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Boulby Grid
Part of the former North Eastern Railway route from Whitby to Saltburn has
survived as a freight-only line to carry vast tonnages of potash and
salt from Boulby mine to Teeside. This programme features a cab-ride on
board EWS’s 6F65 Boulby to Tees Dock, conveying potash mined from
under the North Sea. The splendid views from the cab of 56115, filmed on
a glorious summer’s day in 2003, feature the scenic North Yorkshire
and Cleveland countryside and the contrasting industrial landscape of
Teeside.
The
first stage of the 22-mile journey is the short, sharp climb out of the
Boulby terminal up to Grinkle Tunnel. We then pass the sites of the
closed stations at Easington and Loftus, after which we cross the
embankment that was once a viaduct spanning Kilton Beck. After passing
Skinningrove steelworks, the single line ‘token’ from Boulby is
surrendered to Crag Hall signalbox, which still retains an array of
semaphore signals. With a 1,000 tonne trailing load, the Class 56 is
then at full power for the taxing 1 in 64 climb up Warsett Hill where
the line skirts the top of Hunt Cliff, which towers 300 feet above the
coastline of the North Sea. After descending past the sites of Brotton
and North Skelton stations, we cross the impressive 783-foot long
Riftswood Viaduct before arriving at Saltburn West Junction. There we
join the Tees Valley Line, originally the world’s first public railway
- the Stockton & Darlington Railway - and travel through Marske,
Longbeck and Redcar Central to Grangetown. There the Class 56 runs round
its train before proceeding along the freight-only branch to Tees Dock.
Although
not billed as one of our ‘Wired for Sound’ productions, there is
still some nice thrash to enjoy as the Class 56 tackles some nice
gradients with a decent load. Two months after this programme was
filmed, Class 66s took over this long-standing Class 56 working. Today,
the workings out of Boulby are operated by Freightliner Heavy Haul so
this is a double helping of Teeside freight nostalgia.
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Programme Fact File
Narration: David Maxey
First Published: 2012
Route Featured: Boulby - Tees Dock.
Class Featured: 56.
Availability: Now.
Click here for
ordering details |
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Other Locomaster Profiles Programmes featuring Class 56 motive
power: National Grid, Black
& Blue, Heavy Metal, Hot
and Heavy, Power Hour, and the Traction
Series. |
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