Adrian Barr
Member
This thread is an offshoot of a discussion on Scunthorpe CHP (coal handling plant) and Scunthorpe Freight Depot in the infrastructure forum. The general topic of Immingham and Scunthorpe freight traffic is rather interesting, so I thought it was worth starting a separate thread instead of taking that one too far off topic. In this post I'm focusing on the coal traffic we were discussing, from the 1980s onwards. For context, I'll quote part of the post from JNicholson from his thread on Scunthorpe CHP (coal handling plant for British Steel): https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/scunthorpe-b-s-c-c-h-p.281086/
While discussing Scunthorpe CHP, and the run rounds required at Scunthorpe Freight Depot (Goods Yard) to access it from Immingham, the topic of drawback locos, or locos dedicated to discharging the trains, came up. By 2002 (when the Locomaster Profiles "Black and Blue" cab ride in 56006 was filmed) there were up to four MGR sets in daily use on the circuit, with the locos generally staying with the same set of wagons for the day. However, the narrator also mentions that the "long-standing" use of an engine based at Scunthorpe to discharge the wagons had ended a few years previously.
A 1995 photo of 37689 bringing empty MGR wagons into Scunthorpe Freight Depot mentions that "two 37s were utilised as drawback locos to save time running round with the train loco."
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gridchaser/21429116112/ (Photo: Mark Finch)
In the 1980s, with some coal traffic still running to the CHP from the west, it wouldn't have made sense to have a dedicated loco discharging the wagons (and in the 1989 video clip from the previous thread, you can see a class 56 arrive from Immingham, run round and head to the CHP). In the 1989 YH timetable, trains from Immingham into the CHP are shown in the timetable to run round as you would expect, but empties from the CHP are shown with a 3 minute reversing movement (RM) at Scunthorpe FD reception. At first I thought this implied the use of a drawback loco, but 3 minutes seems a rather short timing allowance to detach a drawback engine, even if the train engine was already on the other end, and a different code would probably be used to indicate a loco being detached. Were they propelling out of the CHP at this time?
I made a comment in the other thread about having empties waiting at Scunthorpe Goods Yard for an inbound loco on a loaded train (when a dedicated loco was being used to discharge the wagons). During the period when all the coal was coming from Immingham behind 56s, when a loaded train arrived into Scunthorpe Freight Depot, the empties off the previous arrival would most likely already be discharged and waiting departure time. Whether the locos stayed with the sets, or one loco stayed at Scunthorpe dedicated to discharge duties, it would require the same number of locos and wagon sets. The train plan as it was by the early 2000s (looking at a copy of Freightmaster), with about 9 paths per day using 4 MGR sets and 4 locos, would have allowed for both options, with about 90 minutes out-and-back from the freight depot at Scunthorpe available to discharge the wagons.
Does anyone have more info on the use of drawback locos / locos diagrammed to remain at Scunthorpe and discharge coal at the CHP / propelling moves out of the CHP? Apart from the 1995 photo mentioning the use of 37s, and the DVD commentary referring to a dedicated loco being diagrammed to discharge the wagons at Scunthorpe, I can't find much information. One reason for having a loco stay on discharge duties might have been to save a type 5 for use elsewhere (before the 66s arrived in volume). Instead of having four 56s on the circuit you could have three and use a less powerful loco (such as the 37s used in 1995) for the discharge. Perhaps this practice was confined to the Loadhaul era...
=======================================
Coal services (1980s onward) - Scunthorpe and Immingham
=======================================
According to Paul Shannon's Rail Freight Since 1968: Coal the CHP at Scunthorpe was opened in 1977, while the first coal pad at Immingham Bulk Terminal didn't open until 1989 (the year Oakdale closed). The destinations / origins of trains at Scunthorpe CHP (as shown in the YH working timetables) are interesting to compare over the 1980s:
1980 - Healey Mills, Wath, Maltby, Dinnington, Silverwood, Yorkshire Main
1983 - Silverwood, Severn Tunnel Junction, York Dringhouses, Tyne Yard, Dinnington, Silverwood, Cortonwood (near Wath), Wolstanton (near Stoke), Betteshanger (Kent)
1986 - Worksop, Toton, Oxcroft, Severn Tunnel Junction (likely Oakdale traffic), Betteshanger
1989 - Immingham Bulk Terminal, Oxcroft, Toton, Worksop, Oakdale, Betteshanger,
This working in the 1989 timetable is mentioned in Freight Only Volume 3 (Rhodes & Shannon, 1988):
The same book also refers to this as "industrial fuel" and mentions that the traffic started after rapid-loading facilities were installed at Cynheidre (anthracite mine near Llanelli) in January 1988. There's a bit of info on Cynheidre (and other collieries) on the Welsh Coal Mines website: https://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/Photo.htm
The idea that a refinery in Humberside would use Welsh coal as a fuel source seems a bit odd on the face of it (instead of using fuel oil refined on site for example) but I suppose it boils down to economics. In turn, Lindsey was sending oil trains to coal-fired power stations (for boiler start-up), so it all balances out!
