Exploring the Abandoned Redcar Blast Furnace
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- Опубліковано 14 кві 2022
- In this video, we infiltrate the abandoned Redcar Blast Furnace in order to ascend to it's peak. The historical survivor of British engineering was built in 1979 and was once the second largest of it's kind in Europe!
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I worked here from 1979 until closure and as the guy says the Control Room was modernised when SSI UK bought the Plant in 2011 all controls were operated from the HMI pc's and the panel he shows you is an emergency panel to take the furnace off-line in case the of a failure of the computers.
a few of the assumptions the narrator makes about things are wrong but he does a good job of showing a lot of things
The 2 bays opposite each other he describes as a mirror image are the Casthouse Floors and machines do not export material out of the ends the runners he shows you just the slag runners going to the slag pits and granulator the Iron (Not Steel as he keeps saying) went down to the rocker bays and into 350 tonne Torpedo's for transportation to the BOS Plant to be turned into Steel. The 4 Big Pipes he mentions are The Hot Blast Stoves which provide the Hot Blast to the Furnace usually at 1,000 - 1,200 deg c
Great video !! but it's obvious that the guys did not have a very good grasp of how blast furnaces operate. If you are interested in these giant pieces of technology there are plenty of UA-cam videos that describe in detail how they work. There is a fantastic blast furnace museum in Volklingen, Saarland, Germany. Almost the entire blast furnaces, coke ovens, giant hall containing the air blowers etc. Is accessible and the entire process of iron making is fully explained and interpreted. Well worth a visit if you really want to get an understanding and feel for for these amazing industrial plants.
@@jackb8682 This place looks absolutely awesome and it is on my to do list.
@@person.X. Yes do it if you possibly can. Make a special trip.... You won't be dissapointed !
I’ve lived in Redcar my entire life and have always been fascinated by the blast furnace. When the plant was still operational is was amazing to drive past it on the road to south gare, smoke and steam everywhere, seeing the molten steel being poured into the rail torpedos to be taken away to the beam mills and BOS plant. The BOS plant was finally brought down yesterday morning and the blast furnace will be next. It’s very sad to see the demise of this once mighty site and all the history that went with it. I always wanted to look around the blast furnace myself so this video is brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
So sorry dude, you'll hopefully move one day.
Is this part of ICI and that whole industrial area running along the cleveland coast?
Now theyve gutted the industry they can build housing on the site for immigrants.
Great comment Mathew awe inspiring memories of the type of thing we were first at and great at , in the 70s there was a brilliant kids animation on itv called " Chorlton And The Wheelies " btw
@@thomascook8541 Kind of. ICI was/is much further inland but it's a shadow of what it used to be. The whole industrial region was largely classed as ICI but contained many different companies.
Although I never worked there, I lived very close. One thing I can't get over is, how quiet it is there. I should imagine it was deafening when in operation. Thanks for the time and care you took to record this monolithic piece of local history.
some info from a blast furnace worker. the valey you saw at the end of those tracks was a slag pit, the liquid slag would flow thru those tracks (in this video they are filled in, usualy they are concrete troughs) into the pit to cool down. the dome topped pipes are cowpers/stoves these are used to heat the blast air up to 1200°c. if you have any questions please do ask
I was brought up in the next village and at 5mins, 25 seconds the majority of the land you can see is actually slag. I remember as a kid I'd see the red hot mounds of 'earth' smouldering.
ua-cam.com/video/CIeKZTrMmyI/v-deo.html
and then stick your hand in those pipes to check if temperature is good - that's how britain worked in past century, no safety regulations at all, no instruments to do that safety - like a caveman. Brexit was the right choice - 6 years later Britain feels aftermath of it, lol.
@@1sonyzz cope and seeth hahah
Best job I ever had was working there, not on the blast itself but in the labs but got out and about and did lots of exploring, sinter plant, coke ovens, the furnace it was huge
all those jobs lost not just here but all over working men and women could bring families up on these wages buy houses what a waste and to think we allowed foreign imports to undermine are own production so short sighted
All part of a 100+Yr old plan to destroy western civilization from the inside out.
