Class 58 unloading coal at Ironbridge Power Station June 1998

Class 58 locomotives hauled 32 car trains of coal to Ironbridge Power Station in June 1998. The trains carried about 1300 tons of coal and were pulled through the unloader at about 2.7 mph. This video shows the operation from the locomotive cab, the ground and the overhead walkways inside the unloading shed. Many thanks to everyone who helped in the making of this video.

[@petergrabham3887]

I used to work at that coal plant back in 1998, it's nice to see brian unloading the coal wagons

[@markjosephbudgieridgard]

Big fan of the class 58 they used to thunder through Creswell on the Robin Hood line hauling coal.... Sadly no more... It amazes me that you still see 37s and other vintage locos far older than the class 58 working on the network yet every 58 seems to have been scrapped... Iam sure these 58s could still do a job..... RIP CLASS 58 ❤

[@adamscott6963]

Brilliant footage this is. Seeing how it’s done.

[@Steve-bo6ht]

Thanks for this gem of a time capsule David been watching many archive british freight train videos in lockdown.

[@bobp6742]

I used to be a driver at saltley then crewe between 1975/85 both depots did runs to iron bridge. We had class 47s back then and iron bridge was one of my favourite runs along with didcot when I was at saltley. Great fun if your the first out of ironbridge in the morning on a wet rail up that incline and leaves on the line. Used to get the guard walk in front of you putting coal in the rail for more grip Used to have a good subsidised canteen at ironbridge as well. Both power stations now gone.

[@simonvaughan788]

Derek atkins and brian tims

[@MrJimbaloid]

Thank you for posting this I grew up in barrow hill very near the railway shed where this loco spent most of its life and I saw thousands of mgr coal trains in the 80's and 90's and got to see them loaded at the coal mines but I've never seen one unloaded.It was fascinating. Many thanks.

[@stephensmith4480]

HAA`S. Brings back memories. I used to load coal trains at the Liverpool Bulk Terminal,down at the docks, for this same power station. Happy Days.

[@sarahjoyholden7856]

Fascinating to see how it works, such ashame that these traditions here have now been lost to history

[@CaiWilde420]

And now the power station is gone, we will miss you.

[@justRayEvansopinion]

With overcrowded roads perhaps the railways will experience a renaissance. Good video for the archives.

[@david-othen]

+Ray Evans Thank you for your kind comments. Yes a renaissance of train travel and goods haulage by rail would be great but "Just in Time" purchasing tends to have made this less likely.

[@trainsontuesday]

Great video, Great historical record. Thanks.

[@david-othen]

+David Atkins Thank you. It was fascinating to watch.

[@theredrag1541]

That train used to drive past my old primary school when I was in year 6 feels so long ago

[@andrzejszyszo4284]

There is a small error in the wideo: HMA MGR coal hopper have a permissible payload of 32 tons, which together with the wagon's weight of 13 tons gives a gross weight of 45 tons. That's the maximum a two-axle wagon can weigh on most railroads in Europe. So whole 32 car train contains aprox. 1000 tons of coal.

[@stnicholas54]

Great camera work between 12.20 and 13.00.

[@ianjones4116]

De Martens and Denim Jeans !! What railway company did he drive for ? BR best railway. Good days, I remember them well. Thanks for posting.

[@david-othen]

Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers.

[@gokceralp]

Awesome footage!

[@djtrainspotter3079]

Most fascinating stuff cheers

[@markgraham1109]

Very informative and interesting.

[@squeeden]

7:18, the guy on the ground lights a cigarette... while surrounded by coal dust. Amazing that was ever allowed.

[@keithturner3602]

Good stuff!

[@owenevans83]

Good footage.

[@Gwril76]

We had a steamer and a class 47 on this line today. First rail bit of rail traffic since 2015. Would have been nice to have seen a class 58 today though. Great video 👍

[@nickedwards2904]

well not really as the 47 had made a journey down the friday before the Sunday :-) And there had been a test train since 2015 as well

[@bennickss]

The line has now been inactive since 2019 and probably will be forever at this rate

[@Tom-Lahaye]

This same site is a field of weeds now, but luckily the tracks are still in situ. There are some ideas to extend the Telford steam railway which now only runs over a bit more than a mile of track to this site. This seems viable because there are many good tourist atractions around here, like several industrial museums, a castle just beyond the power station site and the beautiful village of Ironbridge. It would make for a nice preserved railway, in adition to the nearby Severn Valley Railway.

