SSI Lackenby Steel Works - Basic Oxygen Steel Plant
Introduction:
Decided to finally after weeks of seeing reports coming out of the Redcar, South Bank and Lackenby Steel Complex to take a look for myself... It's a visit that has been well overdue and one that for some reason I just didn't really fancy. I should thank @BoroLad for finally convincing me to make the trip up north and get started on the place. The BOS Plant and Power Station are the two parts of the massive site which really called out to me personally, in the end however no real plan of action was put into place for exploring the power station, which in a way is just as well, considering BOS took me two nights to cover properly.
I have 300 photo's covering the full extent of the BOS Plant, so as you can imagine this report may not be quite as comprehensive as some of my others, if it were it would be page upon page of photographs and information, so what I will do is take you on a brief tour from bottom to top of the BOS Plant, all 70 meters of it. Doesn't sound much does it 70 meters? I can assure you it's one bastard big building though!
As mentioned previously explored over the duration of two nights, first night with @BoroLad covering Continuous Casting and the Charge Halls, and night two with @ACID- REFLUX covering the upper levels of the BOS Plant.
History:
I'll cover a brief history here, hopefully covering the actual theory of steel making and what does what later on in the pictures section. That said, steel working isn't really my thing, more of a Pit, Power Station and Railwayman in fairness...
Lackenby was opened to production in 1953 as a replacement for the aging Dorman Long Steel works nearby. The Dorman Long Britannia works closed in 1971 and all but gone by 1972.
HRH Queen Elizabeth II visit's with HRH Prince Phillip on the 4t of June 1956
The Plant has lived through some rather uncertain times, just like the pits the steelworkers where a target of Thatcher's and suffered a 13 week strike in 1980, it would appear our mate Dave also has a similar view to his predecessor when you consider the lack of support the steel works has received in recent months.
By September 2015 it seemed clear that the end was nigh for the plant, as I type the decommissioning of the once great plant takes place.
RIP to another great British Industry...
Pictures:
As said earlier I'll try to cover what I can within reason, if you want to see more, get your arse over there, it's a truly amazing site to see,, the sheer scale of everything involved is simply breath taking and the pics really don't do the scale of the place any justice!
Charge Halls:
I thought that the Charge Halls would be a good place to start off even though we actually arrived in and photographed Continuous Casting first, why? Simply because this is where the scrap iron and molten metal and other ingredients are mixed in the crucible for charging to begin. Once the crucible has been filled with the correct ingredients one of the large 110 ton cranes will lift up the crucible and tip the mixture into the furnace. That's a basic overview, the full list of actions taken whilst charging for those interested can be found below.
For BOS Process click here
Crucibles, we've all seen them from the other reports so just a few of my own for this one...
A small workshop set up...
Heat proof clothing and blocks on the work bench...
Kicking up a Dust Storm!
The first night was particularly windy and in some of the long exposures like the one below you can see the extent of the dust passing through the works.
Really having to hold back on the Crucible pics, they're epic but we have new places to see so onwards and upwards!
The Halls below are where the actual Charging would have taken place, this is where those 110 toner's would have been making light work of these massive crucible's and getting on with mixing and pouring.
The 'Thunder Birds' as @ACID- REFLUX calls them, on the ground floor, these would have been filled with scrap, picked up by the crane dropped on top of the tipper loco and poured into the crucible and furnace.
Furnace, where the mixture would be tipped into for charging.
Continuous Casting:
Before heading further up the BOS Plant, let's take a look at Continuous Casting (ConCast). ConCast is believe it or not the process of continuously casting steel slabs. A basic description of how this is done is by pouring the molten steel (Once de-slagged) from the furnace and into slab shaped casts they're then either cooled off and sent to the export bay to be taken to the buyer or sent to the Rolling Mills for further processing.
Again, we've already seen Con Cast thanks to @Speed , so just my Brief take on this and the Export Bay before we move on up to the so far un-reported parts.
Molten Goodness on the tipper...
Drivers Controls for one of the ladle cars...
Look at all that Cabling, all a Pikey's Christmases at once...
Interiors of two of the many control rooms, one modernised one original.
Concast continues downstairs... We take a look off the side of the balcony before heading down to see the Export Bay.
Downstairs by the 'Bridge' Control Room.
Export Bay - Slab Grabbers in the foreground...
There's much more to see in Concast, but that's an overview, time to hit the stair wells...
BOS Plant Upper Levels:
The following will mainly consist of the tops of the Furnaces. The Furnaces are as large as they are to fit the large oxygen lances in.
Some of the furnaces are partly stripped which allows for some interesting shots.
Moving up again for a few more views of those epic furnaces...
Oxygen Piping to the Furnaces...
High up in the Charge Hall...
Up top, the 60 Meter Level looking across BOS. Even the Furnaces look a long way down from up here!
Finally the roof top, sadly I only had my flimsy tripod with me and it was far too windy to get anything decent from up there, I did however grab this high ISO shot of Wilton Power Station and the Beam Mill.
And that's all I'm afraid, I have plenty more images and detail shots but I'm not going to overload you with them, that's a brief tour of the BOS Plant from bottom to top!
Hope you enjoyed the report, I certainly enjoyed the explore!
