# Brett Oils, Newcastle upon Tyne.



## Big Mary (Nov 28, 2016)

*Brett Oils*

Well it's been a long time since I posted to this site (been on a journey of life and discovery and that) so please bare with me until I suss the buttons and knobs.

Seeing as it's my first post back, I might as well come in with a bang! 
This is Brett Oils on Gateshead Quayside. The complex stands along Pipewellgate beside modern buildings and under the shadow of The High Level Bridge.
This is a set of images from some years back. They show what the inside looked, and probably still looks like.

The site and land has had several uses over the years including a manure works. The history varies and if anyone wants to add to the historical side then please do 

I'll explain what the images each show. The thread is slightly pic heavy but I know will fascinate you. This post is unique - there are no other images of the works to my knowledge.
Let us begin..

This is where the works started their oil 'process'. The oil came in as a 'base' and in bulk. Various chemicals and additives are added to a quantity of base in a large vat and stirred until the correct blend is reached. This could create diesel engine oil or machining oil or gearbox oil etc. By varying additives they reached the correct tolerances required.





This shows the same area from the side. Several 'mixes' could be on the go at any one time. Notice the lower mixing vats - ancient and originally driven via a wheel shaft behind.





Most of the vat filling process was done manually via rubber hoses. I can't help but think they sometimes got mixed up!





One of the old mixing vats close up.





Sterile equipment was always used when measuring out additives.





Health and safety at work is very important.





Large metal containers were sometimes used to add the erm.. additives.





Once the oil was made to the correct consistency it would be piped away to another room.





This is the bulk oil storage room. Once oil was 'made' it was sent here. Each tank holds thousands of litres of manufactured oil with each tank holding a different type. It would be stored here until it was sent to a packaging line.





Milking anyone?





The site is in sections or departments. 





Oh aye? Sneaky steps up..





The steps led to a workers rest room.





Back to the oil works. This is where the packaging equipment stood. It had gone by the time I got in.





Remnants from the packaging line.









The final stage - warehouse. Nothing left basically. 





Finally the delivery vehicles fuel supply. My favourite piece in there.





Hopefully after sussing all of that posting I've not broken the forum. 

Brett Oils is a strange one. Dereliction in what is fast becoming a beautiful quayside (nothing wrong with dereliction!). There are indeed plans to develop the site and with several submissions in with Gateshead Council. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of this site..

Thanks for looking everyone


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## smiler (Nov 28, 2016)

Nice One Mary, lovely set of pics, I enjoyed it, Thanks


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## Big Mary (Nov 28, 2016)

You're welcome


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## krela (Nov 28, 2016)

Great stuff, and you're right it is fascinating. Never really thought about how they make the different grade engine oils etc. Thank you.


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## Big Mary (Nov 28, 2016)

TBH I think it's a basic process they had used for years - modern stuff must surely be made differently? I was told things like Teflon were added but again I'm no chemist!


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## Sam Haltin (Nov 28, 2016)

Nicely done. I like how you've got a nice flow of photographs and included interesting information with it. That's pretty good. I look forward to your next post.


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## dave (Nov 28, 2016)

Well tbh I thought I was the only person to get inside here how wrong I am. Nicely done btw. Yeh I went in quite a few years ago and posted a report on the old and now defunct North East urbex site, the explore went well until I got inside the offices and tripped the alarm got out pretty quick I must say. I live not to far away from here so often pass it any ideas what its future holds.


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## Big Mary (Nov 29, 2016)

Thank you. I have over 200 pics of the inside and with them using a process to make the stuff thought it a good idea to follow their methods.

Next time on DP: How it's Made by Big Mary..


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## Big Mary (Nov 29, 2016)

Imagine us walking backwards until we touched - I'd have cr*pped myself haha!

Several things have happened. Remember - I'm no expert and have not followed it for years but the 'Ovoline' brand name was sold in 2014 to a German firm. 
When I visited the company had two planning applications in with Gateshead Council. I remember one of the development plans was to replace the oil works with a structure made of mostly glass and steel. It resembled the shape of a cruise ship and had many decks leading away from it. That buildings was to be the same height as The High Level Bridge and so I knew it would never get past planning. Roll on a few years and yes it has been withdrawn and redrawn so to speak. I think that will be what replaces the works.
The new building would be the usual mix of flats, a casino, eateries and bars. Not unique along there but probably enough to pay building costs.

