Rail Freight Flows and News UK

[Trainman40083]

Hope is or has been using ash from Ratcliffe and Fiddlers Ferry.

If I recall, Hope ash has to be delivered by rail.

 

[Freightmaster]

If I recall, Hope ash has to be delivered by rail.

As per my previous reply, it's been running from Drax and Ratcliffe (loaded at Maltby) for a while now;
the Drax train runs during the night, but here is a photo I found of the Malby working:

70009

One of the more interesting workings locally is the 6M06 Maltby Colliery-Earles Sidings flyash, seen here with 70009 at Conisbrough, 11.8.26.

www.flickr.com

 

[WessexEclectic]

As per my previous reply, it's been running from Drax and Ratcliffe (loaded at Maltby) for a while now;
the Drax train runs during the night, but here is a photo I found of the Malby working:

Thought the loading facilities at Maltby has been levelled after the mine closed? Or are they using a concrete pad and a tele-loader?

Looking at the photo, surprised the wagons aren't covered....

 

[furnessvale]

Looking at the photo, surprised the wagons aren't covered....

Similar to the sand for Ravenhead.

I am surprised Network rail have not mandated starch suppression spraying to stop the dust.

I am even more surprised there have not been multiple claims from passengers waiting on high speed platforms for injury via dust in the eyes.

 

[Trainman40083]

Similar to the sand for Ravenhead.

I am surprised Network rail have not mandated starch suppression spraying to stop the dust.

I am even more surprised there have not been multiple claims from passengers waiting on high speed platforms for injury via dust in the eyes.

Your last words reminds me of MGR trains, before they put the tops on.

 

[littledude]

Approval given to remove a 23.5 million tonnes ash mountain from Drax power station. One condition is that 65 percent is moved by rail.

Those numbers seem crazy (I don’t doubt them though) - but some quick fag packet maths with an assumption of 1,500t product per train and 3 trains per week is over 65 years!

 

[InvernessTMD]

Ask a stupid question... what will be done with the ash? Is the big ash pile just getting moved to another big ash pile?

 

[xotGD]

Ask a stupid question... what will be done with the ash? Is the big ash pile just getting moved to another big ash pile?

Feedstock for cement production.

 

[Oxfordblues]

Ask a stupid question... what will be done with the ash? Is the big ash pile just getting moved to another big ash pile?

It's used in the manufacture of cement (as is pulverised slate from North Wales)

 

[Trainman40083]

Feedstock for cement production.

It has been a long time since I was involved in concrete, but did the use of ash create a lighter product?

 

[InvernessTMD]

Feedstock for cement production.

It's used in the manufacture of cement (as is pulverised slate from North Wales)

Ah! Thank you, cement enthusiasts!

 

[northstaffsman]

Those numbers seem crazy (I don’t doubt them though) - but some quick fag packet maths with an assumption of 1,500t product per train and 3 trains per week is over 65 years!

Drax ash mound extraction plan approved for Selby site - BBC News https://share.google/SRGURGmAdAyj90HJX

Seemed an incredible amount to me as well. This is the BBC news item I quoted.

 

[Bahnopa]

I live not too far from Drax. The ash mountain is literally a mountain!

 

[AndrewE]

It has been a long time since I was involved in concrete, but did the use of ash create a lighter product?

I think it is a substitute for the clay minerals needed to go with the calcium carbonate in the kiln to produce Portland cement, otherwise you just get quicklime... I did wonder whether it was Pozzolanic in its own right, but I suspect not.

 

[busken]

I think it is a substitute for the clay minerals needed to go with the calcium carbonate in the kiln to produce Portland cement, otherwise you just get quicklime... I did wonder whether it was Pozzolanic in its own right, but I suspect not.

It's also used to make Thermalite building blocks.

 

[Geeves]

Those numbers seem crazy (I don’t doubt them though) - but some quick fag packet maths with an assumption of 1,500t product per train and 3 trains per week is over 65 years!

Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge were burning 10, 5 and 4 million tons of coal each just a few years ago I think it's not really something the regular person thinks about! It's not surprising there's ash mountains. The Eggborough one is just south it's been turned into a park even so the manicured hills are 160m tall

It seems the flyash traffic will actually put live the cement place at Hope by some years at the current rate! Currently scheduled to close in 2042

 

[Dr Hoo]

The shale quarry adjacent to Hope is almost worked out. So it needs to bring in compatible material.
Not a perfect solution, mind you, given that the cement production process liberates vast quantities of CO2 worldwide.

 

[Trailer1]

Does anyone know if there is any new freight flows coming parkeston yard?
Seems to be a lot of activity across the yard with network rail clearing weeds and repairing track that I haven’t seen used for a while and people surveying the old car loading ramp area.

