[Dynamo]

When I first worked at Thornaby about 30 years ago, we had three regular trains a day that delivered lime to the steelworks at Lackenby and Redcar.

There were two trains that went to Redcar Mineral Terminal which both used HGA type MGR wagons, commonly refered to by traincrews as Dusty Bins. The two trains were loaded at Redmire in Wensleydale and at Thrislington Quarry which can be seen from the East Coast Main Line on the up (east) side between Ferryhill and Tursdale Junction. These trains normally used Class 47's which had Slow Speed fitted, but later on, pairs of Class 20's with Slow Speed equipment were used.

The other train came from Hardendale near Penrith and went to Lackenby. That one used CBA hopper wagons that are sometimes refered to as White Ladies. This train was normally pulled by a Class 37.

Since those days, the quarry at Redmire has closed and Thrislington doesn't supply Redcar anymore either, though the quarry there is still open. All the lime for Redcar now also comes from Hardendale. When the lime for Redcar originally started going from Hardendale to Redcar, it went in its own seperate train, but thanks to the better pulling power of the Class 60's that were now in use, the traffic is carried in just the one train.

When the one single train first came into operation, it was split at Tees Yard and two sperate trains then took the traffic on to Lackenby and Redcar. Just recently though, EWS/DB Schenker has changed its policy yet again to save money and now the train goes through to Lackenby complete. Once in Lackenby, the White Ladies are left there and the Dusty Bins are taken back out again, run round at South Bank next to the Coke Works, and then it goes foreward to tip at Redcar. Once tipped, the train then comes back out and runs round again at South Bank and goes back into Lackenby where its reunited with the now empty White Ladies.

This morning though, there was a change of plan. Both sets of wagons went into Lackenby as usual, and then the Dusty Bins came back out again. Once they got to Redcar Mineral terminal though, they were left there because the power was going to be down for a few hours. The loco (66021) then went light engine back to Lackenby to pick up the White Ladies, then they were run round at South Bank and taken into Redcar Mineral where they were reunited with the Dusty Bins and both trains went through the MGR unloader together, albeit that the White Ladies were already empty at that point.

As far as I'm aware, this is the first time that the White Ladies have been into Redcar Mineral, so I took a couple of pictures to commemorate the occasion. The first one is 66021 with just the White Ladies having been run round outside South Band Coke Works, and the second is with the Dusty Bins at the back which are in the process of being unloaded in Redcar.