[@nickedwards2904]

its Buildwas Abbey , not a castle

[@ykdickybill]

Couldn’t agree more. Would be fantastic for tourism.

[@BigCheese85]

2:54. Could never trail points like that today.

[@DanWrightOICU812]

Thank You Guys for Taking the time to make this film or video. I think it's awesome and in successive video's you'll get even better. I enjoyed it, so much I watched it twice. I read the comment about the terrorist's incidents. Is it not a shame, such people exist. It hurts us, all in Oh so many ways.

[@ricksadler797]

Nice 👍 😊

[@lmsu2class135]

Really good footage its good to film this for train lovers like are self's.

[@david-othen]

+LMS U2 Class Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@jaggass]

I live near Worksop. Thoresby colliery shut down last year.

[@BritishRail60062]

Great video there. I hope more coal trains return to the tracks again in the future. I do like the Class 58's to be honest.

[@nickedwards2904]

why would coal be getting moved again? Coal has gone now , no more trains

[@nickedwards2904]

@@muttley8818 is it ? Really? I have never ever seen a 67 on coal and doubt it ever happened. Can you inform me which power stations use coal in the uk then ? The only one i know of is Drax which only has 1 coal generator so provides around 5% of electricity. No other power stations left, so please dont correct me , or try to, when you obviously dont know much about this subject

[@anubis6864]

@@nickedwards2904 Well you aren't as clever as you make yourself out to be! Do some research before contradicting others, it just makes you look stupid. Units 4 and 5 at Drax still burn coal, as do Ratcliffe, West Burton and Fiddlers Ferry.

[@nickedwards2904]

@@anubis6864 i said as u might notice "as i am aware of" as u might see. I also stated around 5% which is about right for electricity generated from coal. Fiddlers has been mothballed for years and am not aware of the last train in , but very few in the past 3 years . The user i was correcting was telling me i was completely wrong and coal trains are commonplace , are they ? Really? I have not seen a coal train in years . He also stated 67s worked these trains , as i stated i have never ever seen for real or a pic a 67 on a coal train , have you? And why did u not jump on his post anyway? He seems to be the first here attacking others with incorrect info, is he not? Thanks for your input Mr Anubis , but like your friend u look a bit daft and a little bit of a keyboard warrior, and lets not forget who started this "correcting" of posts , perhaps read back u tool

[@nickedwards2904]

@@anubis6864 as u suggested just checked, i was right . Only Drax currently contributing to the grid mate. Yes a few left , not recieving coal. Thanks for your input though, very helpful

[@stuartdaniels73]

Daleks will of course always dump the coal in the same place. Using bars gives the guys greater control over where to drop it. Ironbridge burns wood pellets these days but the plant is sadly scheduled to close in a few months.

[@Cloud0009]

Daleks?

[@MrJimbaloid]

Yes a nickname given to those pieces of equipment at the trackside the open and close the wagons. The daleks we're an alien enemy on the uk sci-fi show "DR WHO".

[@stephensmith4480]

I have just seen the post by Stuart Daniels. He was a former Railway colleague of mine from the Liverpool Area who is sadly no longer with us. R.I.P My friend.

[@Mike-kc8rl]

The 58 never got the love of the 56 , probably because it was so muted in sound but it did work hard in its day ? And lends design form seen now in another ugly class of locomotive the 70s .

[@jamtart606]

is the railway line to the power station still in tact or is it disused?

[@Gwril76]

The line is still live, but nothing had used until today when a special service was put on to celebrate steam and Ironbridge. See my video of today's action.

[@ykdickybill]

Does anyone know if that coal is ‘ furnace ready ‘ or does it require milling ? It looks quite coarse in the hoppers although it’s already undergone a fair bit of processing I would imagine.

[@laurenssmith9534]

It would have got pulverised even more inside the power station before being blasted into the furnaces

[@COIcultist]

@@laurenssmith9534 It had a varying consistency to aid handing. Some collieries used the small sized end of their production but one colliery I worked at sent everything to power station output. Yet it still wasn't pulped to the requirements of the CEGB because that would have made handling more difficult. I've never seen them but believe they used a roller grinders to pulverise the coal.

[@adammoss5284]

The pulverised coal burnt on contact inside the boilers. Good steady heat out that way to drive the turbines and exciters. The resulting ash made construction blocks like flettons 👍🏻

[@mikehudson8884]

How does one get to visit the power station?