 

[GB]

Sizewell traffic is meant to be using the yard. Not sure when it fully kicks off but there is some Sizewell traffic using it at the moment.

 

[Freightmaster]

Further to GB's reply, it has been used to stage Heavy Haul Rail workings for the Sizewell project
running to and from Ipswich Griffin Wharf and Sizewell itself.

There were trains running direct to Sizwell last week which should run again for a week or two
during October before kicking off properly once the signalling and level crossings on the Sizewell
branch are commissioned, which is expected to happen in November.

 

[Trailer1]

Yeah I’ve seen the heavy haul trains, they have been coming in and out for a while now, most of the activity is away from the area they are using.
Having seen a lot of activity around the old car loading area, I wondered whether they might be preparing for car trains to return?

 

[class 9]

Thought the loading facilities at Maltby has been levelled after the mine closed? Or are they using a concrete pad and a tele-loader?

Looking at the photo, surprised the wagons aren't covered....

The coal rapid loader bunker has long gone, but just before where it was is a concrete pad that is probably being used ( was previously used to load pit waste that was used to construct the embankments of the Doncaster North Chord)
The siding is a single line, the loading will be by bucket loaders, once loaded, the train propels towards the loop at Maltby box and then the loco runs round and then departs towards Doncaster.

 

[EastWest]

The first train (I believe) from Handsworth EMR to Liverpool EMR ran on Thursday, arriving in the early hours of Friday.

And not sure if it’s been reported on this forum at all but there was a first working for many months into MoD Ashchurch (from Marchwood) three or four weeks ago, and I see there was another one this past Monday, out to Kineton.

 

[matt99001]

And the return of 6Z61 is due monday.

Incidentally, DB Cargo running from Alexandra Dock to Portbury this week 2x per day, driver training?

 

[Freightmaster]

Incidentally, DB Cargo running from Alexandra Dock to Portbury this week 2x per day, driver training?

Yes - I'm told that they will be (temporarily?) taking over the flow in October to enable GBRf
to free up resources for RHTT work.

 

[stantheman]

RTT infers the new Mossend to Rotherham intermodal runs to Doncaster I Port after today

 

[JKF]

And the return of 6Z61 is due monday.

Incidentally, DB Cargo running from Alexandra Dock to Portbury this week 2x per day, driver training?

The first of those was cancelled today, but hopefully some of the others run.

I’ve found in the past that nearly all the route learners down there don’t do as many trips as they are booked, sometimes only one has run.

Do they run route learners for RHTTs?

 

[Adrian Barr]

It has been a long time since I was involved in concrete, but did the use of ash create a lighter product?

I read somewhere that fly ash (aka pulverised fuel ash / PFA) was less dense than portland cement, but lower weight is not usually mentioned as a benefit of using PFA in cement. This might be because the fine particles of fly ash fill up void spaces in concrete better than normal cement, which would presumably balance out the overall density and weight of the concrete compared to using regular portland cement:

The fine fly ash particles settle between the coarser cement particles and the aggregate, thereby reducing the void content of the concrete. The fewer voids in the concrete, the greater its strength.
https://www.eppowerminerals.com/en/products/cementitious-materials/fly-ash

The low weight of PFA is more of a feature in the Thermalite blocks mentioned in another post, where the PFA is used as a lightweight aggregate (called "Lytag" apparently). PFA from the mound at Drax is railed down to Appleford in tank containers (and then sent by road to a factory in Newbury) for this purpose - https://www.forterra.co.uk/our-brands/thermalite/

I think it is a substitute for the clay minerals needed to go with the calcium carbonate in the kiln to produce Portland cement, otherwise you just get quicklime... I did wonder whether it was Pozzolanic in its own right, but I suspect not.

From the Cemex website:

Fly ash is the fine ash produced at coal-fired power plants that develops cementitious properties when mixed with cement and water ...Fly Ash is a pozzolan, meaning it is a siliceous and aluminous material that, in the presence of moisture, will combine with the lime liberated during the hydration of cement to form cementitious materials.
https://www.cemex.co.uk/products/cement/fly-ash

Looking at the Breedon website, the fly ash is used in their low-carbon "CEMII" cement:

Many modern cements are produced with lower embodied carbon by incorporating materials such as fly ash, limestone, or GGBS (Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag). These blends reduce CO₂ emissions without compromising performance, making them a more sustainable choice for many applications. Check out our CEMII cement options.
https://www.breedongroup.com/products/products-gb/cement

This link is rather interesting - it discusses the materials handling for ash and slate waste at Hope cement works, and includes a YouTube video with a brief sequence of a class 20 with box wagons as they are unloaded: https://donvalleyeng.com/casestudies/arm-project/

On the topic of slate waste, this scientific paper on the use of slate waste in CEMII cement gives an example of "the replacement of 20 % of clinker with calcined slate waste."

