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.