According to the 1989 WTT, the Briton Ferry train arrived at "Immingham B.C." - this is better known as the NCB terminal, but the National Coal Board had changed name to British Coal Corporation in 1987. It would make sense for the coal to be discharged here (and forwarded by lorry across to Lindsey Refinery) as there wouldn't be any MGR discharge facilities at Lindsey itself.
Immingham NCB Terminal
Looking at the origins and destinations of coal trains to the NCB terminal in 1980s WTTs gives some idea of the coal flows involved:
NCB Terminal 1980: loaded trains from Worksop, Doncaster Down Decoy, Avenue, Manvers Main.
Empties to - Worksop, Doncaster Down Decoy, Wath, Avenue
NCB Terminal 1983: loaded trains from Down Decoy, Worksop, Healey Mills, Manvers Main, Thoresby, Dovecliffe, Wintersett, Avenue, Silverwood, North Gawber.
Empties to Healey Mills, Worksop, Immingham Reception, Manvers Main, Down Decoy, Shirebrook, Avenue sdgs
NCB Terminal 1986: loaded trains from Worksop, Manvers Main, Doncaster Down Decoy, Avenue NCF
Empties to Barrow Hill, Worksop, Down Decoy, Immingham SS
This 1986 photo shows 56091 discharging at the NCB terminal:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/37521378712/ (Photo: Andy)
The quail maps show arrival / departure tracks at the NCB terminal, and based on the layout shown, I think trains ran round in a loop beyond the discharge area, before crossing over to unload on what becomes the departure track. Originally the two sidings must have extended further into the docks, to allow an entire train beyond the crossover to run round. I did read somewhere that the layout was intended to allow several trains in there at once, with the sidings being very long (the current layout is over 4000 feet from junction to buffer stops, with an MGR train being something like 1100 foot long).
Paul Shannon (in his book on coal) mentions that the Immingham NCB coal export terminal opened in 1971, and that export coal traffic "declined sharply after the miners' strike." By 1989, the only coal trains arriving there in the WTT are the two Monday morning arrivals from Briton Ferry. As mentioned, the rail loading facility for imported coal at Immingham Bulk Terminal (IBT) opened in 1989. Oddly, the 1989 WTT doesn't distinguish between the Immingham NCB export terminal (near Immingham Reception Sidings) and the new coal pad at IBT. The Briton Ferry trains, plus the handful of loaded MGR trains in the timetable to Scunthorpe CHP, are all shown as using "Immingham B.C." (i.e. the NCB terminal), although it seems more likely that the trains to Scunthorpe CHP were being loaded at the new IBT coal pad.
The date of 1971 for the opening of the Immingham NCB coal export terminal brings to mind something I read on Wikipedia:
That last bit should read iron ore, not steel! Anyway, the reference to coal exports through IBT is interesting. Looking at this 2022 Port Plan - https://www.abports.co.uk/media/0yoinmtg/immingham.pdf - the NCB terminal was on the line shown between the two places where it says "Oxbow Coal Limited" towards the bottom left. Piles of coal in that area are prominent in this 2023 drone view, looking east, with piles of scrap on the other side of the two NCB terminal lines (it was receiving incoming scrap by rail at the time, mainly from Barking): https://www.flickr.com/photos/23983516@N05/52911969655/ (Photo: Michael Rhodes)
In that photo, the truncated remains of an old conveyor system can be seen behind the road bridge which crosses the line to Immingham West Jn. On Google maps, that conveyor heads straight from the site of the former MGR discharge area at the NCB terminal to a coal stocking area with conveyor links direct to the jetty at the bulk terminal.