[@david-othen]

+Mike Hudson I was a volunteer at the Severn Valley Railway and on a day off I asked for permission at the Guard House. Since I was from "out of country" I probably got permission more easily. Now since all the terrorist incidents world wide I would expect that it would be much more difficult.

[@wesleyjohnclarke7657]

the power station i think is being demolished to make way for a extension of the Severn Valley Railway

[@nickedwards2904]

@@wesleyjohnclarke7657 no it isnt lol There is some nonsense said on here. The Powerstation site is being used for houses, the cooling towers came down last week

[@DocterGeko]

I get it was part of the mechanism but to me, anything that clanks that loud and that sharply needs looking at.

[@MontyCantsin5]

What?

[@bennickss]

Shame that this line is now mothballed.

[@panther590]

How did you ride along on this service? Competition

[@david-othen]

I requested permission from the Power station.

[@simonvaughan788]

I used to work on the railway snnd was on a coal train going down the bank towards tge power station with ths cab doors open and a peacock jumped into the cab.

[@bobp6742]

🤣 never had that, but did have a suicide attempt at the junction where we used to come off the main line to go onto the single track to ironbridge. Can't remember the name of the box, no doubt gone years ago.

[@simonvaughan788]

Yeah i started on the RTS railway training scheme based at bescot working under joe barnet fred and sid cant remember and graham sibery went on loads of freight trains loved it i even got dropped off in kidderminster a fair few times on the china clay on its way to st Blazey.

[@bobp6742]

@@simonvaughan788 Went to bescot yard a lot from saltley, that'll be around 1979/80 will always remember the clatter of the dowty retarders there and the amount of kids that played chicken around the mainline there.

[@simonvaughan788]

@@bobp6742 i also worked at saltley in the early 90s went on banking engines for the lickey incline and my favourite runs from there were the car tics to get the minis mini metros and of course rovers at longbridge derek atkins and brian timms

[@bobp6742]

@@simonvaughan788 I remember the lickey incline. Used to be a run, redditch stone, take a loaded train from redditch to Bristol, wait at Bristol for the return empties. The train was unfitted so would stop at lickey for the guard to pin the brakes down then on the way back get the banker to shove us up lickey. Used to be a banker outside saltley depot but we didn't cover the bankers at lickey. I was at saltley in 1977 I moved there from crewe to do my secondman training then moved back to crewe after 18 months to do my driver training. The only person I can remember from saltley who I did the secondman training with was a lad called David knight. I left the railways completely in 1985 to work on the overhead powerlines for 15 years the went into nuclear decommissioning for 20 years and I took early retirement 3 years ago. But good memories of my time as a saltley seagull 🤣

[@Phleeper]

Unmistakable North Staffordshire accent from the driver.

[@david-othen]

Quite a young guy who saw train driving as a good job but he was not particularly interested in locomotives.

[@laurenpalmer4699]

Paul Phillips not North Staffordshire accent. Derbyshire accent.

[@2KXMKR]

Guy on the left. Unloading a train full of coal for a power station and he lights up a ciggy lol

[@panther590]

The men opening the doors with bars is not normal operation the usual means is by daleks

[@david-othen]

AFAIK the normal operation at this power station in 1998 was to use men but the operation may have since been upgraded.

[@jacknorman5816]

Maybe you could update a very old video.

[@oliverashton551]

We have to get passenger services running on this line again.

[@david-othen]

+Oliver Ashton Do you have the ridership to make it viable?

[@oliverashton551]

+David Othen If it is promoted on TV has part of the Birth Place of Industrial revolution attraction having has some one else has said, having commuter trains in the morning and evening and running has a heritage line it would work.

[@david-othen]

+Oliver Ashton I am sure you would know better than I would since I live in Canada. Good luck promoting the idea.

[@keithbarber4502]

Oliver Ashton

[@timlabell]

Very surprised to see that man smoking a cigarette around all that coal 🧨🎻

[@neilwilliams2409]

Scab coal in a Shropshire power station. Last Shropshire mine closed in 1979.

[@PenzancePete]

That sort of stupid comment is worthy of the Socialist Worker not KZbin.

[@neilwilliams2409]

@@PenzancePete proud member of the NUM. Never voted for Liebour or Tories.

