|
|
Post by John on Mar 27, 2012 16:44:56 GMT -5
CPL, Boulby Mine, The Early Years.
I started at Boulby as an electrician in early 1975, it had only one shaft in full operation and used for everything, manriding ventilation, minerals and supplies.
During those early days, No1 shaft was being commissioned, the steelwork was being installed for the skip guide's, the winder was installed but not roped up, work was still ongoing on that project.
Ventilation was via one fan mounted on the surface forcing air down via vent tubes secured to the shaft sides, four of them four feet in diameter, the air going down was being warmed by the air going up... So the mine was very hot and very dry.
Ambient rock temps at those depths were 108F, add to that the diesels of the LHD vehcles, drill rigs, men and just about everything underground, and you get temps as high as 140F in some places.
My first day was with the surface mine clerk, Laurie  Can't recall his name now, he set me up with two lockers in the shower block, got me signed up, two pair of overalls, introduced me to various folks and showed me around.
Next day was underground, at that time the north workshops was just a small fitting shop, small electric shop and the stores at the back of the same heading, directly up the hill to the west of No2 shaft. The deisel workshop was on the opposite side of the pit, through the pit bottom air doors, up the hill on the east side of No1 shaft, through a double set of aird doors, short walk, turn left and through a small hatch air door, and room enough for one Eimco LHD to be serviced.
I was taken up to the north workshops, and set out replacing a lighting cable on an Eimco LHD, done hundreds of those cable ends so not new to them.
I spent a few days on dayshift just getting the layout of the mine, helped John Blower change a cutter cable in the East District, not very far in back then!! In fact there wasn't much possibility of getting lost..
The few conveyors were short and temporary back then, they all led to No2 pit bottom plate belt bunker which fed the skips which doubles as cages when converted at the end of the shifts.
There was a lot of development going on by both CPL crews and MCC the contractors who had sunk the shafts and done the groundwork.
The south side Fan chamber was being mined out, soon to be followed by the north side fan chamber and the main North Workshops and Stores.
Soon after, both 1000 tonne in seam ore bins would be driven, first by a raise borer, then drilled and fired from the top down, both 100 feet deep. MCC contractors drove the ore bins. The fired muck was loaded down the raise bore hole and loaded out from the bottom of the "bins"
First of the fans was installed in the south fan chamber, a 1350HP unit, I recall the Saturday it was fired up and the surface fan stopped, ventilation was reversed, No2 shaft was now the downcast, and it was pretty warm so physical laws came into play! The No1 shaft was cold!
After a day or so everything worked out alright and we were starting to cool down a little, even so, it was hard to find anywhere underground that was below 100F except No2 pit bottom...
Communication.....Most communications was via the underground IS auto telephones or the DAC IS Intercom system, we had about three lines of DAC's to cover the whole mine.
Later when the control room was commissioned, we had well over a dozen DAC intercom lines controlled by the U/G mine clerk, he could patch anyone either via phone or another DAC intercom line through to anywhere underground or on the outside telephone line.
During those early years we used Wecol A67 GEB's with "Vacutac" contactors, talk about a pain in the rear end. The contactor coils were encapsulated "blocks", they just couldn't get rid of the heat and eventually burned out. With the extra heat they generated, the E63 earth leakage module also tended to fail often. By the time I'd been there a year, I could change both blindfolded in minutes.... It became second nature!
Eventually, we changed out the "Vacutacs" for standard contactors and our work load dropped. We still had electronic modules failures, those GEB's were full of modules, contactor firing circuits, sequence module, control module and E/L modules.
I'll add more later.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 12, 2012 8:23:35 GMT -5
Gary might recall this name Brian Dixon, little electrician.
Well Brian had started at Boulby a while before I arrived and left with his mates to live and work in Australia, I believe he left in late 74, so Gary must have bumped into him.
Anyway, he left Oz and returned to North Yorks and was taken on again by Boulby.
