up and down Dock Street four times a day, from the terminus of the 'A' bus at the Exchange (four times because he went home for his lunch!).  He worked for a firm of electrical engineers whose business involved supply and repair of electric  motors - for the steel industry. 

 

Bolckow is a good iron family name and there is a superb selection of Teesside pictures (and much more) both historic and from the present day on Flickr by the Stubbs Family/Bolckow.

 

How times change.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[russ p]

I haven't heard of the plate mill on seal sands, was this before the likes of Phillips was built? I wonder if it it was to be fed with blooms from Lackenby or possibly Hartlepool back then.

Makes you wonder what else was planned for Teesside but never built, another plant I've heard of was a BL plant at Eaglescliffe to build a saloon car that was TR7 based ,there was a whole range planned in the 70s but it was given up by BL in return for government funding for the Maestro/ Montego

[Fat Controller]

I haven't heard of the plate mill on seal sands, was this before the likes of Phillips was built? I wonder if it it was to be fed with blooms from Lackenby or possibly Hartlepool back then.

Makes you wonder what else was planned for Teesside but never built, another plant I've heard of was a BL plant at Eaglescliffe to build a saloon car that was TR7 based ,there was a whole range planned in the 70s but it was given up by BL in return for government funding for the Maestro/ Montego

Rumours of BL plants appearing outside of the West Midlands weren't unusual at this time; BL apparently proposed one for Alsager, but were opposed by the trade association for the ceramic industry, who were worried that it would oblige them to offer reasonable terms and conditions to their workforce. My source for this was credible, being related to one of the then ministers in the Department for Industry.

[russ p]

The source of mine is the book TR7 the untold story, and aronline.co.uk .

A strange little twist to this was in the early 90s I fitted a 2.0 16v engine to an MG Maestro

at the time of obtaining this engine it was assumed that this engine was a prototype rover 820 engine but it turns out was a prototype for the cars destined to be built on Teesside. It didn't last long before it melted a piston but it did run around the area it's offspring would have been built

[Silver Sidelines]

Hello Russ

... I wonder if it it was to be fed with blooms from Lackenby or possibly Hartlepool back then....

Not knowing although I would have guessed Lackenby.  There was a lot research and not a little money spent on the piling for the 'new' blast furnace - with plans if my memory serves me right, for a second!  The plate mill was big and again would have involved lots of heavy piling which could be why I was involved.

 

Atkins did a lot of work back in the 70s and 80s for BSC and I had a little project at Immingham Docks for a warehouse facility - whatever that was supposed to be.

 

There are some of my own pictures on Flickr.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[russ p]

Wow, that's very interesting. Were the plans for Japanese blast furnaces as built or were they planning on home built ones.

Apparently two blast furnaces were actually bought,in the 80s there were a lot of huge parts stored near steel halt that were supposedly parts for the second furnace

[Silver Sidelines]

Thanks Russ

.. Were the plans for Japanese blast furnaces as built or were they planning on home built ones.
Apparently two blast furnaces were actually bought,in the 80s there were a lot of huge parts stored near steel halt that were supposedly parts for the second furnace

I cannot help, by the end of the 70s I had a new career involving buried pipes and holes in the road, not forgetting investigations into gas explosions.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[Arthur]

Ray, yeah sorry about the missing S, I thought that I had at least amended the topic title, seemingly not!

 

Thanks for your input, very interesting. I agree, any new plate mill would have been supplied, certainly beyond the medium term, by Lackenby.

 

The Hartlepool works, originally of the South Durham Steel & Iron, Co., was busy supplying itself and had a limited future. It was basically two works, the old north works and the adjacent, new (1962) south works, each almost self contained but sharing facilities. For historical reasons the new works was equipped with open hearth furnaces when really, by 1962, they should have been installing oxygen converors of some sort. Otherwise south works was a very good modern plant, north works was old. Overall it didn't have a future being of mixed age and on the doorstep of the massive investments proposed for Lackenby, which went on to feed the surviving Hartlepool plate mill.

 

 

Russ, ref. the proposed furnaces at Lackenby, I'm surprised to hear that parts of a second furnace were delivered, I always believed that their construction never got beyond a proposal. The outline plan was to build two others the same as the one still standing at Redcar.

 

It was of a Nippon Steel design but wasn't built in Japan, it was largely built here. Post WW2 the UKs major blast furnace contractor and builder was Ashmore, Benson, Pease & Co. of Stockton on Tees. They bought in many design elements from the US, Europe and, later, Japan to give the customer the required spec. before making the components, contracting some out and then asembling it. For example, I mentioned in the first post the Paul Wurth bell less top, Wurth are a company (still) based in Luxembourg. By the time the Redcar furnace was built ABP had merged with Davy United of Sheffield to form Davy Ashmores who were later acquired by Whessoe.

 

Most UK furnaces built 1900 to 1962 were essentially to US designs with outputs up to 1500t/day. The furnaces at Llanwern (no.3) and Redcar were planned for considerably higher outputs, 5000t/day and 10,000t/day respectively.

