Tarmacadam

General observations

This image was taken some time after closure of the works. It is from a less common position and shows some priceless details which are often hidden. Note that the 220ft chimney has gone and the overhead travelling crane and gantry which spanned the pig beds. The only signs of activity are on these two railway sidings in the foreground. 

Peter Holmes suggests the upright structure on the left is a Cupola furnace for melting iron. There is a bridge from the high line to the charging platform (with plate walls).  The site map and images show a defined floor space to the left which could be pig beds. A Cupola would have been necessary  to melt pig iron to supply the Bessemer Converters for steelmaking. 

The downcomers (the large diameter diagonal pipes) from all three furnaces guide dirty blast furnace gas to the bottom of dust extractors. The bustle pipe, the round pipe circling the base of each furnace delivered hot blast to the base of the furnace through water cooled tuyeres. 

Tarmacadam

Following closure in 1930 North Lonsdale Tarmacadam Company (a subsidiary of Thomas Ward Ltd.) took over the tarmacadam works on Warton sands, previously operated by Lancashire County Council. Phil Grosse states that NL selected only the slag that had come from the manually charged blast furnaces in slag boxes, as this slag was much harder than the later slag which was tipped by ladle. The earlier slag was cooler and more viscous when it left the furnace. The main customer remained Lancashire County Council and the main application was road building.  The operation lasted about 8 years and was gone by 1938, a year before the outbreak of World War II. 

Zooming in reveals a little more detail about the two rows of wagons. The further row are low sided internal user wagons with side doors carrying heaped slag and single shoe brake gear. The nearer wagon is a regular empty 5 plank wagon with side doors and full brake gear that is suitable for travelling on the rail network. It shares the siding with another 2 NL wagons with a variation on the lettering.  They might be 4 plank wagons, it is hard to tell.  It is reasonable to suggest their interiors are partially stained black, and may have been used for customer deliveries.    Mystery item in the foreground.