I'll be sad to see this place go. The works and the products have a real connection with local businesses and industry. Things change as they say..


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## Big Mary (Nov 29, 2016)

Well it's amazing how plans for sites can change haha!
I've just had a looky over at Gateshead planning and the following is a quick grab of what is proposed for the site.





Remember though plans will always change - but this is a far cry from what was originally set for the site. I'm gobsmacked TBH because it's as far the opposite from the original as you can get.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 29, 2016)

Big Mary said:


> TBH I think it's a basic process they had used for years - modern stuff must surely be made differently? I was told things like Teflon were added but again I'm no chemist!



Although fully automated, the basic process is still the same - take your base oil (synthetic or petroleum based) and add various so called 'secret' wear additives and detergents, stir and 'bottle'. Having done much work on lubricants in my old job years ago - one cannot dump 400 + gals of loco sump oil on a fixed mileage basis - the most important additive is the detergent package . This keeps the very fine dirt and muck that is not caught by the filter, in suspension and stops it deposition on piston and bore surfaces and wearing the bearing surfaces etc. In multigrade oils for automobiles etc, the viscosity controlling additives are also just as important - they must be stable and not break down prematurely. All oil changes were done on a detergent depletion, viscosity and wear metal content criteria and the Oil Lab got so good, that we could inform the M E's department that a particular loco was about to run a main bearing or had broken/worn piston rings. Unfortunately the cost of the oil analysis was such, that the process would not transfer to fleets of commercial road vehicles - in this instance it is cheaper to change on a mileage run basis and sell used oil to an oil reclamation company. Nothing wrong in running an oldish vehicle on reclaimed/remanufactured lubricating oils.


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## Big Mary (Nov 29, 2016)

Again it's all very interesting!
At least I know I wasn't being told a tale when the factory process was explained to me back then haha!

I've always wondered what happens to old engine oils when they're collected and taken away. Creosote? 3 in 1 oil??


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## Conrad (Nov 29, 2016)

Always cool to see something I haven't seen before, nicely done.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Nov 30, 2016)

Big Mary said:


> I've always wondered what happens to old engine oils when they're collected and taken away. Creosote? 3 in 1 oil??



Some are re-fractionated/distilled and reblended into cheap auto lube oils - economics of this all depends on the price of crude oil stocks. Cheap and plentiful crude equals little or no money to be made out of reclamation. Troubles in the mid/far East and reprocessing starts to become a more profitable option. It can be burnt in suitable furnaces to provide heat or power - trouble is with these options, you need a continuos and plentiful supply. Used lube oils can be rather nasty health wise and although in past times I have seen people using it as a creosote substitute, it does no good, can be acidic and not worth the risk because it does not preserve timber. Years ago it was quite common for motorists to lather the undersides of their cars with the stuff - as an antirust agent. Applying under-seal was messy enough using only a jack and a brush, one must have got really oiled up in the process of using old sump oil!!


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## Big T (Feb 13, 2017)

I worked at Bretts in the 90s for 8 years. The pictures are so eerie because I have been in every part of that factory, even the little room upstairs (people used to skive up there). I actually worked in the lab so used to test all the raw materials as well as the finished products. Oils, greases, petroleum jellies and fuels. We also used to analyse used oils from haulage companies, quarries and the like to try and monitor performance and foresee breakdowns/failures. The red scales were to measure out the dies for some of the oils. The red die was added as a powder to Automatic Transmission Fluids (ATFs), blue and sometimes green to hydraulic fluids if I remember correctly. I used to make some of the concentrated dies in the lab. I could reel of about 20 different Ovoline products and it's over 18 years since I worked there. Straight out of school at 16 and straight into industry, there were some characters there I can tell you!! I would absolutely love to take a look around there now, especially the lab. Great pics, thanks!


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## Dirus_Strictus (Feb 13, 2017)

Big T said:


> I worked at Bretts in the 90s for 8 years. We also used to analyse used oils from haulage companies, quarries and the like to try and monitor performance and foresee breakdowns/failures.