The problem with the US designs was that the furnace was supported on a circular mantle just above the tuyeres with heavy structural sections acting as vertical props between that and the cast house floor. It made for a very crowded structure around the base of the furnace. These much larger furnaces need two slag holes, they are slagged almost continually, large mud guns to seal the furnace after tapping, all required free space.

 

The Japanese designs were a four post design. The furnace was supported on four massive vertical steel structural members which splayed out towards the bottom giving a large area of free working space around the furnace base.

 

 

.

[Arthur]

I was a loco driver at Teesside works from 1976 until the closure in 2010

 

.

Thanks for the extra info. about the ladle derailment Trevski, very useful.

 

I'm sure we'd be very interested in any of your memories about the railway operations at the Teesside works.

[russ p]

Arthur , your knowledge of the Teesside steel industry never fails to amaze me.

Were the furnaces proposed to be built at Lackenby? When I started on the railway in 83 I was always told that all the detritus near steel halt were the second furnace for Redcar.

It's quite probable that given that you state were only Japanese design , that the parts I saw were actually spares for the actual furnace rather than a separate one.

When you are young you do tend to believe those older than you.

[Mark Saunders]

Arthur , your knowledge of the Teesside steel industry never fails to amaze me.

Were the furnaces proposed to be built at Lackenby? When I started on the railway in 83 I was always told that all the detritus near steel halt were the second furnace for Redcar.

It's quite probable that given that you state were only Japanese design , that the parts I saw were actually spares for the actual furnace rather than a separate one.

When you are young you do tend to believe those older than you.

Russ

 

I was told by one of the Lackenby workers that the parts for the second one were used as spares for the first one! Another source but I forget who said the original plan was for three furnaces at Redcar!

 

Mark

[Arthur]

Russ, yes, they were to have been built at Redcar and would have been built in line, westwards from the one that was actually built. I certainly couldn't say that those parts were not for a second furnace. Possibly parts made whilst they were making the first in anticipation or, as you suggest, just spares.

 

I agree, you cannot always believe the old hands, they often, believing it to be true themselves, pass on misinformation.

 

When I worked at Irlam I was told several times that the cogging mill was war reparation from Germany. I always doubted it. Firstly it had been made by Lamberton at Coatbridge and, secondly, I spent a couple of weeks working under it and parts were marked 1950 or so.

 

It was years later that I discovered it was actually two of the blast furnaces which had been stripped out of the Herman Goering works at Salzgitter.

 

 

Edit. If I can find it I'll scan and post a plan showing the sites of the proposed furnaces.

 

.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Arthur

[jamesmc]

This new book "Teesside Cast Products" from the Industrial Railway Society may be of interest?

 

http://irsshop.co.uk/epages/c06e4627-fbe4-483c-833b-6f5529d3cffe.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/c06e4627-fbe4-483c-833b-6f5529d3cffe/Products/90

 

Mark Saunders

 

Cracking book, great value for a tenner. Highly recommended, plenty of photos in colour, track plans, drawings etc.

Regards james

[Cokebreeze]

Some fascinating pictures here:

https://www.bcd-urbex.com/lackenby-steelworks-redcar/

 

Phil

[Mark T]

I've been building the works at Skinningrove South of the Tees for Railworks Simulator, I don't have room at home for a layout so this is the next best thing considering the route is now about 20 miles long, The research side of things has been fascinating, With the help of this forum I'm a bit more confident in tackling the works a bit further North

 

20170204164427_1 by Mark T, on Flickr

 

Skinningrove Ironworks in TS2017 by Mark T, on Flickr

 

Skinningrove Ironworks TS2017 by Mark T, on Flickr

 

More information on the project here -

 

https://www.facebook.com/northyorkscoastrailworks/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/54270350@N06/albums/72157630900927534

Edited February 16, 2017 by Mark T

[APOLLO]

That's very good work MarkT. I've just glanced at your Flickr site - very realistic indeed.

 

Brit15

[allan downes]

I've just found this totally amazing thread and a few years back I had a shot at the Scunthorpe Steel Works then known as Corus.

 

However, after a trip around the works in the back of a lurching brake van in the company of Chris Leigh and other office staff of Model rail I was hooked and spent the following six months all tangled up in pipes, tanks and girders in a desperate attempt to come up with something that looked nothing like Corus steel whatsoever but a steel works nevertheless ! My advantage, if any, is that I only lived 6 miles from the plant and used to pass the 'queens' - the blast furnaces - every time I went into town.

 

It was built in the 4m scale, was 16ft x 3ft and both Model Rail and BRM  run with it and, if anyone should be interested, I do have pictures but don't wish to high jack this truly magnificent thread.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

[Ruston]

 

It was built in the 4m scale, was 16ft x 3ft and both Model Rail and BRM  run with it and, if anyone should be interested, I do have pictures but don't wish to high jack this truly magnificent thread.

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.

Definitely interested, Allan.

[allan downes]

Definitely interested, Allan.

 

I'll put some pictures up later this evening. I have to go searching my files for them !

 

Cheers.

 

Allan.