Two rakes of bitumen tanks are destined for storage at Eastriggs in Scotland. As Britain continues a slow decline in heavy industry, particularly in petroleum and chemical products, the need for heavy movement by rail has declined. In this instance, it has meant the mothballing of two rakes of purpose-built tanker wagons. Each rake is understood to handle around 800 tonnes.
Two locations with industrial and wartime heritage play a part in the retirement of one of the last heavy chemical flows on UK rails. Haverton Hill, in Teesside, was the locus for bitumen trains that have declined in frequency but still ran until just a few months ago. Now volumes have fallen below a level that makes economic sense for rail transport. The surplus rolling stock is therefore going into storage.
Preston Docks traffic
Haverton Hill was once synonymous with heavy engineering and chemical production. The outfall from shipbuilding, manufacturing, cement production, and chemical production became so injurious to health, that a model village, once built for workers in the heart of the complex, was completely demolished by the 1970s. However, industrial activity is radically different now, and one of the last emblems of that manufacturing past is now consigned to memory.
Bitumen has been transported by rail from Haverton Hill for decades. Latterly, trains of around 800 tons have become less frequent. The typical flow was between the production site operated by Total, and a rail terminal on an industrial estate at Preston Docks (Colas Ribble Rail) on the west coast, near Liverpool.
Military location gets its first tanks
The wagons are a typical two-bogie design, used for a variety of liquid (often petroleum) products. However, the first of two rakes made a final journey to storage at Rail Sidings Limited at Eastriggs in Scotland, at the end of January. The second rake will follow this month (February).
RSL made its base at Eastriggs, a former military railway facility, a year ago. The site was adjacent to a munitions factory, which was at its peak in the 1914-18 Great War. In the year of peaceful operations, it has received a wide variety of stock from passenger units to snow ploughs. Despite the military connections, this was its first delivery of tanks – albeit wagons.
The remaining production from Haverton Hill will now be moved by road. Network Rail lists the Colas petrochemicals site at Preston Docks as still active. However, tanker traffic appears to be contracting on Britain’s railways. Recently a flow from the doomed Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland to a terminal in Cumbria also ceased.