Cheers for Reading,
TAW
Decided to finally after weeks of seeing reports coming out of the Redcar, South Bank and Lackenby Steel Complex to take a look for myself... It's a visit that has been well overdue and one that for some reason I just didn't really fancy. I should thank @BoroLad for finally convincing me to make the trip up north and get started on the place. The BOS Plant and Power Station are the two parts of the massive site which really called out to me personally, in the end however no real plan of action was put into place for exploring the power station, which in a way is just as well, considering BOS took me two nights to cover properly.
I have 300 photo's covering the full extent of the BOS Plant, so as you can imagine this report may not be quite as comprehensive as some of my others, if it were it would be page upon page of photographs and information, so what I will do is take you on a brief tour from bottom to top of the BOS Plant, all 70 meters of it. Doesn't sound much does it 70 meters? I can assure you it's one bastard big building though!
As mentioned previously explored over the duration of two nights, first night with @BoroLad covering Continuous Casting and the Charge Halls, and night two with @ACID- REFLUX covering the upper levels of the BOS Plant.
History:
I'll cover a brief history here, hopefully covering the actual theory of steel making and what does what later on in the pictures section. That said, steel working isn't really my thing, more of a Pit, Power Station and Railwayman in fairness...
Lackenby was opened to production in 1953 as a replacement for the aging Dorman Long Steel works nearby. The Dorman Long Britannia works closed in 1971 and all but gone by 1972.
HRH Queen Elizabeth II visit's with HRH Prince Phillip on the 4t of June 1956
The Plant has lived through some rather uncertain times, just like the pits the steelworkers where a target of Thatcher's and suffered a 13 week strike in 1980, it would appear our mate Dave also has a similar view to his predecessor when you consider the lack of support the steel works has received in recent months.
By September 2015 it seemed clear that the end was nigh for the plant, as I type the decommissioning of the once great plant takes place.
RIP to another great British Industry...
Pictures:
As said earlier I'll try to cover what I can within reason, if you want to see more, get your arse over there, it's a truly amazing site to see,, the sheer scale of everything involved is simply breath taking and the pics really don't do the scale of the place any justice!
Charge Halls:
I thought that the Charge Halls would be a good place to start off even though we actually arrived in and photographed Continuous Casting first, why? Simply because this is where the scrap iron and molten metal and other ingredients are mixed in the crucible for charging to begin. Once the crucible has been filled with the correct ingredients one of the large 110 ton cranes will lift up the crucible and tip the mixture into the furnace. That's a basic overview, the full list of actions taken whilst charging for those interested can be found below.
For BOS Process click here
Crucibles, we've all seen them from the other reports so just a few of my own for this one...
A small workshop set up...
Heat proof clothing and blocks on the work bench...
Kicking up a Dust Storm!
The first night was particularly windy and in some of the long exposures like the one below you can see the extent of the dust passing through the works.
Really having to hold back on the Crucible pics, they're epic but we have new places to see so onwards and upwards!
The Halls below are where the actual Charging would have taken place, this is where those 110 toner's would have been making light work of these massive crucible's and getting on with mixing and pouring.
The 'Thunder Birds' as @ACID- REFLUX calls them, on the ground floor, these would have been filled with scrap, picked up by the crane dropped on top of the tipper loco and poured into the crucible and furnace.
Furnace, where the mixture would be tipped into for charging.
Continuous Casting:
Before heading further up the BOS Plant, let's take a look at Continuous Casting (ConCast). ConCast is believe it or not the process of continuously casting steel slabs. A basic description of how this is done is by pouring the molten steel (Once de-slagged) from the furnace and into slab shaped casts they're then either cooled off and sent to the export bay to be taken to the buyer or sent to the Rolling Mills for further processing.
Again, we've already seen Con Cast thanks to @Speed , so just my Brief take on this and the Export Bay before we move on up to the so far un-reported parts.
Molten Goodness on the tipper...
Drivers Controls for one of the ladle cars...
Look at all that Cabling, all a Pikey's Christmases at once...
Interiors of two of the many control rooms, one modernised one original.
Concast continues downstairs... We take a look off the side of the balcony before heading down to see the Export Bay.
Downstairs by the 'Bridge' Control Room.
Export Bay - Slab Grabbers in the foreground...
There's much more to see in Concast, but that's an overview, time to hit the stair wells...
BOS Plant Upper Levels:
The following will mainly consist of the tops of the Furnaces. The Furnaces are as large as they are to fit the large oxygen lances in.
Some of the furnaces are partly stripped which allows for some interesting shots.
Moving up again for a few more views of those epic furnaces...
Oxygen Piping to the Furnaces...
High up in the Charge Hall...
Up top, the 60 Meter Level looking across BOS. Even the Furnaces look a long way down from up here!
Finally the roof top, sadly I only had my flimsy tripod with me and it was far too windy to get anything decent from up there, I did however grab this high ISO shot of Wilton Power Station and the Beam Mill.
And that's all I'm afraid, I have plenty more images and detail shots but I'm not going to overload you with them, that's a brief tour of the BOS Plant from bottom to top!
Hope you enjoyed the report, I certainly enjoyed the explore!
Cheers for Reading,
TAW
Last edited:
Ussain 