It's funny that by the time the former NCB coal export terminal had been repurposed into a pad loading area for imported coal, during the privatisation era, the old NCB name had obviously stuck!
21213 IMMINGHAM NCB PAD 1 ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
21221 IMMINGHAM NCB PAD 2 ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
This 2001 shot of 56090 shows shovel loading in progress at the NCB terminal:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/18934750650/ (Photo: Ivan Stewart)
And this 2009 photo includes the old MGR discharge shed in the background (the informative caption explains the NCB terminal started loading imported coal in 1999): https://www.flickr.com/photos/40236693@N08/49784666188/ (Photo: 6Y99)
I think the industrial backdrop must be of the smokeless fuels plants of Oxbow and CPL.
During the years that pad loading was taking place here (roughly 1999-2015), coal must have been reaching the area via internal roadways, with the ships themselves docking at the bulk terminal jetty.
Immingham Reception Coal loading pads
There was also pad loading taking place during this period at Immingham Reception sidings, previously associated with wagonload traffic. This photo (taken from the signal box at Immingham Reception in 2014) shows the coal stacked up either side of the reception sidings, with loading line 7 on the left and line 1 on the right: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/15047603888/
Night shot of coal trains stabled in the sidings: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/13143955473/
By the time this 2015 shot was taken, coal loading had ceased, as explained in the caption: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/22175216640/
All three photos taken by John Illingworth, seen here at work in the box: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/17755797476/
21188 IMMINGHAM REC LINE 7 (FLHH) EMH
21191 IMMINGHAM REC LINE 1 EMH
Immingham Bulk Terminal
I linked a couple of drone shots of the Bulk Terminal in this post on the Scunthorpe CHP thread in the infrastructure forum: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/scunthorpe-b-s-c-c-h-p.281086/post-7170155
At ground level, here is 56091 at IBT coal pad 1 in 1991: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30713034@N05/54004784701/ (Photo: Stephen D Cooke)
This is the same loco that was pictured at the NCB terminal in 1986.
The location appears little changed in 2024, although the 56 has swapped for a 66, the HAAs for HTAs, and the coal for coke!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35663521@N04/53808504659/ (Photo: Stapleton Road)
21203 IMMINGHAM BULK TERL COAL PAD 1 CORUS
21207 IMMINGHAM BULK TERL COAL PAD 2 CORUS
Interestingly, the 1998 quail map shows only a single coal loading pad at IBT. The second one may have been added to cater for the upsurge in coal imports - Paul Shannon mentions that the IBT was also used to load power station coal (particularly at night - the coal to Scunthorpe only running during the day).
Humber International Terminal (HIT)
Rounding up the coal loading locations at Immingham is the Humber International Terminal (HIT) opened in 2002. This 2020 drone shot shows the coal conveyor systems, with the coal loading area hidden behind the pair of biomass loading silos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robmcrorie/49660848528/ (Photo: robmcrorie)
The location was a little more basic to begin with, the first train being pad loaded in 2002: http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/hit/hit.htm
The coal loading hopper is seen here in 2022, with a biomass train running through it (in the opposite direction to trains loading coal) instead of using the normal departure track:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbs60100/51814291221/ (Photo: DBS 60100)
An atmospheric shot of the normal operation viewed from the other end, with a GBRF train about to enter and load for Ratcliffe in 2022:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbs60100/51822702819/ (Photo: DBS 60100)
Although the Ratcliffe traffic (and power station coal in general) is now history, coal loading still takes place at the HIT, destined for the cement works at Hope.
21230 IMMINGHAM HIT COAL LOAD FAC ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
Immingham CPL
The other Immingham coal traffic of note was anthracite duff from South Wales to the Coal Products Ltd (CPL) facility near Immingham Reception sidings. Until 1997 this used 30ft coal containers on FPA wagons, as seen here at Coedbach (more info in caption): https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/12863094533/ (Photo: Adrian Nicholls)
In 1997 MGR discharge facilities were installed for CPL, accessed via Immingham Reception Sidings. 66020 is seen waiting with empties to Onllwyn (4V32) at the reception sidings in 2021:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37260/51327955364/ (Photo: 37260)
21211 IMMINGHAM DOCK COAL TERMINAL CPL PRODUCTS
******************
On the topic of the coal itself, and different types of coal (anthracite, coking coal, steam coal etc.) I went down an internet rabbit hole, and since this post is already long enough, I think I'll make that the topic of a separate thread!
