Show on mapThis bridge crossing the main railway now stands isolated behind Dockside Road and the back of the South Tees Motor Sports Park which covers the location of the Cargo Fleet Ironworks
Its inaccessible from either end, presumably to stop vandals throwing things onto passing trains as crossing wouldn’t actually get you anywhere.
Dave Walsh then quickly posed an interesting question about whether this was actually the bridge that carried the Cleveland Railway to the Normanby Jetty, to which I didn’t know the answer. Looking at the 1894 map there are actually two adjacent bridges, the northern one going to the Cargo Fleet Wharf and the southern one going to the Normanby Jetty used by Bell Brothers to transport ironstone to their works at Port Clarence.
The 1915 map appear the show the southerly bridge gone, leaving only the remaining one to the Cargo Fleet Wharf, but i’m by no means certain of all its functions over the years so any additional information would be welcome.
Update : Simon Chapman has kindly shared a 1972 photo of the bridge with me. In front of the bridge on the right can be seen the remaining parapet of the Cleveland Railway bridge to Normanby Jetty which was subsequently demolished. On the left of the photo is Normanby signalbox which controlled the junction for mineral traffic into Cargo Fleet Works.
Was this not the bridge that carried the original line of the Cleveland Railway to a wharf so that stone could be shipped over to Bell Bros plant on the North Bank ?
This bridge was used for access between Cargo Fleet Works south of the railway and the wharf north of it; later the area alongside the wharf and north of the railway became the stockyard for minerals brought in by ship and train.
In the early 1970s when Cargo Fleet was being dismantled trainloads of scrap were taken over this bridge then eastwards past Smiths Dock to get to Cleveland Works, a bit of a roundabout route but cheap to operate. The climb up to this bridge from the south was steep and I saw several times the works loco pulling a loaded train going up at a snail’s pace with its wheels spinning round.
Just to the west of the south abutment was a brick-built one large enough for double-track and this was the last remnant of the bridge built to access Normanby Wharf for transhipping ironstone to Port Clarence. Sadly this historic structure was soon destroyed.
Thanks Simon for clearing this one up.
you can, at the moment, get a little bit closer to Normanby Wharf as the fence is down !
have you ever tried using the internal roads to go down to the wharf ? was thinking of it myself .
I’m confused !! is the wharf that is down at the back of South Bank Coke Ovens called Normanby Wharf ? at the end of the road next to Smiths Dock .
as an apprentice I worked on the Pig Caster and crusher and there was a substation with mercury arc rectifiers inside. Next to the wharf, I was told there was a red goat lived around there as well, never saw it !!
A red goat ?
Was this about the time they sent you for tartan paint too ?
i worked at cargo fleet 1967 _1973 the bridge and line was part of cargo fleets internal railway system ie anyinternal loading of finished products but mainly for the line going to the right and the other one to the wharf. the line to the b right being the most important as it went to the slag pits cargo fleet loco.s and slag ladle,s where not allowed on british rail lines so they had to have a bridge and line of their own hope this is of some help bill
regarding the red goat myself and other work mates caught this said goat which lived underneath cargo fleet wharf and the r.s.p.c.a took it away and re homed it it was only red because of the red ore dust it lived amongst of the ore being unloaded at the jetty bill