Keep raising steel prices to support artificial wage structures and insulating tariffs to depress imports. Hmmm at some point steel becomes too expensive and the problem solves itself. Nonsense…more on these boards should pay attention in school when economics is taught.
Protectionism cannot solve the problems UK steel production faces.
This plant was surplus to requirements when Corus was taken over by Tata Steel.
You are absolutely right. Such a disgrace.
A Chinese company Bought British steel does this include redcar site
Lovely stuff lads, balls of steel up that thing
Worked there for 25 years until 2008,i have been on the very top (bleeder platform) bad investment decisions led too the closure,The works needed an extra "Slab caster" at the steel / concaster plant, as output was restricted to 70/75% of potential, Pity, compared to some foreign works, it's a clean, efficient works.
Well done guys
I did a delivery of heat exchangers to Redcar once
2 things have always stayed with me;
Firstly, the shear size of the place
And secondly, the loco shed no longer connected to the internal rail network (not far from the dedicated Redcar Steelworks railway station on the mainline) that still housed 2 brand new locomotives. They were never used after Corus got into a dispute with the manufacturer during the purchase
Excellent work lads
I had a tour of the site back in 2014; just 6 weeks before it finally closed. The site was similarly overgrown and dilapidated then too. Seeing the furnace in operation was very interesting though. Its a very hands on job and we got as close to the taps as you did. Stepping over the exposed rivers of molten iron in the big halls was certainly an experience!
In the early 1960s, my family used the road past this area of Dorman Longs to visit Redcar. You saw the waste slag being tipped in molten form from cradle rail wagons, a massive glow of red and orange in the dusk. To a young boy, this kind of image never fades. Even now, the south side area of the Tees gives an amazing sense of wilderness on a winter afternoon. Thanks for the film, very enjoyable.
They use the slag in roads now when mixing with asphalt
Now I can see where where Ridley Scott got his inspiration from, living in this neck of the woods. There are parts where you look like you are inside the HR Geiger crashed spaceship. All pipes and dark metallic organic looking shapes. The scale of the place is epic.
I recall the hoo-ha of Alien 3 being linked to Redcar steelworks! :)
Fantastic video. I worked in the BOS plant for 16 years very sad after 170 years of iron and steel making
This is a surprisingly insightful piece of video. Your narrative over the top and discussion between each other brings it to life. For what I assume are fairly young filmmakers, this is impressive and inspiring.
Fascinating video indeed ! Well done. I was the Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) for this plant from about 2011 until final enclosure. I was helping the restart team. From the video it looks like quite a lot of the building had already been removed. At 25.20 - that instrument is a thermal neutron dose rate monitor, which I recall checking and using - wow what a find! Mark.,
This takes me back: I went on a tour of the plant as part of a school geography trip in the early 1970s
Fun Fact: the nearest train station to this factory is called British Redcar, and it is the least visited train station in the UK, because it was built for the workers at the factory. Nowadays, you can stop at the station if you like, but you cannot leave it because all the surrounding land is owned by the steel company and it would be tresspassing.
The station is called "British Steel Redcar" and also "Redcar British Steel" depending where you look! Whilst the station is still open, no trains now call there, and as Stereoman says, all the surrounding land is private, and monitored by security. So in theory there will now be no visits to it. It could only happen in Britain - station open, but you cannot get to or from it and no trains stop there! Sounds like something from Monty Python. If there is a plastic chair in the Saltburn bound shelter, I put it there before it closed.
@@MrMikeanthorn Sad to say, the chair is gone: ua-cam.com/video/5QCB6UdlnVw/v-deo.html
A few wrong assumptions to say the least (how else, they are not trained metallurgists nor steelworkers) ... but a brave and valiant effort, had me enthralled, I'm very glad you documented this. I am overwhelmed at the sheer ability of design, manufacture and erection of all this plant. WOW !
I was the engineer on the construction of the PCR which when looking from the top is just to the right of the main conveyor, it was under control of the Thais and would send the molten steel by rail in torpedos a couple of miles to Tata. The PCR pulverised coal to dust and blew it into the furnace at low level. The construction was done by a squad from Port Talbot together with myself and local labour........I actually still have my keys on the SSI key strap and store my cryptos on two of the SSI safety induction memory sticks
I grew up on Teesside and visited British Steel Redcar works in the mid 1980s as part of a tour. It's fascinating to see this but also so sad to see it abandoned.
