tarboat's photos

JS 6544 departs the China National Railways interchange at Yuanbaoshan with a heavy load of coal for Yuanbaoshan power station.

Colliery buildings in matching colour scheme close to the city of Jixi in Heilongjiang.

Chemical plant at Wilton, Teesside.

Shift change on a foggy morning brings a fine line-up of SY class locomotives at Dongchang Colliery on the Chengzihe system at Jixi.

The huge South Bank cokeworks gasholder is almost entirely hidden by banks of slag when viewed from Lackenby.

The last blast furnace at Skinningrove ironworks was shut down in 1972 but the rolling mill continues in production. Corus Special Profiles produces over 240,000 tons a year of finished steel from the plant here.

We waited all afternoon whilst the injectors were repaired on SY 0477 as it stood in the yard at Xifeng on the Lishu system near Jixi. Eventually as the light faded and the temperature plummeted it set off for Qikeng mine with a train that included three wooden-bodied hopper wagons. A quick dash across the snowy maize stubble and a silhouette shot turned out to be the best option.

The end of industry.

Another victim of competition from the Far East.

The 70hp beam pumping engine at Leawood was constructed by Graham & Company of the Milton Iron Works, Elsecar and completed in 1849. It pumps water from the River Derwent into the Cromford Canal. Each stroke of the pump raises approximately 800 gallons (4 tons) of water. Steaming days are operated during the summer and it is well worth a visit if you are in the Cromford area. The preservation group has a useful website.

Late afternoon shunting as the coal train is prepared for departure from the Banovici washery.

I noticed that the Middleton Top enginehouse was open yesterday and when I arrived there were no other visitors inside, which allowed me plenty of time to take photos and to talk to the very knowledgeable warden. The double single cylinder beam geared haulage engine was built in 1829 by the Butterley Company to wind wagons on the 708 yard Middleton Incline on a gradient of 1 in 8.25. The winding cable ran around the large central wheel being driven by a gear wheel below. The incline was closed in summer 1963 and the engine is now in the care of Derbyshire County Council. On some open days it is run using compressed air.

The Hathern Station Brick and Terra Cotta Company was established in 1874. The business flourished and 'Hathernware' and glazed faience' was exported worldwide during the first three decades of the twentieth century and many cinemas were faced and decorated with the products of this works. Although the company survived into the 1970's when restoration projects began to provide much needed business, takeover by Ibstock finally led to closure of the works in summer 2004. Today the brickworks site is used as an industrial estate whilst a small terracotta design and restoration workshop is maintained on site for Shaws of Darwen who continue to manufacture terracotta and faience and wisely chose to take advantage of some of the skilled workforce from the Hathern business. The terracotta panels advertising old company can be seen from trains passing on the Midland main line between Nottingham and Loughborough.

A visit to the former Hathern Station Brickworks in Leicestershire yielded a surprise in this brick which is a product of the Harry Brigham & Bros yard on the Hudson River at East Kingston, New York state. Brickmaking commenced here in 1904. How did it come to be in the UK? The answer is that there is still design undertaken here for terracotta restoration work and the brick was attached to the back of a piece that had been shipped over from a building in New York so that a replacement could be made by Shaws of Darwen who maintain a design section here after the demise of the Hathern operation when Ibstock closed the site.

In Ningxia Autonomous Region, west central China, the Yangchangwan coal mine opened in 2004. The location amongst the desert dunes is remote and wild and is served by a 10km branch of the Daba-Guyaozi Coal Railway. This new line was steam operated until late 2006 and may still see occasional steam haulage.

SY 1092 shunts at the loading bunkers of the Weizigou mine on the Nanpiao coal railway.

Sidings and cement tanks in the loading area at the Lafarge cement works at Hope.

The Hanson sand and gravel terminal at Shoreham, West Sussex. Sea dredged material is processed on this site.