Indeed the LNWR / LMS yard in Blaenau.
It was a different World then and some other changes not that long ago as I witnessed in the change of handling goods at sea – I joined the Welsh Navy (Blue Funnel Line) as an Engineer in the mid-60’s. It was all break bulk then – hoards of dockers stowing packages, crates and bags by hand into the ships’ holds. In 1964/5, Blu Flu spent £Ms rebuilding their base in Vittoria Dock, Birkenhead – new warehouses, wider quay with rail access and high speed cranes. Also, proper welfare facilities for the dockers and lorry drivers delivering goods.
By 1969, Blu Flu had formed a consortium with P&O and British & Commonwealth Group - Overseas Containers Ltd (OCL) and introduced 5 medium sized container ships on the Aussie run. These displaced the older ships, many of which were scrapped. By 1973, 5 Panamax sized ‘Liverpool Bay class’ containerships – then the largest in the World had come into service on the Far East run. In a year each could do the work of 7 of the old break bulk ships. When I joined Blu Flu, there were 73 ships in the fleet. By 1974, it was down to <20 and these were newer multi-purpose ships too big for Birkenhead. Thus in 10 years, all the money that had been spent on the new break bulk terminal was of no use, the berths stood empty, all the dockers, ships crews and support services redundant. I was lucky and transferred across to the Bay Boats cos I was a steam specialist and they were twin screw, steam turbine driven ships with 80,000 horses down the shafts to give in excess of 31kts flat out – wonderful ships for engineers… But, they required new ports to handle them and their cargoes of boxes. Instead of a week or two in port to load/unload perhaps 5000 T of goods, it could be done in a day with perhaps 3 or 4 container cranes, a few straddle carriers and a few support personnel…
Most of our old ports have closed down with some converted to flashy housing or shopping malls. Allied to this, our shipbuilding industry has gone and our coal and steel industries decimated…
To get back on track, if there are any orders for export slates these days, a box can be delivered to the quarry, loaded by a few people, the box then collected by one lorry driver and delivered to the dock. It will be loaded onto the ship by 2 people - the straddle carrier driver and loaded onto the ship by the crane driver. Across the seas and the reverse, delivered with negligible breakage to the building site.