tarboat's photos

The downcast shaft at Daw Mill Colliery was just over 550m deep. In later years all coal was brought out through a drift.

Shovelling coal into the feed hoppers of the automatic stokers at Claymills pumping station. The blocks on the floor are made from compressed rapeseed waste and are being trialled as an alternative to very expensive coal. Clearly these are unsuitable for the stokers and therefore have to be hand fired. They burn very hot but do not have enough surface area to volume to raise steam as well as coal. If they could be broken down to pieces the same size as the coal used, then maybe they would be a worthwhile substitute.

Whilst in Manchester I took a look at the London Road Fire Station building which has stood empty and derelict for years. Finally work is taking place with the building to be redeveloped with both leisure and hotel facilities. The window frames seem to have been renovated but there is clearly much work to do internally. The Grade II* building was completed in 1906 and closed in 1986. The terracotta faience and detailing by Burmantofts is superb and it is to be hoped that it is not damaged by whatever cleaning is applied to it.

Blast Furnace No.6 at the Arcelor Mittal steelworks in Seraing near Liège. Now demolished.

Railhead treatment train passing through the station at Hooton.

I went for a day riding the the Merseyrail trains across the entire 75 mile network. This included taking one of the new Class 777 units to the new terminus at Headbolt Lane, Kirkby. The station is the terminus of the current Merseyrail service to Kirkby, having opened on 5 October 2023. It also has a third platform that is the terminus of Northern services towrds Wigan. There is an 80 space secure cycle area, a bus interchange and a 270 space car park. The new trains operate between Fazakerley and Headbolt using battery power and elsewhere on the Merseyrail network using the third rail to supply electricity.

Baguley-Drewry & Boston Lodge built 0-6-0 diesel-hydraulic locomotive Criccieth Castle shunts a train of slate wagons into Boston Lodge on the Ffestiniog Railway.

SY 0590 leaves the headshunt after servicing at Nanchang Yard on the Chengzihe system of the Jixi Coal Railway.

The Picture House in Stafford was built as a cinema for local independent exhibitor Walter Goodall and opened on 23rd February 1914. It closed on 30th March 1995 and has since been converted to a Wetherspoon public house. In November 2012, the Picture House was equipped with a HD projection screen and began to screen films on Wednesday evenings with a different theme each month. The building is Grade II listed.

Remains of an intermittent limekiln on the hillside below High Edge Raceway at Buxton. This formed part of a large and productive limeworks across this area. To the right is the mound of waste from the kiln and in the right background can be seen another kiln and waste mound. These kilns would have burned coal from the mines at nearby Axe Edge and operated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Glazed fireclay bath by Trotter, Haines & Corbett, Stourbridge. There can't be many of these left. The works was started in 1850 at Brettell Lane, Brierley Hill adjacent to the later Harrison & Pearson works. Around the turn of the twentieth century the Harrison & Pearson acquired a controlling interest in Trotter, Haines & Corbett Ltd. In the early 1930s Trotter Haines & Corbett, Harris & Pearson, Samuel Evers & Sons, Canal Works and Amblecote Works were all absorbed into the E. J, J, Pearson Company, creating at that time the largest refractories group in the Country.

Pipeworks at Cheslyn Hay. At the time the site was being used as a depot for Hepworth West Midlands & Stoneware Ltd. In 1961 it is listed as Stella Tileries Ltd, (The Hepworth Group), Essington, near Wolverhampton. Vitrified Salt-glazed Pipes and Fittings, Glazed Conduits and Land Drain Pipes. Hepworths had bought the business in 1959. The works seems to have been established in 1935.

Water tower and cooling units at Scunthorpe steelworks.

The Brazilian company Votorantim Cimentos now owns the Cosmos Cement Mill at Bobadilla Station, Málaga. The works was begun in January 1999 and was an attempt to create self-sufficency in cement in the region.

Former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway class 27 ('A' Class) locomotive 52322 is just outside Bolton Abbey on the Yorkshire Dales Railway with a permanent way train on a very wet day.

Leaving Arbaroba with a Mallet headed mixed train to Asmara on the Eritrea Railway.

Two oil wells not far from the River Trent at Beckingham, opposite Gainsborough. The site is operated by Island Gas Ltd. There continues to be extensive oil pumping across a large area of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

Sign overload at the approach to Westbrecks crossing on the railway serving Cottam power station. That's a lot for drivers to absorb whilst avoiding other traffic and road junctions. I am sure they are all deemed necessary but I doubt that the average motorist will register everything. The gated crossing sign is incorrect as there are no gates or barriers on this level crossing.