Saturday, October 02, 2010

FACTORY FACTS

I've just unearthed a statistic to say an average 380 loads of beet a day (or was it meant to be week?) were accepted by Brigg Sugar Factory in autumn 1981, with the factory being able to slice 4,300 tonnes in 24 hours.
Given that the processing campaign lasted something like 120 days, that's an awful lot of lorries coming in and out - whether it was a day or a week.
Make what you will of those facts and figures in relation to the straw-burning power station currently being proposed for the old factory site, where lorry traffic is one of the primary concerns.

1 comment:

Ken Harrison said...

Given a delivery working day of 10 hours, 38 loads an hour would be quite feasible, Scribs.
Given the basic info of slicing 4300tonnes in 24 hours would suggest the average load delivery to be around 10 tonnes, or less - assuming it wasn't working to it potential full capacity of slicing 4300 tonnes per day.
Most if the beet use to arrive by tractor and trailer...and one must remember some of the loads were rejected ie too dirty with soil.
I assume farmers would have been given a strict scheduled delivery time to avoid everyone arriving at the same time - similar to the system that HGV drivers have to follow when delivering/picking up at large depots.
It used to be a common sight seeing tractors - trailers and some lorries forming an orderly queue down the road from Scawby Brook to the weigh bridge. I never saw beet sugar traffic backing up along the A15, although there was always a couple of tractors trundling thro' Brigg towards the factory, so it seems it was a very neat system.
But the smell - a pungent sickly pong...never quite got use to it.

Anyway, added to this would have been other traffic taking away the resultant animal feed from the unwanted husks. So one needs to add these exit lorries to the 380 delivery ones. It would have made sense to have such lorries operating at night, or at the end of the season to avoid a clash.

Is there anyone out there who knows the details?