I won't say too much about Brian, as he may be a guest here and take out a contract on me on me..... ;D
But he did let his mouth run off a bit and was a "cheeky chappie"
I was covering the East district and the smaller South East district on C shift and my two weeks holidays were fast approaching. The lads on the South East side were a little exuberant to say the least, many a lad had had his trousers cut down to shorts with a Stanley knife, they'd jump on the unsuspecting lad, whip his pants off and carry out some nifty tailoring on them.
They always left me and the fitter alone under strict orders from their district supervisor, he had a production quota to fill and wanted any machine problems sorted quickly.... ;D The lads messing with a fitter or electrician could screw that up big time, so we were always safe.
I was doing my rounds of my equipment and dropped by the South East bait room, "who's taking your place while you're on holiday John"?? asked on of the miners..."No idea mate, but I'll find out"
Later in the shift, Keith my foreman dropped by and I asked him, "Brian Dixon"....
End of shift No2 pit bottom, I caught Brian, "You'd better watch yourself with the South East crew while I'm on holiday, they can get a tad boisterous"
"It will take better men than them to get the better of me" he said
"I'll tell them that then" ;D
"Yeah let them know Brian Dixon will be in charge"!!!
I did..... ;D
Holiday came and went, couldn't wait to find out what they'd done to Brian though....
My labourer was Tommy Hume, and I asked him, he burst out laughing, "well, they did nothing, well at least not untill the last day, he did come prepared though, he wore shorts so they couldn't cut his pants down.......They all waited until we'd done for the day, and in pit bottom, they grabbed hold of him and sprayed his legs black from a can of spray paint"
He told me Brian was in the showers for hours scrubbing the black paint off his legs.. ;D
One of the crew was a real torment, Brian would be in the showers washing his face, and this feller would sneak up behind him with a handful of the soft handsoap you get grease off your skin with and slap it on Brians butt. Brian would shriek and take off like a stuffed pit at top speed... ;D
Sorry Brian if you're reading this.... ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 12, 2012 8:37:27 GMT -5
East District again, but it was in the early years, I got a call to a cutter that was "smoking" The driver said it went with a bang and smoke started coming out the flamepaths of the main isolator and the control chamber.
I started opening the control chamber after pulling the plug our the S/S, and there was a lot of smoke came out, but nothing visible, so went to the other side and opened it up.......GOOD GRIEF!!! What a mess, there was nothing left of the reversing contactor, talk about smoked. In my years prior and even after, I have never seen a contactor that had been vaporised, not just the contacts but everything! Plastic, connections and contacts.
This contactor was a double unit with a mechanical interlock and electrically interlocked as it was the main reversing contactor for the 90HP cutter motor. The machine was powered by 1100 volts.
The mechanical interlock must have failed, we will never know, it was part of the molten mess on the bottom of the chamber.
BUT, we must have had a phase to phase short circuit.
I called Keith who came up pretty quickly, took a look and said start stripping it out, I'm off to stores for cleaning fluid and parts.
I'd just about got all the bits out when he came back with "Womble" to give me a hand rebuilding the cutter control chamber.
We set to work wiping the carbon from the inside of the chamber with rags soaked in cleaning fluid, then installed the new contactor and other components and rewired it.
Not a bad shifts work, tested and running before the end of the shift.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 12, 2012 11:43:22 GMT -5
We had a diesel fitter in the workshops on C shift, he was great with the Cat engines on the LHD's, he had an odd sense of humour too, but I won't go into that too much as we do get women and kids viewing these posts. Anyway, my old labourer wanted to go back into the face's again as bonus was a lot higher, he'd been a good worker and I could leave him to get on with work unsupervised too, so I knew I was going to miss him, good labourers were hard to come by.
Being central area and having the workshops in my area, I had to sign for the electrics on the LHD's and tractors plus the pit bottom forklift weekly, so having a labourer to free me up from the mundane jobs of repairing vehicle lights and replacing generators on them helped my workload.
So I was assigned a young bloke by the name of Bryan, he had a Brother on our staff as a labourer too, and his Dad was one of the first aid attendants in the surface medical centre.
He turned out to be a good worker, was willing to learn and trustworthy, but the diesel fitter used to give him a hard time, he'd found a kink in Bryans "armour" and used it to the best advantage.