While discussing Scunthorpe CHP, and the run rounds required at Scunthorpe Freight Depot (Goods Yard) to access it from Immingham, the topic of drawback locos, or locos dedicated to discharging the trains, came up. By 2002 (when the Locomaster Profiles "Black and Blue" cab ride in 56006 was filmed) there were up to four MGR sets in daily use on the circuit, with the locos generally staying with the same set of wagons for the day. However, the narrator also mentions that the "long-standing" use of an engine based at Scunthorpe to discharge the wagons had ended a few years previously.
A 1995 photo of 37689 bringing empty MGR wagons into Scunthorpe Freight Depot mentions that "two 37s were utilised as drawback locos to save time running round with the train loco."
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gridchaser/21429116112/ (Photo: Mark Finch)
In the 1980s, with some coal traffic still running to the CHP from the west, it wouldn't have made sense to have a dedicated loco discharging the wagons (and in the 1989 video clip from the previous thread, you can see a class 56 arrive from Immingham, run round and head to the CHP). In the 1989 YH timetable, trains from Immingham into the CHP are shown in the timetable to run round as you would expect, but empties from the CHP are shown with a 3 minute reversing movement (RM) at Scunthorpe FD reception. At first I thought this implied the use of a drawback loco, but 3 minutes seems a rather short timing allowance to detach a drawback engine, even if the train engine was already on the other end, and a different code would probably be used to indicate a loco being detached. Were they propelling out of the CHP at this time?
I made a comment in the other thread about having empties waiting at Scunthorpe Goods Yard for an inbound loco on a loaded train (when a dedicated loco was being used to discharge the wagons). During the period when all the coal was coming from Immingham behind 56s, when a loaded train arrived into Scunthorpe Freight Depot, the empties off the previous arrival would most likely already be discharged and waiting departure time. Whether the locos stayed with the sets, or one loco stayed at Scunthorpe dedicated to discharge duties, it would require the same number of locos and wagon sets. The train plan as it was by the early 2000s (looking at a copy of Freightmaster), with about 9 paths per day using 4 MGR sets and 4 locos, would have allowed for both options, with about 90 minutes out-and-back from the freight depot at Scunthorpe available to discharge the wagons.
Does anyone have more info on the use of drawback locos / locos diagrammed to remain at Scunthorpe and discharge coal at the CHP / propelling moves out of the CHP? Apart from the 1995 photo mentioning the use of 37s, and the DVD commentary referring to a dedicated loco being diagrammed to discharge the wagons at Scunthorpe, I can't find much information. One reason for having a loco stay on discharge duties might have been to save a type 5 for use elsewhere (before the 66s arrived in volume). Instead of having four 56s on the circuit you could have three and use a less powerful loco (such as the 37s used in 1995) for the discharge. Perhaps this practice was confined to the Loadhaul era...
=======================================
Coal services (1980s onward) - Scunthorpe and Immingham
=======================================
According to Paul Shannon's Rail Freight Since 1968: Coal the CHP at Scunthorpe was opened in 1977, while the first coal pad at Immingham Bulk Terminal didn't open until 1989 (the year Oakdale closed). The destinations / origins of trains at Scunthorpe CHP (as shown in the YH working timetables) are interesting to compare over the 1980s:
1980 - Healey Mills, Wath, Maltby, Dinnington, Silverwood, Yorkshire Main
1983 - Silverwood, Severn Tunnel Junction, York Dringhouses, Tyne Yard, Dinnington, Silverwood, Cortonwood (near Wath), Wolstanton (near Stoke), Betteshanger (Kent)
1986 - Worksop, Toton, Oxcroft, Severn Tunnel Junction (likely Oakdale traffic), Betteshanger
1989 - Immingham Bulk Terminal, Oxcroft, Toton, Worksop, Oakdale, Betteshanger,
This working in the 1989 timetable is mentioned in Freight Only Volume 3 (Rhodes & Shannon, 1988):
The same book also refers to this as "industrial fuel" and mentions that the traffic started after rapid-loading facilities were installed at Cynheidre (anthracite mine near Llanelli) in January 1988. There's a bit of info on Cynheidre (and other collieries) on the Welsh Coal Mines website: https://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/Photo.htm
The idea that a refinery in Humberside would use Welsh coal as a fuel source seems a bit odd on the face of it (instead of using fuel oil refined on site for example) but I suppose it boils down to economics. In turn, Lindsey was sending oil trains to coal-fired power stations (for boiler start-up), so it all balances out!
