Appleby Frodingham, A Big Thank You Guys

Appleby Frodingham, Scunthorpe Trip 6th June 2009

Our four heroes set off early from a very wet and miserable North Manchester on Saturday 6th June 2009 to cross the mighty Pennine Chain, destination Scunthorpe. Operating our shuttle service I collected Andy Deltic at the unearthly hour of 7.00am, then picked up Rob and eventually over to Andrew`s (The Only Alien) for this day off ELR volunteering escapade over to the dark side of the Pennines, with our main man Andrew conscripted to be the driver for this trip, well most of our trips really), we set off from Rochdale in a blaze of early morning railway song, (as you do), with the excitement of another day away exploring unchartered distant railway yards over towards the far East (that’s Scunthorpe for the uninitiated).

After an exciting journey over the mighty M62 we eventually arrived at a sunny Scunthorpe, having left the rain behind somewhere back in Leeds. The first stop was Scunthorpe`s world famous market and an intensive search for a brew, while Mwa needed the little boys room, having drunk too much coffee before leaving home. The first obstacle was the parking machine, one of those horrible things that requires you to enter your vehicle registration number prior to having a ticket issued, our problem was the machine didn’t appear to recognise Andrews private number plate, and despite Andrew Masters Degree in computer technology, it did take him some time to work out how to get a parking ticket out of this amazing piece of Scunthorpe technology, but eventually local girl, came to our rescue and in no time at all (well about 20 minutes actually), we soon had a ticket on Andrews car and was again on our merry way.
A market café was soon located, although I desperately needed the little boys room, having drunk far too much coffee on the way over, finding the little boys room at Scunthorpe market however, proved not the easiest of tasks, especially for a disorientated Mank who had had an heavy session the night before, after some time I located what appeared to be the only loo for miles, a kindly local chap gave me directions and told me it would cost 10p for the most flitting of usage, I didn’t have 10p having just been to the cash machine earlier, and this friendly Scunthorpian seeing my desperate struggle for change, kingly offered me the 10p required for access. Like a bat out of hell I was at the door of the Gentlemen’s, only to find the true price was 20p, cross legged by this stage I offered the female loo attendant the choice between a 10p coin and a £20 pound note, fortunately for me she let me have a freebie (heaven).

By the time of my return to the market café the rest of the guys were demolishing huge plates of egg and bacon sarnies, so I quickly joined the feast, I expect the locals thought who are these savages from Mankyland as we devoured about 15 egg, bacon and sausage sandwiches in less that 5 minutes flat. Breakfast over and we drove down to the Corus Steel works to meet up with everyone.

It wasn’t long before we saw a group of lads waiting alongside the station at Appleby Frodingham and the first chap I spoke to was none other than Simon our fearless tour organiser, and what an absolutely marvelous job he did.

A number of other trippers arrived while Simon went off to get the locomotive, in addition to our private guards van trip, two more regular trips by steam were also taking place around the complex hauled by a lovely conditioned green Peckett tank built in 1912, this was hauling a 2-car heritage DMU. Arriving on the station at Appleby Frodingham we awaited arriving the 1958 built Arnold Machin which was purchased by the Eccles slag company and worked in their sidings until the mid 1970’s, this locomotive was loaned to the society by Eccles Successor The East Coast Slag Co and returned to working order in 1992 . it carriers the livery is that of the Eccles slag company.

The locomotive arrived at the station and collected the two guards vans we were to use for the tour. By this time around 15 or so had arrived for the trip and we quickly piled aboard the vans for what turned out to be a visit far beyond the expectations of many. I would say at his point if anyone has not yet been on one of Simon brake van tours, you have no idea what you are missing, it was well beyond anything we expected, professionally organized with countess and friendly staff and volunteers and they really must have pulled out all the stops, they took us everywhere, we had no idea what a marvelous trip this was going to be, a journey around, what is now the largest steel producing complex in Britain, it was absolutely fantastic and certainly a trip we won`t forget.

Our journey commence with a trip down to the Appleby Frodingham shed which has a purpose built station and an excellent display of both stock and locomotives which included a class 02, 03 and 07 ex BR shunters along with a few industrials and some amazing stock, ex BR 13000 was in the shed along with another Hunslet austerity steam tank undergoing renovation. An excellent coach designed for light snacks and beverages greeted us at the station, the work that had been done on this really was second to none, the shed visit was excellent and a number of facilities for visitor are provided on site, the shed build consists of a classic 4 road building and staff were indeed very welcoming and really couldn’t do enough for us.

After a brief break a new driver had arrived and we were soon back on the vans and heading deeper into the complex. From the outside viewers can have no idea of the size of this place, the trip was advertised as covering 10 mile of track, but it appeared much farther than this, after a trip behind Arnold Machin, we were taken to one of the higher level sidings adjacent to the BR main line where a class 20 hitched up to us, the class 20 took us around the entire outside of the complex were we have chance to photograph the site from various angles, this site really is vast. After a tour around the outside of the site we returned to the upper stabling point when one of the Corus Hunslet locomotives, built in the early 1970's a fleet of 11 beasts was hitched up, these locomotives really are amazing, all Radio Remote Controlled, it was fascinating to see the driver working the locomotive by radio controlled. Armed with our new locomotive we began to tour the inside of the complex and get the chance of studying the processes involved in steel production and to visit other parts of the site in more depth.

After another fascinating journey on different line, the Corus Hunslet was returned to the stabling point and Arnold Machin was again hitched up to our vans, the tour retuned to the Appleby Frodingham locomotive depot were we again visited the buffet coach for more refreshments and a brief interval, when soon we were back on the vans heading for Corus`s own locomotive depot, this really was one of the highlights, the driver took us right inside the shed and we had the opportunity to photograph most of the locomotive stock on site, around 20 locos in all including the other class 20 inside the shed come workshops. It really was amazing.

Returning from the Corus locomotive works we next visited the high level section, out locomotive pushed us up a very steep incline right into the heart of the foundry and above the furnaces proper to witness the coke trains operating, it was amazing to see these locomotives working at this level shuttling the hot coke towards and furnaces and dropping this pay load into the fiery furnace below, around 4 locomotives and special coke wagons were operating in this area.

Returning down the slope a number of torpedo trucks were parked at the bottom of the ramp offering excellent photographic opportunities, the tour then continued around the inner sanctum and backed into the lower furnace area were we got sight of the molten steel proper, what a marvelous sight that was.

Eventually the day came to an end and out little train made its way back up to the complexes Frodinham works station and we all said our goodbyes, lots of tears and shook hands with our tour guides, drivers and staff, definitely to return.
The journey back to Manchester was uneventful, although on leaving Scunthorpe we did invade a local chippy, devouring much of his stock.

In conclusion

We would all like to sincerely thank Simon for organizing such a fantastic visit, we really did have no idea just what the trip had install for us, it was certainly up and beyond anything we expected. We would also like to thank all the staff and drivers for a marvelous day, you guys really did pull all the stops out. The trip lasted in region of 6 and half hours, we went every were and saw everything, the Appleby Frodingham lads must have a fantastic relationship with Corus Steel and a thinks should also be given to Corus for its input and insight into this. If anyone out there has not yet done the trip, you really have no idea what you are missing and I would suggest you contact Simon immediately. The price for the trip was ridiculously low, £16 for the trip, I doubt it even paid for the fuel, let along the wages of the Corus drivers who took us around, I would have gladly paid at least £50 for a trip of this nature, I really cant congratulate the lads at Appleby Frodingham enough, what a truly amazing job you guys are doing over there, until next time and thank you again everyone.

For further information; http://www.afrps.co.uk/