I wished I could post what he got up to, but like I say we do get women and kids view the posts, but when I was working in the shops, Bryan would often run into our shop saying I'm not going out there with him around. I'd end up going into the fitting shops and tell the fitter to leave Bryan alone, we used to have a good laugh though... ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 12, 2012 12:46:02 GMT -5
Same diesel fitter, he'd been pretty sick, had series stomach problems and went to his Doctor who sent him to a Dentist. Turned out his teeth were in a very bad state and he scheduled him for pulling so many at a time, then a healing time, then more out etc.
He said like hell, "gerrit ower wi" But you won't be able to eat, "can't bloody eat now with stomach bein upset all time"
He demanded the job be done in one......
Day after dentist had pulled the lot, he was back at work, very sore, but he said his stomach was starting to feel better.
Of course we all took the micky out of him and called him "gummy"
A few weeks later, he had the cast made for his dentures, then his dentures were fitted, but he wouldn't wear them at work!! "Awe cummon, purrum in, lets see how you look" Yeah he told us all to eff off. Can't ever recall seeing him with his falsies in.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:26:03 GMT -5
This is the bottom of the 1000tonne ore bins, there are two of them, this looks like No1 at a rough guess, the belt then goes up a drift to the top of the surge bin about 200 tonnes to keep the shaft weighing flasks topped up.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:31:36 GMT -5
Top of the two ore bins, that Conveyor is C3, C4 feeds it via a chute that moves up or down to feed No1 bin or C3 belt to No2 bin.
The road didn't have steelwork in it when I worked there. I remember when that was a blind heading and the contractors were driving the two bins. They used a raise borer from the bottom, then drilled, fired and dropped the ore down the raise bore hole.
Hell it was hot in there back in those days!!
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:34:33 GMT -5
A Continuous miner cutting...Looks like a Joy, the only two that were in production in 79 were Jeffrey Dresser Heliminers 120HR's.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:36:13 GMT -5
Now this is a Heliminer.I take that back, you can see the giveaway colour of Joy on the apron, and the Heli's have a large cutter head motor each side of the head that is rectangular in shape....
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:40:08 GMT -5
An Eimco LHD. (Load Haul Dump) These were all we used to much the headings out at the beginning.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:44:04 GMT -5
These were the Joy cutters in use when I started at Boulby for undercutting the headings after the heading had been drilled ready for shotfiring, then mucking out with LHD's.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:46:00 GMT -5
The marvels of nature in a cut face. Shows how hot it is too, I only wore shorts and a tee shirt.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:49:05 GMT -5
It appears water broke through from the Sherwood sandstone formation.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 15, 2012 15:51:07 GMT -5
Well there's a few photos to peruse.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 18, 2012 6:04:37 GMT -5
Welcome Hardhat, you're not Bill's son and John Nielson's BIL, are you?
|
|
|
|
Post by arkaygee on May 20, 2012 15:20:57 GMT -5
I worked at Boulby in 77/78, underground in the geology Dept. I was on D shift. I left to go to college and subsequently into teaching.
I'm trying to remember the name of a colleague who died in a rock fall in 78 - Phil ??. I remember it was the extra shift (Saturday?) that you had the option of working or not at the end of the shift cycle, and I went to a dance with my girlfriend instead of going in.
Has anyone got any details of the fatalities that occurred at Boulby? I can't find anything online.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 20, 2012 15:59:22 GMT -5
I think it was 78 Lee Selwood and a miner got killed , they were on D shift, doing overtime I was on C shift Ando. I always wondered what ANDO meant, never did find out other than Another Day Off.
As for fatalities, never seen any lists, but recall a young miner just before Christmas on C shift east district, a continuous miner driver died in an outburst of gas, "A" shift? Lee Selwood and a miner in a Gate End Box move...Not sure of any others.
I was informed Eric ? Who used to be the MCC electrician who installed all the belt electrics in the early years and transferred to CPL was found dead at side of a GEB with the isolator chamber open and power still on.