Great exploring I still work in the steel works and was on blast for 10 years bring back brilliant memories
The sadness everyone feels even in such an intimidating monster of a site is because deep down they know this behemoth was the engine of Englands beating heart - it's power - it's energy - it's very industrial soul.
Now it sits mothballed, broken, abandoned and beyond redemption, it's only future fate is the day when it's finally reduced to nothing. A part of every Englishman dies with it.
Perfectly spoken! - So sad to see. Having worked for British Steel in the Rolling Mill Side as Shift engineer and Shift Manager - Its in the blood, the camaraderie to get the job done - Never experienced it since in any place of work its unique - similar to mining. I'd go back tomorrow and do it all over again if i could. I rem walking around this BOS plant in the early 90's - glorious site and smells!
@@keziasarah Nice words. I've always gone to work and got my hands dirty, noisy workshops etc. Nothing like this though and I've always had lots of respect for the men that did/still do it. The cameraderie you mention, you're never going to get that sat at a desk on a computer are you?
Thanks for this video guys!
I worked on 'the Redcar Blast' back in the 80s when it was shiny and new. I was once sent up to the platform seen at around 10:00 with a gang of labourers to CLEAN IT! Apparently some top brass was visiting and the local seniors thought it would be nice :D
I knew the original control room well. The consoles were installed with keyboards that ran ABCDEFG... because the designers thought a QWERTY keyboard would be too confusing for steelworkers, hence operating the IBM Green Screens was near impossible.
Goosebump attack when you walked down the office corridor, being a 'white hat' that's where I was based. The RBF Manager in charge at that time was mad and posh and yelled "Monsieurs! C'est neuf heure" at the top of his lungs each day for the 9 o'clock meeting and his managers scuttled down the corridor to be shouted at in his office.
The amount of time, human effort and raw materials that went into constructing and operating this structure. Wow. And now left abandoned, no longer of use to those who once made huge profits from it.
No huge profits made thats why it closed
Went to the top of the blast in the mid 80,s when I was on the YTS,worked all over the teesside works,now work up the road,sad times,the blast won't be there much longer.
Brilliant video guys I remember when Redcar steelworks was open it was a huge facility and now it is sadly set to be gone by August.
Bf worker here at Port Talbot, my dad used to do a bit at Redcar. Crazy watch this is and makes me wonder how many years this will be the case here at PT. Thank you for a cracking watch👍🏻
We'll this comment didn't age well 😞
@@pauldavies7251 indeed😣
THANKYOU SO SO MUCH GUYS although you got some of the operational things wrong it was fantastic and very sad to see the furnace in such a state it was once a monster producing nearly 10,000 tonnes of iron a day, spent 34 years working there on frontside the two identical sheds each side, so so sad to see it now RIP mighty girl one of the largest blast furnaces in the world NEVER WILL BE FORGOT an absolute disaster for the local area 180 years of iron and steel making at an end MIDDLESBRO SOUTHBANK REDCAR THE REAL STEEL CITY MILLIONS OF TONS PRODUCED IN THIS AREA ,THE FIRST STEEL CONVERTER AT BRANCE END ESTON AND IRON ORE MINES IN THE HILLS ABOVE SOD BLUDDY SHEFFIELD WITH ITS STAINLESS THIS IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE MIGHTY GOLIETH OF STEEL PRODUCTION nce again THANKYOU LADS ABSOLUTE DIAMOND OF A VIDEO THAT WILL BE WATCHED FOR YEARS AND YEARS GOD BLESS ❤❤
Well said.! 👍👍
Chris I used to live in South Bank. The closure of the steelworkers both at Cargo Fleet and Redcar was devastating
The Blast Furnace is being blown in a couple of weeks...I've worked down there in various stages of its demolition this past year ....I imagine it's very sad for the people of Teeside .
Its criminal how the accountants and politicians have got away with destroying all the imperical knowledge gained over the years.
