How to visit British steel Redcar?

[Connor47]

Is there a way on how to get to the abandoned British steel Redcar station.

I know there’s no stopping services but I don’t know if there’s a nearby footpath either if anyone knows cheers

 

[AlexRail575]

As far as one can see it's on fenced, private property so the answer to your question is probably no.

 

[styles]

Not really.

The land around it is privately owned with no established public right of way (with or without a definitive map).

Trespass on the surrounding land would be a civil matter if caught, meaning you'd just be asked to leave and that's that. Given that when Geoff Marshall legitimately visited he was swiftly approached by a security officer to remind him that he can't leave the station as it's private land, I'm not sure you'd get much close to the station before you were picked up by security and told to leave. Depends how your ninja skills are.

Wilfully entering a railway station you know to be out of use for the public? Well that may be criminal trespass, possibly under the Railway Regulation Act S16. But I'm no lawyer nor an expert on railway trespass offences and whether they'd apply.

Basically it sounds like hassle. Your best bet may be to ask the landowner for permission, though I'm assuming they'd be reluctant unless you had a compelling reason, as they'll be aware that if word gets round that someone was given permission, everybody will want in on it.

 

[ainsworth74]

Is there a way on how to get to the abandoned British steel Redcar station.

I know there’s no stopping services but I don’t know if there’s a nearby footpath either if anyone knows cheers

Completely inaccessible now to members of the public. There are no footpaths that lead to or from it that are publicly accessible and anyone attempting to reach the station would be trespassing on private property and whilst there's likely no real legal jeopardy to this (assuming you don't damage anything) you are very likely to be escorted off site by security guards (who do patrol the site regularly). I'm not sure if the railway would try and get you under the Byelaws for criminal trespass if you did make it to the station but it seems unlikely. If a driver spotted you though they'd likely phone it into the signaller that someone was trespassing so that might may well cause some disruption to services.

Even when the station was open it was only possible to visit by train and you were not permitted to leave the station as, again, there was no public access. When I did it a security pick-up truck drove past a few times whilst I was waiting for my train out of the station and I very much got the vibe they were keeping tabs on me. I believe it was not unheard of for security to actually be waiting at the station to make sure any visitors didn't leave the station grounds.

Reality is that there is no way to visit the station other than the brief sight of it as you pass through non-stop on Northern or TPE.

 

[Connor47]

Completely inaccessible now to members of the public. There are no footpaths that lead to or from it that are publicly accessible and anyone attempting to reach the station would be trespassing on private property and whilst there's likely no real legal jeopardy to this (assuming you don't damage anything) you are very likely to be escorted off site by security guards (who do patrol the site regularly). I'm not sure if the railway would try and get you under the Byelaws for criminal trespass if you did make it to the station but it seems unlikely. If a driver spotted you though they'd likely phone it into the signaller that someone was trespassing so that might may well cause some disruption to services.

Even when the station was open it was only possible to visit by train and you were not permitted to leave the station as, again, there was no public access. When I did it a security pick-up truck drove past a few times whilst I was waiting for my train out of the station and I very much got the vibe they were keeping tabs on me. I believe it was not unheard of for security to actually be waiting at the station to make sure any visitors didn't leave the station grounds.

Reality is that there is no way to visit the station other than the brief sight of it as you pass through non-stop on Northern or TPE.

Right perfect thanks

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Completely inaccessible now to members of the public. There are no footpaths that lead to or from it that are publicly accessible...

Is the nearest you could now legitimately get to, perhaps a few hundred yards away from the closed station, maybe somewhere along the Teesdale Way, near the big roundabout on the A1085 Trunk Road?

 

[ainsworth74]

Is the nearest you could now legitimately get to, perhaps a few hundred yards away from the closed station, maybe somewhere along the Teesdale Way, near the big roundabout on the A1085 Trunk Road?

Yep that's correct that's about as close as you can get these days but there's no view to be had as the ex-hot metal railway (the link from the blast furnace to the steel mill where torpedoes of molton iron used to run along) is on an embankment so blocks the station from the Trunk Road.

 

[styles]

Is the nearest you could now legitimately get to, perhaps a few hundred yards away from the closed station, maybe somewhere along the Teesdale Way, near the big roundabout on the A1085 Trunk Road?

Depends how much you'd like to try and debate a security officer regarding public rights of way.

On this screenshot, the footbridge over the old station is circled in purple.



The red road with the roundabout to the south is the A1085. Realistically that's going to be the closest you'll get without any aggro.