[@COIcultist]

@@neilwilliams2409 Hang on this is disingenuous. I hate the "Blessed Margaret Hilda" as much as the next man but there was a Staffordshire coal field up to the 1990s. If you are going to get upset about anything look at how we destroyed domestic coal for vengeance then raped our gas fields in "The Dash For Gas" which means we are now a net importer of gas. Then look at the silly subsidies we pay for so-called carbon-neutral wood that is not wood waste but a low calorific fuel imported after it was forest cut. A small proportion of those subsidies would have kept a British strategic industry in business.

[@neilwilliams2409]

@@COIcultist Shroshire contributed so much to the industrial revolution. No less than Shropshire Longwall Mining which is still used around the world today. May1979 saw the last deep mine in Shropshire close. We were transfered to Staffordshire . After the strike 84 / 85 the writing was on the wall. Payback time for the Tories. Shropshire coal should of been feeding Buildwas power ststion. Then and now. Today I watch German Van's with German workers building German wind turbines, in these mountains. Worthless eyesores on the landscape. Whilest back in Germany they are building coal fired power stations. Let's not mention China. That's how this nation treated the industries that gave so much to it. The old colliers talking would say that the Common Market was a bad mistake. They said also that Brirain was a bastard mother but a lovely host. My take on it was that we ditched our own who sacrificed and looked after us. To then get in bed with our enemies. They were not wrong those old colliers. Mind you they did have the advantage of having fought in Europe sadly. Sadly others were foreigners who either chose not to return or could not return. Like Breaker Morant quoted MATHEW 10 ::36.

[@lambda100]

Where is Ironbridge? Alabama, maybe, or perhaps Yoguslovenia?

[@david-othen]

+lambda100 England near Birmingham

[@wesleyjohnclarke7657]

ironbridge is situated in Shropshire UK, which crosses over the River Severn hence why the Severn Valley Railway takes its name from

[@m3hnl]

the class 59 loco,s hauls over 3000 to 5000 tons of stone. out of somerset and has done so for over 30 years where are the 58 ,s now .

[@GWRProductions-kg9pt]

3000 is the limit

[@m3hnl]

electronic creep control

[@bernardtharme838]

In USA they can unload 100 tons in 30seconds

[@GWRProductions-kg9pt]

too slow yank the 100 ton bogie hoppers that have succeeded the MGR 2 axle hoppers take half the time to drop it's load

[@stevelarson3376]

Does anyone share my concerns for the workers? I find it hard to believe the British Government does not insist the men unloading the coal manually, do not have to wear respiratory protection. It is a well known fact that mercury content in coal can be high. For those unfamiliar to this substance, mercury is a very strong neurotoxin that can damage the nervous system, the brain and other organs. I dearly hope the workers have good health insurance policies, their spouses and immediate families are protected by a nice life insurance policy . Unbelievable!

[@MrProdigious1]

Always one moaning twat!!

[@stephensmith799]

There's been improvements in safety at work, leading to more than a halving of deaths in the construction industry, but deep sea fishing remains dangerous. Deaths among railway ground staff, particularly shunters used to be running at a terrible rate due to the obsolete three-link hooking system then in use. But I take your point about what Occupational Health specialists call 'slow accidents'. It is the hidden risks that kill too. You know that asbestos was a known killer in the 1880s and nothing was done about it 'till the 1980s?! Union power was attacked strongly by the government here from 1979 and the incoming Thatcher government (much as in the US). This meant that workers' ability to raise Health and Safety worries was reduced, but at least the legislation itself got better.

[@sirmartinfrobisher]

It amazes me, just how many workers are needed to unload the train. Ignore the idiots that think respiratory diseases are what men hope for. I am from Yorkshire, my family worked in the "s**tholes" there. My mum and dad did everything to avoid it for me. First day for my uncle was manually hacking out an 80cm seam in 10cm water (read water+ urine + faeces). He lasted 2 weeks. Those were the good old days. Lol?

[@eatonjask]

" I dearly hope the workers have good health insurance policies," Of course they do - this is in the UK, they have the NHS, one of the finest health insurance and service systems in the world! Unlike the USA, the UK cares about the health of it's people.

[@jackharrison6771]

Comment at 5.10 mins. Pro Privatisation Driver? lol The Private Rail firms only cherry-pick; and Tories were never friends of Railways.

[@spencerhardy8667]

The entire railway system was developed and built by private industry. It was nationalised for only a short period after WW2, about the life span of a locomotive.

[@PenzancePete]

The class 58 locomotive. Another waste of money by B.R.

[@MontyCantsin5]

What was a waste was their tragically short lifespan.

[@poppyjons56874]

fossil fuel eh! mmmmm naughty