This criminality will come back and haunt the decision makers
They're trespassing with no knowledge. But I love the views.
What a phenomenal structure! You had my stomach a-fluttering a few times as you ascended the metal stairs - especially the last section where you reached the top. Wow! Good job, guys! ~ david in Medicine Hat
I worked on many of the control panels for the coking plant which my company Henry Williams of Darlington installed back in the 70s.
It's a shame this blast furnace complex can't be preserved in some part that would leave something against the skyline for future generations to witness. This has been done in the United States such as the 20th century blast furnaces saved in the cities of Pittsburgh and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. Wonderful, if not sneaky, tour of a shutdown, iron making facility. Thanks for your bravery climbing about and videoing the complex and for sharing!
There is a place like that in Duisburg (based there for a bit). They turned it into a kind of post-industrial garden.
Your video is absolutely awesome and you made some history as it came down today .
Well done boys !!!
I worked as a blast furnace man for 6 years on Scunthorpe British steel
A picture of myself at 24:40. Good times at Redcar ♨️
Great opening shot of the red sun & the sillouette of the furnace.
I remember when it was in full swing. From the gare road you could watch the molten steel being poured into what us kids called the torpedo trains. It was like watching the gates of hell being opened. It was like a massive waterfall of fire. Now I've got kids myself, and it's a little bit sad to know they'll never get to see it.
I filmed a torpedo being filled in 1998 from the Gare rd. Have a look here. ua-cam.com/video/yLj4MOpGbSM/v-deo.html
I remember this too, used to go and watch the trains with my grandad. sometimes there would be an odd one left on a siding because it was on fire 🔥
Could actually feel the heat from them as they trundled by !
In winter the ground with a the slag dumped on it towards the beach would steam lol .
Magical place.
I can only say, this shows that the “youth” understand and appreciate history, politics and technology both old and new way better than the old gits appreciate (I am officially an old git). Just keep being safe around those massive drops and other scary urbex good stuff. Fantastic channel folks😊
This is fantastic lads and lasses. People who have lived close by in Redcar have only seen the iconic buildings from the outside. This video is a fantastic insight, I appreciate being able to see it
Currently living in Redcar and class to see the small details of the steel works. Well done for getting inside and documenting the reamining features of the place before it's demolished.
What a fantastic and very moving video, you did very well getting in and looking around without been detected as I know even now the security is very tight in there.. It's very say to see the state of the place now, just think how hot it would have been near the blast furnace when it was up and running you would never be able to any of the places you did when it was running. I been a wagon driver most of my life and I used to deliver coal and coke there, although the last couple of time I was on this site was to take coke away to the near by steel site at Scunthorpe, I had to be escorted out by security because of protesters blocking the entrance, they were there because they didn't want the place to close down.. I remember them saying once they turn the furnace off that was it, it would never run again.. it was a very sad day when they did finally turn it off..
Thank you guys for taking me with you on your adventure, it was truly fascinating, and brilliantly resurched and wonderfully filmed.❤️❤️👍
Brilliant film boys and the balls to get to the top, you will have something to tell your grandchildren..
Hi lads, the pipes with the dome tops are called the stoves the provided the super heated air for the blast furnace
15 years back i used to drive up from Bawtry in my old blue LT35 truck with my then 4 year old son at the side of me to pick up engines for Stanwood engineering in Bawtry ( now also gone ) . Gate security were brill . They had him his own hardhat and little yellow vest so it was always good lol . Used to have to drive through the place to get over the rails and to the workshops at the back . Son loved it driving past the open doors with the sparks flying .
Used to get loaded and drive into Redcar to a chippy on a side road , then off to the big carpark on the beach for him to have his dinner and a can of pop before heading home .
It was murder when he turned 5 and had to goto school , used to have to keep it quiet iff i had a Redcar or Northampton run lol . Redcar was the best place on the planet to him ...
Epic! Even less structure now. Soon be all gone but never forgotten.
I worked on the Conveyers, installation and commissioning, from the Barrel reclaimer back in 1979. Babcock-Moxey.
It got demolished yesterday - really sad to watch, but I'm glad you uploaded this, which has meant that we can all look around it. Also them "4 large pipes" are actually stoves, used to heat up the furnace. They're going to be demolished next month.
