A couple of updates that might be of interest - spoil trains to Peterborough and steel slabs to Sunderland Docks.
Spoil update
A while ago on this thread we were discussing the start of spoil trains from London to Tinsley, with a potential new spoil receiving terminal at Peterborough being mentioned.
I believe the first spoil train to Peterborough ran in February and they are now regular runners, usually one train per day running overnight to/from Acton.
It's been difficult to find any pictures or publicity about this new terminal at Peterborough, or even it's exact location, but after a bit of hunting on YouTube it became a bit clearer. If you watch a video titled "Peterborough Railway Station (15/03/2022)" by ECMLexpress, just after the 18 minute mark the camera zooms out to watch a class 156 unit passing Peterborough TMD. There are bogie box wagons loaded with spoil stabled next to the TMD, and the offloading appears to be taking place on a dead-end siding with a buffer stop just north of the shed building itself. On google maps there is a patch of overgrown wasteland here.
These London spoil flows have been changing origin and destination fairly frequently, but this is the current pattern:
Spoil to Peterborough is being loaded at DB's Cricklewood terminal and at Neasden Engineering Sidings, running as separate trains to / from Acton yard.
Spoil to Tinsley is being loaded at Bow and Barking, with the Bow workings running to/from Wembley yard. The empties from Tinsley also sometimes run as a "combi-consist" from Doncaster (mentioned a few posts back), being combined with empty scrap wagons off the Barking - Immingham flow.
Generally these spoil trains load and unload during the day at each end of the flow, and then run on overnight paths on the ECML, with one train per day arriving into each terminal at Peterborough and Tinsley.
Sunderland slabs
There's an article here about a new flow of steel slab from Scunthorpe to Sunderland Docks:
https://www.railfreight.com/railfre...-sunderland-vindicates-port-rail-renaissance/
Embedded on that page is a YouTube video by Andy Foster with some good footage of the train arriving and being offloaded.
Trains of steel slab for export from Scunthorpe have run every now and then to both Tees Dock and Immingham for many years - I don't know if this is the same traffic running to a different port, or completely new traffic (I've no idea where the slabs end up).
There were also some movements of imported steel coil from Sunderland Docks to Wolverhampton last year:
https://www.railfreight.com/railfreight/2021/07/01/steel-customer-tests-the-mettle-of-db-cargo-uk/
Another video on YouTube by Andy Foster titled "2nd Steel Coil load out from Port of Sunderland to the West Midlands" shows the upgraded track layout on the docks more clearly, which can be compared to the imagery on google maps.
There are also regular scrap metal trains from Sunderland to Cardiff Celsa, but these load in the vicinity of Londonderry sidings rather than on the dock itself - on google maps there is a "Ward Bros Steel Ltd" scrapyard next to the line, at the entrance to Londonderry sidings.