According to the 1989 WTT, the Briton Ferry train arrived at "Immingham B.C." - this is better known as the NCB terminal, but the National Coal Board had changed name to British Coal Corporation in 1987. It would make sense for the coal to be discharged here (and forwarded by lorry across to Lindsey Refinery) as there wouldn't be any MGR discharge facilities at Lindsey itself.
Immingham NCB Terminal
Looking at the origins and destinations of coal trains to the NCB terminal in 1980s WTTs gives some idea of the coal flows involved:
NCB Terminal 1980: loaded trains from Worksop, Doncaster Down Decoy, Avenue, Manvers Main.
Empties to - Worksop, Doncaster Down Decoy, Wath, Avenue
NCB Terminal 1983: loaded trains from Down Decoy, Worksop, Healey Mills, Manvers Main, Thoresby, Dovecliffe, Wintersett, Avenue, Silverwood, North Gawber.
Empties to Healey Mills, Worksop, Immingham Reception, Manvers Main, Down Decoy, Shirebrook, Avenue sdgs
NCB Terminal 1986: loaded trains from Worksop, Manvers Main, Doncaster Down Decoy, Avenue NCF
Empties to Barrow Hill, Worksop, Down Decoy, Immingham SS
This 1986 photo shows 56091 discharging at the NCB terminal:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149805346@N06/37521378712/ (Photo: Andy)
The quail maps show arrival / departure tracks at the NCB terminal, and based on the layout shown, I think trains ran round in a loop beyond the discharge area, before crossing over to unload on what becomes the departure track. Originally the two sidings must have extended further into the docks, to allow an entire train beyond the crossover to run round. I did read somewhere that the layout was intended to allow several trains in there at once, with the sidings being very long (the current layout is over 4000 feet from junction to buffer stops, with an MGR train being something like 1100 foot long).
Paul Shannon (in his book on coal) mentions that the Immingham NCB coal export terminal opened in 1971, and that export coal traffic "declined sharply after the miners' strike." By 1989, the only coal trains arriving there in the WTT are the two Monday morning arrivals from Briton Ferry. As mentioned, the rail loading facility for imported coal at Immingham Bulk Terminal (IBT) opened in 1989. Oddly, the 1989 WTT doesn't distinguish between the Immingham NCB export terminal (near Immingham Reception Sidings) and the new coal pad at IBT. The Briton Ferry trains, plus the handful of loaded MGR trains in the timetable to Scunthorpe CHP, are all shown as using "Immingham B.C." (i.e. the NCB terminal), although it seems more likely that the trains to Scunthorpe CHP were being loaded at the new IBT coal pad.
The date of 1971 for the opening of the Immingham NCB coal export terminal brings to mind something I read on Wikipedia:
That last bit should read iron ore, not steel! Anyway, the reference to coal exports through IBT is interesting. Looking at this 2022 Port Plan - https://www.abports.co.uk/media/0yoinmtg/immingham.pdf - the NCB terminal was on the line shown between the two places where it says "Oxbow Coal Limited" towards the bottom left. Piles of coal in that area are prominent in this 2023 drone view, looking east, with piles of scrap on the other side of the two NCB terminal lines (it was receiving incoming scrap by rail at the time, mainly from Barking): https://www.flickr.com/photos/23983516@N05/52911969655/ (Photo: Michael Rhodes)
In that photo, the truncated remains of an old conveyor system can be seen behind the road bridge which crosses the line to Immingham West Jn. On Google maps, that conveyor heads straight from the site of the former MGR discharge area at the NCB terminal to a coal stocking area with conveyor links direct to the jetty at the bulk terminal.
It's funny that by the time the former NCB coal export terminal had been repurposed into a pad loading area for imported coal, during the privatisation era, the old NCB name had obviously stuck!