The dashed blue line to the east may be a public right of way, which at first glance (I haven't measured with aerial footage) may be ever so slightly closer than the road at the knee.

There are two (massive) caveats though:

The first is that it hasn't been recorded on a 'definitive map', which is what cartographers will use when producing maps of rights of way, so it may not so on OS maps for example, even though it may be a public right of way. The Ramblers have a campaign around this called Don't Lose Your Way, where they're trying to get historical public rights of way retained, in the face of the government trying to abolish them simply because they weren't added to a definitive map. In any case, if you meet a landowner when trying to use a public right of way not marked on an OS map, which the landowner will often have, it probably won't be very amicable.

The second is that it may be an abolished public right of way. Some consultation with the local authority would be in order. Though if you look at aerial footage of where this potential PRoW is, it does appear that there is a well used crossing point on the A road which continues to the south, suggesting at least part of it may still be in use.

Of course from the A road, the potential PRoW appears inaccessible to the north which means you probably won't even get to the point of seeing a security guard to discuss the history of public rights of way

In short - practically speaking, the roundabout is probably the closest; but if you fancy finding a way to the potential PRoW to the east, and a protracted discussion with an underpaid security guard about the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, you may be able to get very marginally closer.

 

[ainsworth74]

The dashed blue line to the east may be a public right of way, which at first glance (I haven't measured with aerial footage) may be ever so slightly closer than the road at the knee.

There are two (massive) caveats though:

The first is that it hasn't been recorded on a 'definitive map', which is what cartographers will use when producing maps of rights of way, so it may not so on OS maps for example, even though it may be a public right of way. The Ramblers have a campaign around this called Don't Lose Your Way, where they're trying to get historical public rights of way retained, in the face of the government trying to abolish them simply because they weren't added to a definitive map. In any case, if you meet a landowner when trying to use a public right of way not marked on an OS map, which the landowner will often have, it probably won't be very amicable.

The second is that it may be an abolished public right of way. Some consultation with the local authority would be in order. Though if you look at aerial footage of where this potential PRoW is, it does appear that there is a well used crossing point on the A road which continues to the south, suggesting at least part of it may still be in use.

Of course from the A road, the potential PRoW appears inaccessible to the north which means you probably won't even get to the point of seeing a security guard to discuss the history of public rights of way

In short - practically speaking, the roundabout is probably the closest; but if you fancy finding a way to the potential PRoW to the east, and a protracted discussion with an underpaid security guard about the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, you may be able to get very marginally closer.

An immediate issue with the dashed blue line is there's no way of crossing the railway at that location.

As for the crossing of the A road it isn't well used it's overgrown cracking tarmac in the middle of the dual carriage way which occasionally see use by people walking the England Coast Path which runs alongside the A1085 until it branches off a few hundred meters to the south west (beyond the roundabout) back onto dedicated infrastructure. Even before the area in question had been taken in hand for conversion to a Park & Ride to serve Teesworks there was no path in evidence between the A1085 and the railway in that location.

To the north of the railway the land had been owned by the steelworks for decades (and now Teesworks) and right of way that might have existed likely hasn't done so since even before the 1981 act (seeing as that land was likely acquired in the 1970s when the blast furnace was built). There's some internal tracks and the boundary is poorly marked but it is internal to the site.

 

[AlexRail575]

In short - practically speaking, the roundabout is probably the closest; but if you fancy finding a way to the potential PRoW to the east, and a protracted discussion with an underpaid security guard about the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, you may be able to get very marginally closer.

Additionally, unless the intent is specifically to get pictures of the abandoned station (although there are seemingly plans to redevelopp the area eventually, so if you have a few or several years of patience available...), you'll probably be able to get much better shots from the other stations on the line, for much less of the hassle.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The dashed blue line to the east may be a public right of way, which at first glance (I haven't measured with aerial footage) may be ever so slightly closer than the road at the knee.

Doesn't look like any right of way to me. Which begs the question. What is the blue line? Some sort of land ownership boundary?

 

[styles]

Doesn't look like any right of way to me. Which begs the question. What is the blue line? Some sort of land ownership boundary?

It's a potential right of way which is (was, threat gone for now) at risk of being lost. Might have some luck convincing the LA to add the southern part of it to the definitive map, but not so much the north part on the private land now!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It's a potential right of way...

You may well be right, but it does just look as if someone has been busy with a blue crayon. Can't make out any likely tracks when looking at a satellite view of the area. Which, of course, doesn't get you any nearer to the now closed station, unless you're passing by (non-stop) on a Middlesbrough->Saltburn train, or maybe flying a camera/drone (if that's actually allowed).

