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Slag from the blast furnaces (shown as red dots) was originally dumped in an area just North of the Furness and Midland joint line (running left to right) on the map.
Rails stopped at a headshunt at the top of the map.
A branch struck out North and West toward Scout Quarry, which was a source of limestone for the works.
There is still clear evidence of this slag dump (in 2024) but the site is overgrown and has been covered with brick, concrete and other discarded waste. Nevertheless there are examples of hexagonal slag blocks and at least one rectangular slag block embedded in a vertical face. It is very hard to find!
The tracks ran parallel to the Furness Railway main line and passed under Sand Lane through an arch which has been filled. They emerged to the North and West of Howard Cottage, parallel to New Road. to a junction. The branch crossed over the Furness railway on a light bridge (marked with a red dot).
The railway continued North and crossed New Road to reach the Quarry. Viewing the old trackbed is difficult due to high hedges, undergrowth, and no footpaths on New Road.
The croad crossing was not gated. The train crew being required to protect movements with a red flag or oil lamp.
In 2021 Contractors exposed the line of the old railway tracks under the road while excavating a service trench.
Images courtesy Jim Dominy
Looking South East.
The old trackbed has been surfaced by Cote Stones Farm for private use. New Road is just right of the hedge.
Bridge and ramp over the former Furness line that carried the railway toward Keer sands.
Today the area is a Nature reserve and popular habitat for a range of sea birds.
Extensive slag deposits remain, although significant volumes were recovered for road construction (M6 motorway & Lindale by-pass) and in the laying of a gas pipeline.
That said, it is subject to constant erosion by the sea and the Keer estuary is constantly changing shape.
Courtesy Gary Smith
In amongst the deposits are these historical gems. The pop bottle gives an idea of scale. Carnforth began slag disposal with square boxes, but introduced round boxes at the time the Ford and Mancur stoves were introduced to furnace 1, 2, and 3 in 1880 (1) Both were in use until 1903 when tipping ladles came in to use.. In the bottom right corner of this engraving of a Middlesbrough furnace you can see the slag box.
The shell was made in several segments and it is tapered. In the early period slag was lower temperature, viscous, and borderline solid. It is not surprising to see broken bricks, blocks, and other waste mixed in with the slag.
The engraving depicts a furnace cast. The iron is running down the sow from the right and filling the voids made in the sand by the pig moulds. The general arrangement looked like several young pigs suckling on the sow, which is where the term Pig Iron originates.
Note the steel hoops at regular intervals spanning the runner. They are supporting temporary gates at the head of each sow. One group of pig moulds has just been filled and the furnaceman is about to breach the side of the runner to direct the flow 90 deg. along the next sow.
No Health and Safety in those days. Molten iron doesn't fizz or sparkle in these conditions so it is quite common to see shirt sleeves rolled up. It takes time to acclimatise yourself to work so closely to molten metal. You or I wouldn't be able to step anywhere near it.
This is a train of round slag boxes at the Clay Lane furnaces Middlesbrough. There were no brakes on the bogies.
This is how the casings were lifted off the flat bogie, although perhaps not at Carnforth. Standard 4ft 81/2" gauge square shaped bogies with very short wheelbase. The wheels had wide flanges to cope with sharp curves and poorly laid industrial track, similar in many ways to mine carts. This image is from around 1900 and came from a handbook produced by Herbert Morris & Co. of Loughborough, crane manufacturers, actual location unknown. One assumes the casing was lifted off a loaded box and transferred to an empty bogie. This photo may have been staged since there is one too many cases. This procedure relies upon the slag being cool enough to remain consolidated. Then it was transported a short way to the dump site and tipped.
Courtesy Cumbrian Railways Association
A train of slag boxes at Cleator Moor Ironworks. This was taken on the joint line near Birks Bridge Junction and is headed to the abandoned Aldby limestone quarry where it was dumped. It helps to imagine making sandcastles on the beach with an inverted bottomless bucket. At the tip, the round cases were lifted off.
Now let us look at the square slag boxes, supplied by the Canal Foundry at Ulverston and Lowca Enginering Company (1).
There are examples of square shaped slag deposits at the Keer Marsh site. When the works closed there was a Tarmacadam plant working on the site for several years. The older, harder slag was better for road building. I expect it was consumed first.
This is taken from a document published by the Lowca Engineering Company and illustrates the square slag box that they manufactured. I have heard these described as a Cornthwaite Bogie. Evidently the patent was for both round and square boxes. It is not clear to me why one would prefer one over the other.