A fitter was killed in an accident when he was on a course with other fitters down at Dosco, he had a flat tyre at night and was hit by another vehicle passing his disabled car.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on May 24, 2012 11:51:48 GMT -5
Top of the two ore bins, that Conveyor is C3, C4 feeds it via a chute that moves up or down to feed No1 bin or C3 belt to No2 bin.
The road didn't have steelwork in it when I worked there. I remember when that was a blind heading and the contractors were driving the two bins. They used a raise borer from the bottom, then drilled, fired and dropped the ore down the raise bore hole.
Hell it was hot in there back in those days!!
I recall looking all over, checked the motor for abnormal heat, just it's usual hot feel, so I ran the palm of my hand above all the drivehead bearing covers, making sure not to touch anything....Jeeze, one of the drive roller bearing covers was so hot I had to pull my hand away very quickly! I turned my lamp off and the damned thing was a dull cherry red in colour!.
I got onto the control room via the tannoy system and reported it, asking the Mine Clerk to get a fitter here ASAP with a grease gun and loads of cartridges.
They must have thought I was exaggerating as nobody had come and it was at least 15 minutes since I shouted, so I called the control room again, "I passed the message on John"
"Put me through to the workshops please Bill"
I shouted for the foreman fitter, put him in the picture, and yeah, they thought I was exaggerating until he and a fitter arrived on site with greasegun.... They pumped grease in and it ran out smoking, until eventually it cooled the bearing down, needless to say, they had a fitter standing near it until the No1 bin was empty, then changed the bearing..
Pretty close call!! Either a fire or a totally seized up bearing. |
|
|
|
Post by tonyrich on Jul 19, 2012 0:26:00 GMT -5
Hi John hope you are well
Haven't been in for a couple of months so I thought i'd take a peak!
The Heliminers in the pictures are actually Jeffrey 1060 heliminers, real good machines and a hell of a lot more friendlier to the Electricians and fitters than the JOY's. When I left in 96' there were still 10 of them down there (9 remote operated and 1 sit on) plus one HR 120 heliminer parked up rotting away and a new JOY CM. Since then they have purchased a few more JOY miners to replace the older 1060's.
As for the picture with the guy stood at the top of ore bins that brought back memories of times spent melting away down there. Half way down the drift towards the bottom of the bins was a turn off to the left which leads of to the rock shaft vent raise or down to the rock shaft sump! Spent many times down there as a pump fitter changing out flyt pumps and pipe work in the sump.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 19, 2012 6:34:19 GMT -5
Hi John hope you are well Haven't been in for a couple of months so I thought i'd take a peak! The Heliminers in the pictures are actually Jeffrey 1060 heliminers, real good machines and a hell of a lot more friendlier to the Electricians and fitters than the JOY's. When I left in 96' there were still 10 of them down there (9 remote operated and 1 sit on) plus one HR 120 heliminer parked up rotting away and a new JOY CM. Since then they have purchased a few more JOY miners to replace the older 1060's. As for the picture with the guy stood at the top of ore bins that brought back memories of times spent melting away down there. Half way down the drift towards the bottom of the bins was a turn off to the left which leads of to the rock shaft vent raise or down to the rock shaft sump! Spent many times down there as a pump fitter changing out flyt pumps and pipe work in the sump.
Luckily I never had to work on it, loads of motors and slow as hell cutting. I think the mining team were glad to get their heli back after major cutting head repairs.
Yep spent many a happy hour changing sump pumps out at the bottom of No1 shaft down that access road you mentioned.
I remember well when MCC drove that road with explosives and an Eimco air shovel!! Most of it is through Anhydrite.
Incidently, when I worked in the sumps, I was paid a minimum of four hours double time!! Oddly enough, most of my time was down there on an overtime shift, so double double time and usually eight hours.... The pay made up for the miserable conditions. |
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 19, 2012 6:38:09 GMT -5
Tony, what was the story about the water breaking through?? How did it happen and how bad was it??
