Views in Camera
N.R. Line Possession & Maintenance at the old Brightside Station - 3151+154
It looked like something from 'Dante's Inferno' on arrival at the site and looking north to where the new ballast was being lifted out of the red, MHA, 'lobster' wagons and deposited in the trench where the old down line used to be. The air was full of dust and heat and muck and the guys 'down below' must have been sweltering already even before the daytime temperature there reached 30C. The loco under the bridge is 66021 and I was informed this would come forwards with the ballast in around an hour and a half, too long to hang around really. The train in front needed to back up a little first to allow sand to be dropped into the excavated trench at either side of the footbridge once the remaining spoil further along the line south, had been deposited into the MHA wagons at the front. One the right, stretching away towards Meadowhall, a long line of what I understand are called 'lobster' wagons, for obvious reasons, full of new ballast which is being off-loaded into the prepared trench; sand being deposited first, followed by a white plastic membrane and then the ballast, The dust and commotion all along the line alongside the wagons is clear to see, what isn't so clear is that there is another DBS, EWS liveried class 66, 66092, ballast train waiting in the distance alongside platform 2 at Meadowhall; it is just visible under the blue footbridge across the tracks which connects the Blackburn Valley and main line platforms. Looking at my notes I see the last visit to this location occured some while ago, October 10th, 2016, when a rake of old HEA coal/coke hoppers was brought south from Tees North Yard to the scrap yard, European Metal Recyclers, at Attercliffe sidings, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/29629887173/
As mentioned in the comments below the picture, another sad demise of some old railway wagons which had been stores at the YArd since last being used on the Redcar to Scunthorpe coke trains in 2009, one, 361000, being preserved at Shildon.
N.R. Line Possession & Maintenance at the old Brightside Station - 3151+154
It looked like something from 'Dante's Inferno' on arrival at the site and looking north to where the new ballast was being lifted out of the red, MHA, 'lobster' wagons and deposited in the trench where the old down line used to be. The air was full of dust and heat and muck and the guys 'down below' must have been sweltering already even before the daytime temperature there reached 30C. The loco under the bridge is 66021 and I was informed this would come forwards with the ballast in around an hour and a half, too long to hang around really. The train in front needed to back up a little first to allow sand to be dropped into the excavated trench at either side of the footbridge once the remaining spoil further along the line south, had been deposited into the MHA wagons at the front. One the right, stretching away towards Meadowhall, a long line of what I understand are called 'lobster' wagons, for obvious reasons, full of new ballast which is being off-loaded into the prepared trench; sand being deposited first, followed by a white plastic membrane and then the ballast, The dust and commotion all along the line alongside the wagons is clear to see, what isn't so clear is that there is another DBS, EWS liveried class 66, 66092, ballast train waiting in the distance alongside platform 2 at Meadowhall; it is just visible under the blue footbridge across the tracks which connects the Blackburn Valley and main line platforms. Looking at my notes I see the last visit to this location occured some while ago, October 10th, 2016, when a rake of old HEA coal/coke hoppers was brought south from Tees North Yard to the scrap yard, European Metal Recyclers, at Attercliffe sidings, see-
www.flickr.com/photos/daohaiku/29629887173/
As mentioned in the comments below the picture, another sad demise of some old railway wagons which had been stores at the YArd since last being used on the Redcar to Scunthorpe coke trains in 2009, one, 361000, being preserved at Shildon.