Report - SSI and the Death of Teesside Steel - The Final Cut!

[Calamity Jane]

sadly this site never got the attention it deserved, which is a shame really,
something epic as this doesn't appear often.

Has it gone stranton?

 

[stranton]

Has it gone stranton?

no, it's there looking very sorry for it's self

 

[Calamity Jane]

no, it's there looking very sorry for it's self

vandals? or nature decay? either way. What a shame

 

[stranton]

vandals? or nature decay? either way. What a shame

natural decay & contractors stripping the equipment

 

[Calamity Jane]

natural decay & contractors stripping the equipment

shame the equipment and machines were the best bits from the photos. Oh well. At least it has a blinding report on here

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Dude, Nice.

 

[Camdenbear]

Not sure this is in context, but had to chip and being reminded of the fun of working at British Steel

I wish someone had the chance to do the same photo work at the Ravenscraig before it become a park, I wish I had thought to photograph it when I was there but back in those days risking a camera would have been scary, plus the grief I would have got would have been murder. I spent time in the sinter plant and concast at Ravenscraig as a lowly grease monkey, while the pictures capture the scale of the place, the noise, smell, dust and heat made it a whole different place. When you were in the sinter plant did you notice what looks like a horizontally mounted cement mixer, was called the 'noddy' drum because of the shape and actually mixed the sinter? About 20-30ft high we had to crawl over it to grease up the nipples, with a gearbox we climbed inside to clean out and refill. The dust around the sinter plant was a couple of feet deep, when it rained (as it does sometimes in Scotland) it was not unusual to lose a boot if you strayed off the path.

The concast was a scary place, the schematic really did not do it justice, Ravenscraig had multiple units and every week they would turn one off for about 6 hours. At that point the blast doors would open gushing steam and heat out, then we went in and climbed up the access path beside the rollers and manually pumped grease into each roller using an air pump. there was an automated system but the constant heat, use and water would cause seizures. A broken roller could shut down the unit for hours and back then the loss of a days rolling was considered a disaster. Being switched off for just about an hour before we went meant it was not a nice place, still red hot to the touch, but we were lowly contractors and as the youngest I got the 'nice' jobs. My memory may be going but the table over the concast was an oscillating table, maybe a different system.

What I do remember was that British Steel owned the patent on the concast system at that time, with steel coming in to be rolled and shipped all over.

 

[Polominto73]

Excellent report well written was last in the Redcar plant about 20 years ago with a previous haulage company scary f*cking place to work pics and report are outstanding well done that man

 

[Polominto73]

Not sure this is in context, but had to chip and being reminded of the fun of working at British Steel

I wish someone had the chance to do the same photo work at the Ravenscraig before it become a park, I wish I had thought to photograph it when I was there but back in those days risking a camera would have been scary, plus the grief I would have got would have been murder. I spent time in the sinter plant and concast at Ravenscraig as a lowly grease monkey, while the pictures capture the scale of the place, the noise, smell, dust and heat made it a whole different place. When you were in the sinter plant did you notice what looks like a horizontally mounted cement mixer, was called the 'noddy' drum because of the shape and actually mixed the sinter? About 20-30ft high we had to crawl over it to grease up the nipples, with a gearbox we climbed inside to clean out and refill. The dust around the sinter plant was a couple of feet deep, when it rained (as it does sometimes in Scotland) it was not unusual to lose a boot if you strayed off the path.

The concast was a scary place, the schematic really did not do it justice, Ravenscraig had multiple units and every week they would turn one off for about 6 hours. At that point the blast doors would open gushing steam and heat out, then we went in and climbed up the access path beside the rollers and manually pumped grease into each roller using an air pump. there was an automated system but the constant heat, use and water would cause seizures. A broken roller could shut down the unit for hours and back then the loss of a days rolling was considered a disaster. Being switched off for just about an hour before we went meant it was not a nice place, still red hot to the touch, but we were lowly contractors and as the youngest I got the 'nice' jobs. My memory may be going but the table over the concast was an oscillating table, maybe a different system.

What I do remember was that British Steel owned the patent on the concast system at that time, with steel coming in to be rolled and shipped all over.

Old company had contract for clearing up the scale during a shut down f*cking mad hot& made to wear f*cking clog like shoes cos of heat

 

[albino-jay]

Has anybody been up here lately?

 

[Speed]

Yep. Its dripping in PIRs now. Good fun tho! We got surrounded on the blast furnace by about 20 guys and still got away lol. Realistically tho thats about all you can do that would be worth the effort. All the lights are off and stuff like the power station and coke works are locked up inside and out now anyway. Couple that with hardly being able to get near the buildings without triggering alarms you cant really do much exploring.

 

[albino-jay]

Yep. Its dripping in PIRs now. Good fun tho! We got surrounded on the blast furnace by about 20 guys and still got away lol. Realistically tho thats about all you can do that would be worth the effort. All the lights are off and stuff like the power station and coke works are locked up inside and out now anyway. Couple that with hardly being able to get near the buildings without triggering alarms you cant really do much exploring.

Thats what it was like when we went last Feb. Surrounded by shitloads of secca yet we walked out lol It was good fun though.

 

[dave]

I used to love a wander across the industrial wastelands still on their property until just very recently, as speed says theres pirs, ball cameras security patrolling every minute of the day even the waste lands are out of bounds now. Old fences have all been repaired etc etc. Still reasonably easy to get onto the various sites but security are very much on the ball. It was a lot easier when the place was live.

 

[Garrett]

Such a shame, the decline of this amazing site. I worked there as a commissioning engineer for Siemens several years ago (c. 2011/12) when Tata invested millions in the new coal grinding mill & conveyor, which can be seen in the photos.

OP, did you ever get into the original BS offices in the middle of the site? You can see the typical 1950's/60's looking brick structure near the coal mill in your photos. I managed to sneak in there one lunchtime on a Sunday. It was amazing to see it just as it was left on the day BS closed for good. Half written memos and letters, half full coffee mugs, computers and dot matrix printers still switched on. Apart from the obvious dust and mould growth, it looked just like the entire office had stepped out for lunch.

 

[Shaun]

All the best industrial places seem to have one way or another related by tata