Scrap Kibble

Postcard: LMS (ex Furness Railway) 4-6-4 Baltic Tank 11101 rounding the station curve departing Carnforth for Whitehaven. At the rear of the train are two through L&NWR coaches from Easton to Whitehaven. No1a blast furnace with its inclined skip hoist is peeping out from the left side, and the chimney is partly hidden by the signal post on the right. There is some shunting of wagons going on in the sidings far right.

11100 poses outside Carnforth Junction signal box. Some of the works offices and the chimney in the background.

Locomotive and General Railway Photographs No 20171

Furness Railway 0-6-0 No 16 passing Midland bottom end sidings approaching Carnforth in 1923. Hazel Mount is to the right and Sands Lane on the horizon. The first 6 wagons are open empties, probably returning from Barrow Docks.

"F Wilkinson, Ulverston" is the 1st, "Hemsworth" is 2nd and "Walden Ltd. Glasgow" is 3rd. (possibly).

(Hemsworth Colliery and Coke Ovens were near Wakefield in Yorkshire.)

Furness Railway 0-6-0 locomotive (could be No 56 a D1 class built by Sharp Stewart) with another Furness Railway tank locomotive and brake van beyond. Carnforth's chimney dominates.

Above the locomotive tender is the top of the blower house and the steelworks chimney.

This appears to be a carnival float, I'm unsure of the circumstances. The boards declare "Barrow Haematite Steel Company, This is the Original Bessemer converter in which was manufactured the first steel in Barrow 1865"

It might be a little smaller than the 6ton converters at Carnforth.

The lorry has the early British Railways lion on wheel emblem on the door.

The other float to the right is "Barrow Ironworks Ambulance Corps" and decorated with first aid posters. Location is Barrow blast furnaces.

From Peter Holmes' Industrial Railways and Locomotives of Cumberland. This is Millom No7 with dumb buffers built by Neilson in 1897. Of greater interest is the parade of dubious characters lined up for the selfie. They are pig lifters, suitably attired and equipped for the task of lifting pigs out of their beds after casting. It is reasonable to assume the pigs would often be still hot, heavy, unseparated, and with razor sharp flash which could easily cut. They have special hooked hammer tools , substantial body and leg protection, and the far right chap has a leather hand guard which was a signature piece of protection for this type of work. Hard graft but maybe a better job than mining.