Brett were one of a number of small blending companies that tried to take the British Railway's Oil Laboratory techniques and apply them to road transport etc vehicles. Unfortunately; like many other blenders and producers, they failed to realise that in small capacity engines with very small amounts of lubricating oil in circulation, one needs a vast database of results in order to predict engine wear and tear. Also, because the amounts wear materials building up in the oil and the depletion of additives were so small, the analytical equipment needed for the analysis was very expensive and adequate databases were not forthcoming. Hence most of the smaller operations ended up like this firm - going bust. I know of no road haulage / road transport fleet that used/uses fixed period lube oil analysis as an indicator of power unit mechanical health or lubricating oil condition - as BR did with its Diesel Electric Locomotive fleet. We (BR) even tried to sell the process to outside industry without much success, even the labs that did offer the service never made much profit out of the deal. In a road fleet it is far cheaper just to change the 'small' amount of lube oil used on a regular basis, as analysing the oil on a weekly basis in order to save on oil usage is the far more costly option.


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## Big T (Feb 13, 2017)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> Brett were one of a number of small blending companies that tried to take the British Railway's Oil Laboratory techniques and apply them to road transport etc vehicles. Unfortunately; like many other blenders and producers, they failed to realise that in small capacity engines with very small amounts of lubricating oil in circulation, one needs a vast database of results in order to predict engine wear and tear. Also, because the amounts wear materials building up in the oil and the depletion of additives were so small, the analytical equipment needed for the analysis was very expensive and adequate databases were not forthcoming. Hence most of the smaller operations ended up like this firm - going bust. I know of no road haulage / road transport fleet that used/uses fixed period lube oil analysis as an indicator of power unit mechanical health or lubricating oil condition - as BR did with its Diesel Electric Locomotive fleet. We (BR) even tried to sell the process to outside industry without much success, even the labs that did offer the service never made much profit out of the deal. In a road fleet it is far cheaper just to change the 'small' amount of lube oil used on a regular basis, as analysing the oil on a weekly basis in order to save on oil usage is the far more costly option.



It's a slightly different proposition when you have half a million pounds worth of quarry plant potentially stranded. If it breaks down it can't exactly be towed away, much like the trains I guess. 80% of the work was for large plant operators, we'd get over a dozen samples in per machine sometimes, every month. At our busiest we were processing well over a thousand samples every month and it's where I developed my work ethic, there were only three of us in there! It was a fairly high tech lab for this sort of application and like you say, some of the equipment was quite expensive. The company didn't actually go bust for your information.


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## Big Mary (Feb 14, 2017)

Fascinating!

This is what I love about old sites - when an ex worker comes along and sees their old place of work.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see upstairs. My 'guide' (owner) was a bit crazy and refused me entry up there. It was his site and so I respected him.
Upstairs seemed huge? A lot of floor space with several sets of stairs leading up.


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## Big T (Feb 14, 2017)

Yes, it was a good size up there. Used to be offices for the directors, secretaries, chemists, buyer, QC manager, Technical Manager, marketing and then the labs. I think when I was there we had around 25 people working upstairs. A fairly busy place. Who was your guide? As far as I know it still belongs to the Bretts so I guess it would be either Tony, Michael or Alistair although I don't remember Alistair having much involvement in my time there.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Feb 14, 2017)

Very interesting Big T - So you were basically servicing the Quarry Industry were you? It is interesting because that is one of few industries where one can build up a really good data base, from machinery that is working schedules that can be fairly easily checked and follow patterns and as you say, bloody big machines are very difficult to move and repair when they are 'dead'. The introduction of the tachograph did make application to road haulage somewhat easier, but cost implications always loomed large. Also, whilst it was easy to monitor detergent depletion, building up data on mechanical wear, i.e. big ends or little ends did not always prove reliable. The 'bust' info came from a trade journal, which on looking at again is badly edited and comment refers to another, un named company. I can imagine your 1000 samples a month, as we would have been in that region sometimes. However, our big problem was quite large samples on a daily basis, i.e. samples taken at night when the locos were on depot for service. The power units were so problematic that a daily sample, taken at end of service, had to be checked before the unit was released into service the following day. In the end it came down to on Depot testing of viscosity and internal coolant leaks and in-depth analysis in our laboratories - carried out urgently for samples failing on depot and more routinely for the others. In the end English Electric sorted the mechanical problems and the system worked very well as a health and wear monitor for the CMEE.


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## prettyvacant71 (Feb 16, 2017)

Interesting photographs and info in ur report, thank you very much!


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## Davyc (Mar 27, 2017)

I worked there from 2000 to the sale in 2005 always wondered what it looked like since n to reply to the other guy that worked there am afraid to say tony Brett died 2 year ago now , alister ran a small company from there after the sale but went bust


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