Thankyou for the continuous brilliant content. Love you boys
Sat opposite this place many a time in Wilton international tipping wood chips watching the furnace in action just before it closed 👌 was an amazing sight on a dark winters night, awesome video boys👌👍👌👍
You are very brave walking around that building. However this is a great video of a piece of Teesside history. Not many people will have stood at the very top of the Blast furnce as you did at 27:44. I will try and video it this weekend as the demolition is well under way now.
Very interesting. I work on a cargo ship and we used to sail to Teesport container terminal. I used to take a bike with me and use the freetime to explore near cities. Harbour workers recommended Redcar, as it was closer than Middlesbrough. I cycled on Trunk Road past this monumental abandoned steel factory and been thinking about it since then. Very cool to finally see what it is like. Quality content!
Rare to see something like this that isn't covered in graffiti and rubbish. Fascinating watch, thanks.
Incredible footage it brought back so many memories from 1979 when i worked on this place as an apprentice welder you even managed to show the gas detectors we fitted back then.....great video
Interesting place guys. I loved the intro in that room too. The curtains looked in really good condition compared to the rest of the room.
Class video lads, brilliant production quality. Good luck with the magazine 👍🏻
Excellent video !! Well done and thank you team 👍
First of yours I’ve seen this, really enjoyed it the production was class, look forward to more abandoned industry stuff
Great and interesting video , salute to an era gone by ....
Thanks I wish I could have been there myself
Use to pick trailers up from redcar steel works. Take them to the docks to be transported all over. Was a great day job👍
Great explore guys! Smashed it.
Thank you for braving this place!! It’s local to where I live and I’d love to have a nosy inside but I’m just not that brave 😂
Well done team ,you have captured some of Britain's history before it's gone ! 👍
Great beginning of video in that deteriorating room,this place was massive and great views from high up there,great looking around the blast furnace very informative video thanks for sharing 👍
wow its cool to see up there my grandad used to work here and used to climb up the chimneys and the pipes and clean them
brilliant visit, thank you....
im an instrument mechanician on one of those blast furnaces, great place to get exposure, alot of processes variables being measured
That is awesome!!!! Great job guys
Great work guys keep doing what your doing!
O.M.G! What a video! (Again) You guys are fearless, but kudos to Theo for going has high as he did... I'll not too keep on hights either, but he probably got further than I ever would, so well done! Great work, great stills, great narration, indepth historical context, amazing vista's and stunning videography. (as always) EVERYONE, please order the new magazine and help these amazing guys out as they truly deserve all of our support.
Great video guys, but may I politely ask where you sourced the opening image from? Because I took it, and I don't recall being asked. I spent ten years trying to capture that image. We photographers need support too. Thanks in advance.
I grew up in Redcar, my dad worked there, don’t remember what part though. Good to see inside.👍👍😎
very pleased you have made this video ,thanks a lot ,generations to come can look at what we have lost ,i worked in this industry for some 35 years plus ,i was shift engineer on power station and we use to blow wind up the furnace
I get a Pink Floyd and A Clockwork Orange vibe from these big industrial complexes you turn into art. So much better than the History Channel ever was. Mike Rowe could have done a decades worth of Dirty Jobs there and the supporting infrastructure. This makes me as sad as seeing old tools and equipment thrown in the recycling bin at my town's dump and just a little effort is all it takes to have a great quality tool made in my country, the USA. Thank you for recording history in the best way possible.
Wow guys that was awesome what a place thanks for bringing that to us
Awesome footage
Love your work 👌❤️
Very well presented and thoughtfully narrated. Most impressed.
Fantastic, thank you so much for posting
Well done Thatcher. You realy did a hatchet job on this country!