The sides and ends were made equal length to expand equally and avoid stress fractures.
Lowca have listed Carnforth among their many customers for their boxes. It comes as no surprise that many were local.
The Industrial Railway Record (2) contains an account of an accident at Distington Haematite Ironworks which describes in detail, the process of tipping the boxes. In 1892 James Jackson sought compensation for injuries sustained by slag which was still molten when the box was being lifted off the bogie.
The Cornthwaite family were linked to the Victoria Foundry (later the Parish Rooms) on the foreshore at Parton. It was up for sale in 1887.
The case was based upon the claim that an accident was more likely with a Cornthwaite bogie compared to an ordinary bogie (also used) and there were insufficient bogies for the expected volume of slag. The company increased the number after the accident. James Jackson was a legsman (an assistant slag tipper).His fellow workman was John Murray. He describes how the box was lifted off the bogie by a chain passing over a pulley atop a set of shear legs, the chain connected to the locomotive. When they raised the box, the slag was stuck inside. Jackson's job was to get on top of it and free the slag with a pinch bar. John Wilkinson was the driver and Joseph Lace the fireman (3) . It was while Jackson was climbing on to the box, with his foot on the axle that the slag suddenly dropped and molten slag ran down and on to his foot. The slag was about 20 minutes out of the furnace. He claimed that he had worked at other furnaces in the district but they allowed longer time to cool with less risk of slag sticking. The boxes were fastened at the edges by bars and a cotterel. He had tools for slackening the ordinary boxes supplied by the Company but they were unsuitable for the Cornthwaite boxes. Witnesses stated that there had been similar accidents before, that complaints had been raised previously about insufficient boxes meant there was not enough time to allow cooling and that sticking boxes required regular intervention as described.
While the defence sought to place some blame on Jackson, that he was negligent, was not under time pressure, and and could have used the supplied screwkey to unscrew the bolts holding the box together, the jury decided in favour of Jackson. He won his full £234 claim.
This was traced from evidence used in the court case and shows the legs used to lift the box from the bogie. The chain was coupled to the slag locomotive, which backed away and lifted the box.
A dangerous modus operandi whichever way you look at it.
it is reasonable to assume Carnforth slag was handled similar to this. It is uncertain how the solid lump of slag was tipped off the bogie, probably it was a manual task using pinch bars.
Below is an excerpt from: Iron: its sources, properties, and manufacture by William Henry Greenwood. Published 1907.
In front of the blast furnace slag hole a sloping channel, the cinder or slag fall, is made by which the slag is carried away. The slag is often formed into large blocks by running it into a slag-tub or bogie, an iron truck with movable sides, so that, when the tub is filled and the slag has solidified, the sides of the cinder-tub are lifted away by means of a crane, or if hinged are turned downwards. The mass of slag is then lifted from the bottom of the slag- tub or bogie on which it stands, and conveyed to the cinder -heap ; or the bogie itself is drawn to the cinder-heap, and the block there thrown or tipped on to the heap. As the slag-bogie is filled, it is replaced by an empty one, or the channel is diverted so as to run the slag into another standing alongside the one just filled. (Note that both round and square boxes are shown).
On the shore at Harrington there are remains of an old wood built trestle. Slag contained lumps of iron, refractory, and various scrap pieces. The softer slag has been washed away in the last century, leaving this behind.
This slag was much hotter and less viscous before it was dumped, indicating it was from a later period in the history of the furnaces, when they were being driven harder. It is usual to find contraries mixed in with the slag. Little sorting of waste back then.
This is Harrington Ironworks. It is a poor quality image but it is historically important in the context of early slag disposal. It suggests the slag was handled with round shaped bogies. The shear legs are relatively close by the blast furnaces. The slag bogie lid was lifted off here and the bogie propelled on to the shoreline behind the photographer. Incidentally, it is not a slag bank, but a natural hill in the distance.
In 1903, with the introduction of new hot blast stoves and other modifications, the furnaces were being worked harder and slag temperatures were higher. The slag became less viscous and demanded new equipment which allowed the slag to be tipped more easily, the discussion continues in Late Slag Disposal
NOTES
NOTES
(1) The Railways of Carnforth by Philip Grosse
(2) Industrial Railway Record #99 published by the Industrial Railway Society, based upon an article in the Cumberland Pacquet of 19th October 1892 and held in the Brockbank and Helder archives, Carlisle.
(3) So Distington employed at least 4 men to tip slag.
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