Due to the slate having metamorphic equivalence to shale, it can be considered an alternative in cement production, as it has the potential to serve as a supplementary cementitious material
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352710224016127

 

[Trainman40083]

Thin

I read somewhere that fly ash (aka pulverised fuel ash / PFA) was less dense than portland cement, but lower weight is not usually mentioned as a benefit of using PFA in cement. This might be because the fine particles of fly ash fill up void spaces in concrete better than normal cement, which would presumably balance out the overall density and weight of the concrete compared to using regular portland cement:



The low weight of PFA is more of a feature in the Thermalite blocks mentioned in another post, where the PFA is used as a lightweight aggregate (called "Lytag" apparently). PFA from the mound at Drax is railed down to Appleford in tank containers (and then sent by road to a factory in Newbury) for this purpose - https://www.forterra.co.uk/our-brands/thermalite/



From the Cemex website:



Looking at the Breedon website, the fly ash is used in their low-carbon "CEMII" cement:



This link is rather interesting - it discusses the materials handling for ash and slate waste at Hope cement works, and includes a YouTube video with a brief sequence of a class 20 with box wagons as they are unloaded: https://donvalleyeng.com/casestudies/arm-project/

On the topic of slate waste, this scientific paper on the use of slate waste in CEMII cement gives an example of "the replacement of 20 % of clinker with calcined slate waste."

Thinking back to my days, the ash was used instead of some of the aggregate. Health and safety, what with lifting all those concrete troughs and lids

 

[Adrian Barr]

RTT infers the new Mossend to Rotherham intermodal runs to Doncaster I Port after today

I think 4E76 has now inherited the WTT path which was previously used by GBRF's 4E04 (Mossend - Doncaster Iport), but I'm expecting 4E76 to continue running to the Newell & Wright terminal at Rotherham, as a variation of the WTT path. 4E76 was previously running on STP schedules (short term planning, where the schedules are bid for on a week-by-week basis).

The first train (I believe) from Handsworth EMR to Liverpool EMR ran on Thursday, arriving in the early hours of Friday.

A couple of good drone shots of Handsworth:

66028 is seen shunting the EMR siding on the down side of the line (looking north) with some of the wagons from Thursday's working:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry47401/55520335499/ (Photo: Terry Callaghan)

The train arrived as 6G54 (22:45 WO) from Liverpool EMR at Alexandra Docks, and returned as 6F56 17:01 Handsworth to Liverpool EMR, with 24 wagons.

Looking in the opposite direction, 66186 is seen on a route learner the previous week passing under the Midland Metro on the connection to Queen's Head sidings:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry47401/55504271486/ (Photo: Terry Callaghan)

Shunting appears to be quite complicated here, with the train having to reverse into Queen's head sidings to run round before splitting the train and propelling each portion in turn into the EMR siding for loading. The Trackmaps book shows that there was previously another rail-connected scrapyard for Sims Metals on the opposite side of the line to EMR, the disused remains of which can be seen in the photo of the route learner. Looking at old photos of the Handsworth scrap trains, I don't think any services have run since October 2015.

##########

As mentioned in a separate thread, trains have recommenced running from Lindsey Oil Refinery (which is closed, but some of the petroleum storage and loading infrastructure is now in use by Phillips 66 who operate the Humber Refinery next door).

A 6Z56 from Worksop hauled by 66152 brought 15 repaired tanks into Lindsey on 5th September, to join up with some others that had arrived on local shunt moves from Immingham sidings. There was a grand clear out of tanks from the sidings at Lindsey over the summer, with numerous moves to Worksop Down Yard (which has become a focal point for the storage and repair of VTG tank wagons, including the EWS 870xxx TEAs which I believe they purchased from DB).

I think there is now one rake of tanks operating from Lindsey - trains running from there so far this month (all to Kingsbury) have been 6M00 on the 9th, 11th and 16th, plus 6M57 on the 12th.
Light engines for these workings now come from Scunthorpe, after the closure of the stabling / fuelling point and yard at Immingham Sorting Sidings. The stabling point here was itself a replacement for the original Immingham TMD.

66088 at the Immingham fuel point in 2020:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58872202@N06/50882970646/ (Photo: Crompton Fan)

Apart from loco servicing, Immingham sorting sidings were used to stable BYA wagons used on the coil trains from nearby Immingham Nordic, and were also used for various wagon repairs (including some work on tank wagons which has now transferred to Worksop). Steel coil trains now run direct into and out of Nordic (coil imports to Wolverhampton, usually once a week or so).

There are a couple of images of Immingham Sorting Sidings (plus some of the tank moves in and out of Worksop and other freight) in this interesting slideshow by South View TMD on YouTube:

South View TMD | Day Job Part 39