My brother and I worked on the construction of the gantry that leads up to the top of the furnace back in 1972-3 and on one of the shutdowns. It was the best in production in its day but the various people who tuck over the plant just tuck the money the government gave them and took the profit back to their own countries. It was a downward spiral when these foreigners took over the running of the place. But the amount of furniture in there must be of some value tables, chairs, and bookshelves the amount of paper is all of the value why is it not been sold or recycled? this goes for the pumps motors rather than making new service and reuse.
let's hope the site is reused in a profitable way that brings jobs back to the area because we need it let's not keep any of the plant that we need millions to spend on it each year drop all of it and move on, put the money to better use that will feed the families living in the area not wasted on the memory of the past we can keep pictures and video for that. I hope the people in charge reads this because some of them want to keep the furnace which will cost millions each year for the upkeep.
The hidden agenda is to keep the north poor and how dare the common man have a decent living wage. I worked in the steel industry for many year, allowed me to buy my first home and have a comfortable living but politicians in London hate that thought and hence the destruction of traditional industrials in the UK.
A similar story at RMI in Crossflatts West Yorkshire where my father was a foreman until the same outcome as above...
The spherical white device at 25:15 is probably a REMBall, a sphere of polyethylene surrounding a helium-3 detector to measure neutron radiation flux. The tan box on top was the readout device for the system, akin to a Geiger counter, probably made by Eberline.
The cartridge recorder on the floor could have been used to continuously monitor the output of radiation measuring systems.
The device might have been used to monitor for radioactive contamination of the incoming steel. A mini-steel mill in my home town was shut down for a time decades ago when a Cobalt-60 radiation therapy head, buried in a bunch of scrap steel, was accidentally melted down, contaminating the whole works. Now, there are radiation monitors at the plant entrance that scan all of the incoming scrap.
Not entirely sure why they would want to measure neutron flux in a steel plant. There aren't many neutron sources out in the wild, at least none of high power output. Radioactive emitters could also be used to monitor the thickness of sheet goods being produced by a rolling mill, but I am not aware of anyone using neutrons for this kind of thickness monitoring.
Great video. Thanks!
An insane location! Great work once again guys!
Absolutely awesome! What a huge bit of kit and it’s sad it wasn’t economically viable. I regularly pass TaTa Port Talbot and wonder how long that similar blast furnace will be operating. Love the industrial/commercial/military explores. Top vid lads.
This furnace looks to be bigger than #8 in Fairfield Alabama. The bell tower on that one, is massive! (Very cool) you mentioned foliage growing on top? This grows on all the industrial buildings, even when active. That looks to be an "auto loading furnace" a rare furnace, most are fed, by a Larry car. The climate change crowd has about killed all of the old ways of manufacturing. You mention where you had came to the end of the process? That would be on the tap-floor, directly under the tweers . There is an air gun, that taps the mud, in the bottom, and the cast iron ran to a cigar car. They call it in the US, "tapping the furnace". The RBF is the floor where the mix was mad to create mild steel, depending on the grade. Where you were talking about the tracks? Thats where the slag was dumped. Stage is the impurities that rises to the top, of the steel ladle.
The pump house, was a compressed air facility, for the air injection.
When yall went to the top of the furnace, on top the bell? If the furnace would have been active, you would have had to have a CO meter. Huge pockets of co could be anywhere, a suffocate a man, quickly. I know I was "rattling" too much, just trying to help. Thanks for sharing, Great video.
To add to Mark's insights; the four large cylinders you walked around were the hot blast stoves. Theses are unique, to me at least, as they have external combustion chambers. They are filled with honeycomb shaped silica bricks which cold air is passed through after being heated up in order to supply the "hot blast" to the furnace... also all material is supplied via the large conveyor belt into the furnace. The large pipes at the top are basically for evacuating waste gas which is then used to heat the stoves... most of the complex piping you saw was basically just cooling water inlets and outlets for various cooling plates implanted in the furnace's carbon brick lining... awesome video, and such a shame to see this beauty in this state
@@johnr3310 you ended that with"sutch a shame"? Personally, it's switch a shame, we have people who would see themselves out of work, in the name of climate crises, all the while, building up the economy of an enemy state, while they have NO type of control for their pollution, and a tiny bit cheaper, for that same reason! People spend over half their lives, building, a small retirement, just for it to be taken away, for lunacy.