|
|
|
|
Post by tonyrich on Jul 24, 2012 15:11:50 GMT -5
Hey John, The last bad break through into water down Boulby was round about 99' time down the south end of the mine. At the time the working districts south side were about 8 km from pit bottom. As you know the south side dipped down from pit bottom and the working seam was a lot deeper than the actual level of the pit bottom. The water actually came through in an old district just off the main south belt road but flooded the entire south side of the mine. I remember just been out of my time and spending 12 hours working with a bunch of ex coal board contractors installing pumps and pipe lines to pump out and keep on top of the water. We actually had some bad gas come through with the water and installed gas extractor pumps on the surface to aid in venting the mine. Luckily we beat it and managed to safe the south side of the mine. They actually stopped mining the south side a couple of years back just after I left due to the bad conditions and crazy temperatures. However due to the price of Potash at the moment it has made it possible to enter back into these districts to resume mining down south again.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 24, 2012 15:47:10 GMT -5
Hey John, The last bad break through into water down Boulby was round about 99' time down the south end of the mine. At the time the working districts south side were about 8 km from pit bottom. As you know the south side dipped down from pit bottom and the working seam was a lot deeper than the actual level of the pit bottom. The water actually came through in an old district just off the main south belt road but flooded the entire south side of the mine. I remember just been out of my time and spending 12 hours working with a bunch of ex coal board contractors installing pumps and pipe lines to pump out and keep on top of the water. We actually had some bad gas come through with the water and installed gas extractor pumps on the surface to aid in venting the mine. Luckily we beat it and managed to safe the south side of the mine. They actually stopped mining the south side a couple of years back just after I left due to the bad conditions and crazy temperatures. However due to the price of Potash at the moment it has made it possible to enter back into these districts to resume mining down south again.
When the mine went into full production in late 1975 I was the electrician covering the east and south east panels.
Management together with the rock mechanics were carrying out an experiment to see how narrow a pillar could be before it collapsed.
Anyway, the men were starting to get worried and refused to reduce pillar width anymore than they had been doing and demanded to return to normal sized pillars.
After some calculations the geology department, (rock mechanics) agreed, if they had gone any narrower, the pillars would have failed causing an inrush of water from the Sherwood sandstone formation, about 600 feet above us.
Problem is, when water breaks through, everything is soluble in those beds, but the Sherwood sandstone water is heavy brine. |
|
|
|
Post by tonyrich on Jul 25, 2012 12:29:15 GMT -5
It was heavy brine! you could wade into the water and start floating and bobbing about with the salt content in the brine. As you came out the cage at pit bottom and headed to the rock shaft there used to be a road to the right which led to the old south workings which is still flooded today. Down the back of the man shaft you came to the start of the west linkage, this area is also completely flooded and we had a few pumps in various areas around the pit bottom area constantly pumping the old west linkage. What a lot of the lads who work down there don't realize as they pass by the pit bottom area each shift is how close the water is to pit bottom from the old workings and west linkage.
|
|
|
|
Post by tonyrich on Jul 25, 2012 12:35:03 GMT -5
I love the photos of the old JOY cutters 'crocodiles' as we called them! Still in use today down there in the salt districts for stress cutting the access roads. Nasty machines and we always stood well clear when starting them as there was two pull handles on the start panels, one would start the hydraulic pump only with no operations the other would start the full machine including the cutter head and you could never be sure which one was which. I actually worked with a fitter who lost a finger to the crocodile when the lad he was working with pulled the wrong handle when working on the cutter.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 25, 2012 13:52:10 GMT -5
It was heavy brine! you could wade into the water and start floating and bobbing about with the salt content in the brine. As you came out the cage at pit bottom and headed to the rock shaft there used to be a road to the right which led to the old south workings which is still flooded today. Down the back of the man shaft you came to the start of the west linkage, this area is also completely flooded and we had a few pumps in various areas around the pit bottom area constantly pumping the old west linkage. What a lot of the lads who work down there don't realize as they pass by the pit bottom area each shift is how close the water is to pit bottom from the old workings and west linkage.
All potash before I left was from the south side, that's where we lost Lee Selwood and a miner, plus where there was an outburst that killed a Heliminer driver.
I got a call to go down to the last C/V drivehead one night, 6-3 I believe, was tripping on belt slip. I'd already talked to the conveyor patrolman and couldn't get much sense out of him, so set off to find out what had happened. I arrived and John Neilson was on site, OK John you can go back outbye he said, there's a major fall on the belt at the boot end...I just shook my head.. ;D Now all that's under water.....
