yeh leave it with me i have quite a lot i think my new scanner will be able to sort it will have a look through them.
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Report - Redcar no1 Blast Furnace - October 2015 (Photo Heavy Industry)
- Thread starter Dave W
- Start date
blimey.
Beautiful in every way! Smashing work.
I can't believe nearly a year has gone by since this trip, The lack of a write up on the first page will doubtless mean that this post falls off the radar with time, but when it was first posted Redcar almost need no introduction. The story of the financial problems and the threat of closure had been in the media for months. I'm writing this now in the hope that it will at least provide a bit of context to these photos.
Even now the memory of Redcar's plight still feels very fresh, I remember checking news reports daily, sometimes hourly hoping that a deal could be done to keep the plant running. Then after weeks of speculation the final abrupt shut down came and with it a sense of shock that one of our great major steel producing sites had died. A great titan of British Industry had gone forever and with it thousands of jobs, a culture and a way of life. There is something vital and urgent about the creation of metal. It has for thousands of years been one the cornerstones of human civilisation. To close a blast furnace is to relinquish the power to turn rock extracted from the ground into the very fabric of the modern world. Redcar was one of 3 major steelworks in the UK to still have the ability to make raw Iron and with its loss only Port Talbot and Scunthorpe remain.
After the shock of the closure came the realisation that soon there would be miles of prime industrial wonderland left to rot... having been stoked by months of news reports it was only a matter of time before Dave and I were making the trip north to see for ourselves the death of a Blast Furnace... There was no certainty we would even get near, for all we knew it could still be full of workers...but the urge to go and try was strong. To our knowledge no one else had yet had a look and somehow there was a need find a resolution to all those weeks of news reports.
An initial drive past confirmed that the Furnace was still lit up just as it had been when it was in production but there was a lack of life around it and the site seemed quiet. A long walk later and we found ourselves staring up at our target. Rather than go straight for the furnace we looked through some of the adjacent structures trying to get our bearings and a feel for any activity on site. I remember slipping over in a sea of knee deep mud underneath the electrostatic precipitators and spent the rest of the trip with sodden mud encrusted trousers! after we'd got a feel for the site we made our first bid upwards, only to discover we'd chosen a stairwell that only led to the furnace gas tower and did not connect onto the furnace itself, back on the ground and an alternate route led up to the cast house and from there lead upwards towards our target... As we approached the furnace the temperature got warmer. Even weeks after the closure the furnace still had heat enough to take the edge off a chilly October night and around the Tuyere’s you could easily regret the warmth of your donkey jacket!
We pushed on up stopping at the most interesting levels on route but always conscious of the need to keep moving. After a while we reached the charging level where the convertor filled the hoppers which fed the beast. Above was a towering mass of gas pipes and an exposed staircase up the pipework to the very top. After a few photos on the charging level we were ready for a push to the top, our summit. On the horizon there was the first hint that dawn was approaching and with it came a strong cold wind off the North Sea. As I climbed upwards I felt exposed not only to being seen from the ground but also to the elements. The cold morning wind caused me to grip the rails firmly with both hands as climbed! At the top four large vent stacks provided some shelter from the wind and there was an opportunity to look out on the view over the tees estuary its a powerful industrial landscape with the steelworks running along the southern bank, Wilton chemical works further inland. to the north over the river lay the refineries and processing plants on the north bank even out to sea the offshore wind turbines seemed suitably grim in the early morning light. The vents at this level were all open, the lids all standing ajar venting the last gas from the furnace out. I put my and hand up to the vent and I could feel the warm exhaust gas rushing past, Dave not content with putting his hand in the gas chose to put his head in for a decent sniff.
The route down gave us an opportunity for better pictures during the decent, but with an eye on the time and the need to head for home we decided to leave the rest of the works for another trip(s) Even though I've been back since this first trip for the furnace while it was still warm is one I'll never forget.
Even now the memory of Redcar's plight still feels very fresh, I remember checking news reports daily, sometimes hourly hoping that a deal could be done to keep the plant running. Then after weeks of speculation the final abrupt shut down came and with it a sense of shock that one of our great major steel producing sites had died. A great titan of British Industry had gone forever and with it thousands of jobs, a culture and a way of life. There is something vital and urgent about the creation of metal. It has for thousands of years been one the cornerstones of human civilisation. To close a blast furnace is to relinquish the power to turn rock extracted from the ground into the very fabric of the modern world. Redcar was one of 3 major steelworks in the UK to still have the ability to make raw Iron and with its loss only Port Talbot and Scunthorpe remain.
After the shock of the closure came the realisation that soon there would be miles of prime industrial wonderland left to rot... having been stoked by months of news reports it was only a matter of time before Dave and I were making the trip north to see for ourselves the death of a Blast Furnace... There was no certainty we would even get near, for all we knew it could still be full of workers...but the urge to go and try was strong. To our knowledge no one else had yet had a look and somehow there was a need find a resolution to all those weeks of news reports.
An initial drive past confirmed that the Furnace was still lit up just as it had been when it was in production but there was a lack of life around it and the site seemed quiet. A long walk later and we found ourselves staring up at our target. Rather than go straight for the furnace we looked through some of the adjacent structures trying to get our bearings and a feel for any activity on site. I remember slipping over in a sea of knee deep mud underneath the electrostatic precipitators and spent the rest of the trip with sodden mud encrusted trousers! after we'd got a feel for the site we made our first bid upwards, only to discover we'd chosen a stairwell that only led to the furnace gas tower and did not connect onto the furnace itself, back on the ground and an alternate route led up to the cast house and from there lead upwards towards our target... As we approached the furnace the temperature got warmer. Even weeks after the closure the furnace still had heat enough to take the edge off a chilly October night and around the Tuyere’s you could easily regret the warmth of your donkey jacket!
We pushed on up stopping at the most interesting levels on route but always conscious of the need to keep moving. After a while we reached the charging level where the convertor filled the hoppers which fed the beast. Above was a towering mass of gas pipes and an exposed staircase up the pipework to the very top. After a few photos on the charging level we were ready for a push to the top, our summit. On the horizon there was the first hint that dawn was approaching and with it came a strong cold wind off the North Sea. As I climbed upwards I felt exposed not only to being seen from the ground but also to the elements. The cold morning wind caused me to grip the rails firmly with both hands as climbed! At the top four large vent stacks provided some shelter from the wind and there was an opportunity to look out on the view over the tees estuary its a powerful industrial landscape with the steelworks running along the southern bank, Wilton chemical works further inland. to the north over the river lay the refineries and processing plants on the north bank even out to sea the offshore wind turbines seemed suitably grim in the early morning light. The vents at this level were all open, the lids all standing ajar venting the last gas from the furnace out. I put my and hand up to the vent and I could feel the warm exhaust gas rushing past, Dave not content with putting his hand in the gas chose to put his head in for a decent sniff.
The route down gave us an opportunity for better pictures during the decent, but with an eye on the time and the need to head for home we decided to leave the rest of the works for another trip(s) Even though I've been back since this first trip for the furnace while it was still warm is one I'll never forget.
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