@@markturner6240 Hello Mark. This complex was designed in Stockton -on -Tees by Davy Ashmore / Davy McKee where I worked for 8 years. The furnace used the Paul Wurth Bell-Less top , Paul Wurth being a Luxembourg company . I believe it enabled the furnace to operate at higher pressures than the older Bell design…. These older Bells were turned in the Ashmores works in Stockton, on what I believe was the largest lathe in the U.K.
@@californiadreamin8423 You noticed, I called it a "bell tower"? It wasn't because of who invented what? It was because that what we, in the south, call it. It's just "slang", for SOME of us in the steel industry. That's cool information, thank you.
@@markturner6240 Traditionally the “bell”, because it looked like one, was conical in shape, with a machined face to form a seal to prevent gases escaping from the top of the furnace. Before that , the material was simply poured into the top, by hand cart….dangerous…. and it was open, like a tall chimney. Then the bell-less top ( furnace top) was developed, fed by conveyor, rather than the “skips” on the “skip bridge”, the steeply sloping structure taking the material to the top.
At the base of the furnace, the reheated air from the “stoves” is pumped to “the bustle main’ and then through the “tuyeres” ( a French word ) into the furnace. To extract the “hot metal” , the tap hole is drilled with “the tap hole drill”, and fully opened up with an “oxygen lance”. Originally the hot metal was run into sand moulds , which have the appearance of a pig feeding its piglets. That is why it is called “pig iron”. Modern practice is to pour the hot metal, via runners, into a “torpedo car”, a massive cigar shaped vessel on a rail carriage, which takes it to the “oxygen steel making plant”…..or the “open hearth “ furnace.
When the tap is complete, the tap hole is plugged with a “clay gun”. This is like a cannon, filled with special clay, and forced into the tap hole , by a hydraulic cylinder/piston fixed to the cannon/barrel . The tap hole drill, and clay gun, were mounted on a tank like turret so that they could rotate into position and then swung out of the way once they’d done their job.
Well all that is British jargon. I left the company designing these plants ( my boss was headhunted to a senior job in Pittsburg) in the early 80’s and went into aviation !! I’m surprised that I’ve remembered so much, and the names of those I worked with. ( My heavy duty electric arc welder leads, were “won” by our site engineer at Redcar, and look as if they’re going to outlast the furnace !! )
Wow. Beautiful and awe-inspiring.
Well done lads.
Amazing explore guys took some gut to climb that high.
amazing explore!
Wow! That was high! My head was spinning just watching the video 😬 such an interesting place, it’s great when items are left 😀
Well done lads
Amazing!!!
Fantastic video lads, well done.
I had no idea of the sheer scale of this plant.
I've watched explores going through one of the Steel blast furnaces in Pittsburgh Steel and your blast furnace looks to be bigger. Good job for showing what this looked like.
14m hearth and capable of 11,000 tonne a day
very interesting video to see the workings of the blast furnace
great footage and informative seen it when in use fired up many times such a shame like most heavy industries in this country gone but not forgotten !!! was recommended this clip today whilst working on a roof of all places glad its not as high as the buildings in the clip !!
I live 10 mins from here great to see what it's actually like inside great job guys 👌👍
They’ve still got blast furnaces in Scunthorpe and Port Talbot making steel. Great video 👍🏼
The 3 Queens at Sunny Scunny we're half as efficient as Redcar Blast with it's PCR.
The biggest ore carriers in the world had to come to Redcar's deep warf to offload enough ore so that the draft of the ship could sail up the Humber ti offload the iron ore for Scunthorpe. Then it was transferred to a train and sent to the steel works 10 to 15 miles away.
Very inefficient compared to Redcar.
Political suicide
Redcar is a bit of a strange place; racecourse, beach, steelworks. I used to like to spend a few days each year in Middlesbrough but not for a couple of years now due to Covid and lack of money.
Surely beech will be near for the access from the sea and river , I imagine the racecourse has took many a workers wages off him also
Fantastic piece of history captured. This structure is being demolished on Wednesday 23rd November 2022. The skyline changed forever.
Wow that place is amazing. You lads are much braver than I, climbing to the top. Great vid, enjoyed it very much thanks.
thank you so much for this episode! i hope you can do more in the north east
This is an epic video, just gained yourself a new sub