 

[styles]

You may well be right, but it does just look as if someone has been busy with a blue crayon.

Blue just means nobody from the Ramblers has reviewed it. Other colours exist for other priorities. It is overlayed on an OS map so I think it was meant to stand out a bit from normal map features:


Of course nobody is actually going to propose trying to retain this as a public right of way, but be interesting if you could find a way onto it

 

[ainsworth74]

It's a potential right of way which is (was, threat gone for now) at risk of being lost. Might have some luck convincing the LA to add the southern part of it to the definitive map, but not so much the north part on the private land now!

There's nothing there to be a right of way to have been lost! That blue line leads from the Trunk Road into a drainage ditch (with no bridge, no indication of there ever having been a bridge), across the remains of Steel House's car park (which has been there since the 1970s), to a railway line with no means of crossing (a railway line which has also been there since the 1970s).

I don't know where the Ramblers got the idea for there having been a right way of way there but if there was one it hasn't been there for fifty years!

Of course nobody is actually going to propose trying to retain this as a public right of way, but be interesting if you could find a way onto it

I don't know how you could find your way onto a path that doesn't exist!

 

[styles]

There's nothing there to be a right of way to have been lost! That blue line leads from the Trunk Road into a drainage ditch (with no bridge, no indication of there ever having been a bridge), across the remains of Steel House's car park (which has been there since the 1970s), to a railway line with means of crossing (a railway line which has also been there since the 1970s).

I don't know where the Ramblers got the idea for there having been a right way of way there but if there was one it hasn't been there for fifty years!

Nobody said it would necessarily have been a recent right of way. The common law concept of rights of way goes back centuries. Statute law some 1940something after the war.

I don't know how you could find your way onto a path that doesn't exist!

Right of way does not necessarily mean path

There are many rights of way which no longer have a physical presence. Many in Snowdonia for example which are just green lines on the side of a hill on an OS map, but nobody is a really walking them to maintain a visible path.

 

[ainsworth74]

Nobody said it would necessarily have been a recent right of way. The common law concept of rights of way goes back centuries. Statute law some 1940something after the war.

Right of way does not necessarily mean path

There are many rights of way which no longer have a physical presence. Many in Snowdonia for example which are just green lines on the side of a hill on an OS map, but nobody is a really walking them to maintain a visible path.

Sure, but for someone who wants to view the station (even if they're willing to have the relevant arguments assuming it is legitimately a right of way) it's not much good if they've got to ford a drainage ditch, bush-whack through an overgrown car park edge and then potentially illegally cross a railway line

Honestly I reckon someone at Ramblers has simply been on the sauce a bit too much one night and drawn that on by accident.

 

[styles]

Sure, but for someone who wants to view the station (even if they're willing to have the relevant arguments assuming it is legitimately a right of way) it's not much good if they've got to ford a drainage ditch, bush-whack through an overgrown car park edge and then potentially illegally cross a railway line

Depends how adventurous you're feeling and how desperate for that station photo!

Of course would never advocate the criminal trespass on the railway.

Honestly I reckon someone at Ramblers has simply been on the sauce a bit too much one night and drawn that on by accident.

More likely it's just a very old right of way. There's absolutely tons of them which are so old it would be hard to imagine the landscape supporting them. There's one which goes right through the buildings and treatment facility at Mogden sewage works for example.

I took the coordinates of the bend of the blue line and pinned it on a map from 1902-1905 and it looks like it used to be a road/track:


And if you look at the current roads, you can see where it would've connected to the current road on the north end, which carries on going east.

 

[ainsworth74]

More likely it's just a very old right of way. There's absolutely tons of them which are so old it would be hard to imagine the landscape supporting them. There's one which goes right through the buildings and treatment facility at Mogden sewage works for example.

I took the coordinates of the bend of the blue line and pinned it on a map from 1902-1905 and it looks like it used to be a road/track:

And if you look at the current roads, you can see where it would've connected to the current road on the north end, which carries on going east.

Hmm I suppose, though it's neither use nor ornament now 120+ years later! I'm all in favour or protecting useful rights of way but this is clearly one that can be happily left to be de jure deceased to go with it's status as being de facto deceased. For the OP and anyone else it's utterly useless (and inaccessible).

 

[Thornaby 37]

14th December 2019 was the last time you would have been able to visit Redcar British Steel station legitimately. Presumably Branch Line Society had to make prior arrangements with Northern on the final day of trains calling there

BLS - Fixture Report

www.branchline.uk