The Boulby potash mine is a personal favourite and I have a connection to the line as when I was 11-14 years old I lived near this mine and got to see the mine from a friends farm and used to watch the trains at Morrisons in Redcar. This route goes from the industrial side of Middlesburgh/Hartlepool/Redcar out to the cliff edge at Hunts cliff and down to the potash mine.
Running from Tees Rail yard near Thornaby heads towards Middlesbourgh passing the Tees transporter bridge & Teesdale university to Middlebourgh station where the line from the docks joins the main line through south bank, British Steel Redcar, Redcar central, Longbeck, Marske and Saltburn. Saltburn is the end of line for passenger trains. At Saltburn West Junction Brotton, Craig Hall signal box, Skinningrove where there is a steel works. The lines go through Loftus & Grinkle and Grinkle tunnel and into the yard at Boulby potash mine yard. There is a steep grade from Boulby potash yard to saltburn.
Photograph copyright and reproduced courtesy of Paul Bartlett.
This line is highly scenic and uses the Class 142 pacer trains and 156s. I saw the potash trains it was either two Class 37s or 1 Class 56 usually in EWS, Transrail grey, Railfreight Grey, Loadhaul, Mainline grey, on the very rare occation a Class 60, I enjoyed seeing these older units, hearing these older units chugging through Redcar with 7-10 potash cars and then I saw the 66s it was disappointing as I had seen them in Ayrshire on coal trains and a glimpse of a rare double header with 48 hoppers.
At the Tees yard is where I saw more Class 60s. In more recent years, Arriva got the boot and was replaced by GO Northern. EWS lost the contract for the potash trains and was replaced by Freightliner which has seen locomotives on hire from DRS & Colas rail. The Freightliner Class 66s are being used and stabled in Middlesbourgh, even their Shanks & Bardon Aggregates units have been used on the line.