Just found this old pic, thought some might like to see it. I went up one of these cranes on a school trip some years ago.

Really wish i had got to see that dock before it was destroyed

Funny, I Didn't Even Know About The Fire. Coincidence Or What!

Going back 40 years or more, my dad told me the workers on the pylons etc stole tons and tons of copper wire and buried it by the roundabout end of Bidston Dock. Where the red containers are in the picture, is about where the wire is supposed to be buried. They used a JCB so no need to get out your shovels... Might be a pile of lies, but I doubt it, Dad never lied.

My dad was a manager for Wm Cubbins on the West Float,they were part of Reas who were then part of Corys which was all taken over by Ocean Transport and Trading.
The Iron Ore berth had a railhead from John Summers at Shotton. I went up one of the cranes with my dad when I was about 13. The crane design was unique to the berth and was copied for the first container terminals. In the site there was an ore samplers Watson Gray.The diesel locos were called Peppal,Wobana and Narvic (I hope I've got the names right) which were vareties of iron ore.

Rea Bulk Handling Company had a small fleet of nine diesel shunters, which operated all over the dock lines. Names in the 1980s included Theseus, Wabana, Kathleen Nichols, Pegasus, WH Salthouse,Dorothy Lightfoot, Narvik, Teucer ,Pepel and Labrador.

Wabana Ore is from Newfoundland.
Narvik will be from Norway.
Pepel will be ore from Sierra Leone.

These Ores were popular as they did not need reducing in size (pelletizing) to fit into the furnaces at Shotton.

After the Iron ore traffic ceased in 1980, imported coal (which had been handled at Duke Street) was dealt with here in 1980 and during 1985.
During late 1988 (I think) there was a very short lived rail service of scrap metal to Fords from the dock.

Indeed and rubbish slack it was - gummed up the boilers at Fiddlers something chronic - another Tory 'money-saving' idea - cheap (Polish coal in 84 and 85), subsidised to the moon, that created so much clinker that the clean-ups then required negated any savings and a bit more........
Funny how they were happy to buy other countries subsidised goods but not support our own industry - cheapskates....