21213 IMMINGHAM NCB PAD 1 ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
21221 IMMINGHAM NCB PAD 2 ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
This 2001 shot of 56090 shows shovel loading in progress at the NCB terminal:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/actonwellsjunction/18934750650/ (Photo: Ivan Stewart)
And this 2009 photo includes the old MGR discharge shed in the background (the informative caption explains the NCB terminal started loading imported coal in 1999): https://www.flickr.com/photos/40236693@N08/49784666188/ (Photo: 6Y99)
I think the industrial backdrop must be of the smokeless fuels plants of Oxbow and CPL.
During the years that pad loading was taking place here (roughly 1999-2015), coal must have been reaching the area via internal roadways, with the ships themselves docking at the bulk terminal jetty.
Immingham Reception Coal loading pads
There was also pad loading taking place during this period at Immingham Reception sidings, previously associated with wagonload traffic. This photo (taken from the signal box at Immingham Reception in 2014) shows the coal stacked up either side of the reception sidings, with loading line 7 on the left and line 1 on the right: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/15047603888/
Night shot of coal trains stabled in the sidings: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/13143955473/
By the time this 2015 shot was taken, coal loading had ceased, as explained in the caption: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/22175216640/
All three photos taken by John Illingworth, seen here at work in the box: https://www.flickr.com/photos/43709405@N07/17755797476/
21188 IMMINGHAM REC LINE 7 (FLHH) EMH
21191 IMMINGHAM REC LINE 1 EMH
Immingham Bulk Terminal
I linked a couple of drone shots of the Bulk Terminal in this post on the Scunthorpe CHP thread in the infrastructure forum: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/scunthorpe-b-s-c-c-h-p.281086/post-7170155
At ground level, here is 56091 at IBT coal pad 1 in 1991: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30713034@N05/54004784701/ (Photo: Stephen D Cooke)
This is the same loco that was pictured at the NCB terminal in 1986.
The location appears little changed in 2024, although the 56 has swapped for a 66, the HAAs for HTAs, and the coal for coke!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35663521@N04/53808504659/ (Photo: Stapleton Road)
21203 IMMINGHAM BULK TERL COAL PAD 1 CORUS
21207 IMMINGHAM BULK TERL COAL PAD 2 CORUS
Interestingly, the 1998 quail map shows only a single coal loading pad at IBT. The second one may have been added to cater for the upsurge in coal imports - Paul Shannon mentions that the IBT was also used to load power station coal (particularly at night - the coal to Scunthorpe only running during the day).
Humber International Terminal (HIT)
Rounding up the coal loading locations at Immingham is the Humber International Terminal (HIT) opened in 2002. This 2020 drone shot shows the coal conveyor systems, with the coal loading area hidden behind the pair of biomass loading silos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/robmcrorie/49660848528/ (Photo: robmcrorie)
The location was a little more basic to begin with, the first train being pad loaded in 2002: http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/hit/hit.htm
The coal loading hopper is seen here in 2022, with a biomass train running through it (in the opposite direction to trains loading coal) instead of using the normal departure track:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbs60100/51814291221/ (Photo: DBS 60100)
An atmospheric shot of the normal operation viewed from the other end, with a GBRF train about to enter and load for Ratcliffe in 2022:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbs60100/51822702819/ (Photo: DBS 60100)
Although the Ratcliffe traffic (and power station coal in general) is now history, coal loading still takes place at the HIT, destined for the cement works at Hope.
21230 IMMINGHAM HIT COAL LOAD FAC ASSOCIATED BRITISH PORTS
Immingham CPL
The other Immingham coal traffic of note was anthracite duff from South Wales to the Coal Products Ltd (CPL) facility near Immingham Reception sidings. Until 1997 this used 30ft coal containers on FPA wagons, as seen here at Coedbach (more info in caption): https://www.flickr.com/photos/36034969@N08/12863094533/ (Photo: Adrian Nicholls)
In 1997 MGR discharge facilities were installed for CPL, accessed via Immingham Reception Sidings. 66020 is seen waiting with empties to Onllwyn (4V32) at the reception sidings in 2021:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37260/51327955364/ (Photo: 37260)
21211 IMMINGHAM DOCK COAL TERMINAL CPL PRODUCTS
******************
On the topic of the coal itself, and different types of coal (anthracite, coking coal, steam coal etc.) I went down an internet rabbit hole, and since this post is already long enough, I think I'll make that the topic of a separate thread!
