Bitumen Tankers at Preston Riverside
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Bitumen Tankers at Preston Riverside by David Dixon as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Bitumen Tankers at Preston Riverside
Image: © David Dixon Taken: 22 Apr 2019
Bitumen tankers standing at Lanfina Siding which is adjacent to Lockside Road near The Ribble Steam Railway's Preston Riverside Station. The railway lines around Preston Dock largely fell into disuse after the closure of the docks in 1981. The Dock Branch, however, was retained to allow a limited service for bitumen and tar rail traffic, diesel hauled down the branch, which continued until 1995. https://web.archive.org/web/20190225223633/https://ribblesteam.org.uk/news/ribble-steam-railway-and-preston-docks/ Ribble Steam Railway (archived Feb 2019). After the line had been taken over by the Ribble Steam Railway to run as a heritage railway, the running of the bitumen trains to the Total Fina Elf plant adjacent to the Riversway site was resumed in 2004. These trains are loaded at Lindsay Oil Refinery on the East Coast and travel overnight to Preston via Hebden Bridge three times each week. The train is delivered by main line diesel loco to the Dock Railway sidings, from where the Ribble Rail Sentinel diesel locos shunt the tankers into the Total Fina Elf plant for discharge, processing, and onward distribution by road.
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Image Location
Latitude
53.758864
Longitude
-2.752134