Ravenscraig

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Postby HollowHorn » Sun May 07, 2006 7:18 pm

Vladimir wrote:out of ammunition...

Swap you some punctuation marks for some ammo :P
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Postby Vladimir » Sun May 07, 2006 8:43 pm

Now thats ammo HH. Dexter uses that one all the time... :roll: :wink:
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Postby HollowHorn » Sun May 07, 2006 9:03 pm

Outed :!: 8O
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Postby Squigster » Sat Dec 09, 2006 9:33 pm

This has to be the saddest picture that I have ever posted, imagine dead centre the blue tower of Ravenscraig. As a child I can still remember the sky lighting up orange as the furnaces were opened.

Image
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Postby MacotheIsles » Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:38 pm

Yep. I live about 100 yards from the edge of the site. Motherwell is a very, very different place nowadays with the works long gone, and I swear it's wetter now that the updraft from the chimneys isn't there to influence the microclimate any more. Nobody ever thought that Ravenscraig wouldn't be there one day - it was bolted right onto the bedrock of Lanarkshire.

Incidentally, work has just started in earnest to clear the eastern side of the site. The objections by the development companies behind East Kilbride, Hamilton and Livingston eventually got bombed out and the concrete breakers/ earth movers/ scrunchers and crunchers are doing their stuff. (And there is a LOT of concrete and embedded railway track being cleared).

I've walked the site a few times recently, trying to figure out where things used to be from the concrete foundations and remaining sections of line. Interesting still, but it'll change completely again now as the new town centre and housing goes up.
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Postby MotoMad » Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:57 pm

the site is massive never realised how big it was before and the road through it is fun
but not when your caught at 130 by the traffic police
crusty_bint wrote: i.e. they're not a bawhair away from Dickensian!
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Postby Vladimir » Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:32 am

Burying the past, thats all this development is. Soon people wont remember the steel plant when they hear Ravenscraig. They will remember the shopping mall...
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Postby DickyHart » Sun Dec 10, 2006 2:41 am

Vladimir wrote:Burying the past, thats all this development is. Soon people wont remember the steel plant when they hear Ravenscraig. They will remember the shopping mall...


couldnt agree with you more, Living in hamilton, I still meet disapointed men who worked there, it was terrible the way they were treated.
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Postby MacotheIsles » Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:00 am

I've noticed that everybody on HG loves trains and railways, so I thought I'd post this pic of one of the small diesel shunters that used to ply between Ravenscraig and Dalzell steelworks. Unfortunately Dalzell lost its rail system a few years ago and the locos, and this track, are long gone.

Image
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Postby KonstantinL » Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:44 pm

MacotheIsles wrote:I've noticed that everybody on HG loves trains and railways, so I thought I'd post this pic of one of the small diesel shunters that used to ply between Ravenscraig and Dalzell steelworks. Unfortunately Dalzell lost its rail system a few years ago and the locos, and this track, are long gone.

Image


Not a rail buff but remember those little engines well, being a local.

Is the line still down at Cleek-Him-Inn? You used to see trains headed for/leaving (I assume anyway!) Ravenscraig going over the bridge next to the petrol station and then by Colville golf course.

I used to be an N/Hill boy but now I live closer to Dalzell.
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Postby MacotheIsles » Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:26 pm

KonstantinL!

The line is still there - mostly - but its days are well and truly numbered. I think it might become a cycle path soon. It hasn't seen a train since 1994 and is well overgrown now. It's junction with the main line at Mossend has been severed for many years.

What is quite interesting is that this line - which served Ravenscraig Number 3 yard - was built on top of an existing line that used to run under Merry Street at the same point as this one goes over it. At its top end towards Mossend it also used to be the main line into Motherwell, branching off across the Calder on an old wooden viaduct over The Globe and running under Merry Street where the TSB now is.

A very pleasant mile-or-so's walk in the meantime, while it still remains.
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Postby Alycidon » Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:01 pm

MacotheIsles wrote:What is quite interesting is that this line - which served Ravenscraig Number 3 yard - was built on top of an existing line that used to run under Merry Street at the same point as this one goes over it. At its top end towards Mossend it also used to be the main line into Motherwell, branching off across the Calder on an old wooden viaduct over The Globe and running under Merry Street where the TSB now is.


The Original Wishaw and Coltness railway, one of the first in Scotland, Opened: 1834 from Whifflet in Coatbridge (where it joined the Monkland & Kirkintilloch) to Holytown, 1844 to Coltness Iron Wks.
Original Gauge: 4'-6"
Date of Gauge change to standard gauge: 1847
Subsequent Ownership.
To Caledonian Railway: 1846
To London, Midland and Scottish Railway: 1923
To British Railways: 1st January 1948
[img]http://www.jhowie.force9.co.uk/emu314carcream.gif[/img]

We must perform a Quirkafleeg!!!!
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Postby onyirtodd » Fri Jan 12, 2007 6:05 pm

Mention of Whifflet reminded me of R B Tennant in Coatbridge and helped me to track this down.

http://www.jhowie.f9.co.uk/whifflet2.htm
238 to 127. All in all a good afternoon's work
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Postby MacotheIsles » Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:07 pm

Alicydon!

Thanks for that information. I'll need to track down the site of the Coltness Iron Works now. I didn't know about the 4'6 guage.
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Postby MacotheIsles » Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:18 pm

Onyirtodd...

Interesting link, thanks. I can remember lots of lanarkshire sidings and works much like the scenes there. It wasn't that long ago you'd pass Hallside Works at Newton and see the little Ruston & Hornsby working away, or see a class 06 running out of Hamilton on a trip working.
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