I'll bet that water has raised the humidity levels, during my time there, it was single digits. |
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 26, 2012 7:03:30 GMT -5
I don't know if I've posted this before, but got called to a Joy cutter one night, the driver said it went bang and smoke poured out the gaps of the isolator/control chambers.
I dropped power off it and opened the main control chamber and was "gobsmacked" There was just a pile of burnt out junk!
They had a dual contactor, mechanically and electrically interlocked for forward/ reversing of the jib motor, about 90HP if I remember right.
The two main contactors were literally blown to pieces, we never did work out how both mechanical and electrical interlocks failed, it was obvious we had a phase to phase short circuit involved, but not enough evidence to find the cause.
Basically it was strip and junk everything in that chamber, wash it out with solvents and rags, and rebuild with all new parts. Took two of us all shift, but we left it in working order by the time the shift was over.
|
|
|
|
Post by tonyrich on Jul 27, 2012 9:02:36 GMT -5
The temperatures down south where crazy, I remember walking onto a face line and just from the bait cabin to the face the temperature had jumped from 35 degreeC to 42 degreeC! 100% humidity too and you instantly felt drained. The problem with the south side of the mine was the poor conditions, the amount of chocks and steel work used to try and keep it open resulted in poor air flow plus it acted like a giant radiator and each section of steel just warmed up the air even more. We changed the cutting head on a Jeffrey 1060 heliminer on a district down South, the miner was pulled back just outbye of the face to gain the height required for lifting off the cutting head. We were told to take our time because of the hot conditions and the job was carried out over 5 days (usually could change a Jeffrey 1060 cutting head within four shifts) The first day the area we were working in was only supported by roofbolts and a few crush blocks of chocks. By the 5th day the area was fully chocked, meshed and steel work in place and the roof had come in that much that the miner had to be pulled back and the access back into the face milled and mined out to get the miner back onto the face.
|
|
|
|
Post by tonyrich on Jul 27, 2012 9:08:35 GMT -5
The Joy Cutters had an awkward knuckle coupling joint which connected the drive shaft to the cutter, proper finger trapper and awkward as hell to change out if you didn't have the knack of changing them. It was built up in five to six sections with a splined joint attaching the cutter to the drive shaft and if you didn't have the cutter bar in the right position you could manage to get it off but there was no way of getting it back on. A few harsh words said and heard along with black finger nails when working on them haha.
|
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 27, 2012 9:40:57 GMT -5
That humidity and heat would have had me looking for a new job fast Tony!!! Was bad enough in the North side when we only had one vent fan on the surface. I dreaded a call to a breakdown up there. But that all changed after both fans were installed and operating.
The coolest spot in the East panel, was the bait room at a cool 99F, one of the lads brought a thermometer down one shift!! Well over 130F in most headings though, but at least it was only a couple of percent humidity, which made it tolerable.
I've worked in longwall installations in coal mines that were both hot and humid before the final ventilation plans were set up, very hard and tiring after a shift of work.
I don't recollect too many problems any of the fitters I worked with had with Joy cutters, they seemed pretty reliable, mind you, they weren't that old when I worked with them...
Now AB15's!!! I served my time under the old NCB Mech/Elec scheme, so the electricians who taught me my trade also did the mechanical work on the face's.
I don't know how many jib and chain changes I assisted with, or repairs to the haulage ends of those machines, take it from me, working on hands and knees under a low roof makes everything harder.
Chains were joined by "hockey sticks" or " riveted pins" ( Daz will correct me on that one if I'm wrong, been a long time!! ) Both a pain to drive out after being in service for a couple of years. The "hockey sticks" were a pin locking device. The AB!% had a unique haulage system, simple and sweet! A pawl and ratchet with a bronze plate that could be screwed in and out from a lever on the machine to set the haulage speed.
|
|
Can't recall his name now, he set me up with two lockers in the shower block, got me signed up, two pair of overalls, introduced me to various folks and showed me around.
