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Post by scottishooo on Mar 28, 2012 9:11:47 GMT -5
We were never on shift as we were travelling up north every other weekend, they wanted us to get accomodation get settled but that never ever happened at least with me I don't know how my mates ever made out, although I am sure Andy Stark would have moved down and settled so I am sure he eventually went on shift, John Dufty and Ron Mitten, those names ring A few bells but you know its so long ago, are you still in oz or did you come back to the uk.
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Post by John on Mar 28, 2012 9:22:22 GMT -5
Only ever been back to the UK once for a visit, couldn't get away quick enough!! Not the country I had left many years before. I live in Missouri now with my American born wife, been over here since 1989.
After I'd been interviewed, I received word I'd got the job, but, I'd have to wait for a council house.... The wife objected and said she wouldn't put up with me being away from home so much. So I phoned up and rejected the job offer, they asked why, and asked me if I'd reconsider if they could come up with a house. I accepted that offer. Within a week they sent me news a council house would be ready. Three weeks later I was up there with my family ready to start work..
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Post by John on Mar 28, 2012 9:48:08 GMT -5
We were never on shift as we were travelling up north every other weekend, they wanted us to get accomodation get settled but that never ever happened at least with me I don't know how my mates ever made out, although I am sure Andy Stark would have moved down and settled so I am sure he eventually went on shift, John Dufty and Ron Mitten, those names ring A few bells but you know its so long ago, are you still in oz or did you come back to the uk. Some is coming back to me Charlie, but names of the day shift elude me, in fact although working many double shifts and 12 hour shifts overlapping A,B and D shifts I got to know many of the key shift personnel, ie control room mine clerks, shift supers and central "Deputies", Onsetters and Banksmen, very few I can now put a name to. There was one "junior engineer" joined our staff from university, used to get on my tits, to put it bluntly, knew it all and hadn't a clue, both John Blower and myself used to lead him a dogs life. It got so bad, the young feller stayed well clear of both of us, even with a major breakdown we never saw him, and his first duty should have been at our side learning!! His major fault was "he knew it" and tried to tell experienced electricians with years of practical experience under their belts their job. Most of the time he was 100% wrong, which left him walking away with a red face..... One incident stands out, I was on days, I got a call on the phone from him, there was a belt just off 6/1 C/V going east for MCC backrippers who were repairing that road. Basically I was told to set the belt up for self starting when 6/1 belt restarted after a stoppage. Fairly straight forward job. I got the drawings out, worked out what I would need, found a spare pair of contacts on the A67 GEB I could use etc etc... Went to store for everything I needed and went down and got the job done, tested and running. I'd not long been back in the shop when he called me again and told me to forget the job as it couldn't be done without modifying the GEB.......Yeah right, showed he couldn't read a schematic too... ;D I said too late, jobs done and running.....err how did you do it?? That's for me to know and you to find out, byeeee... ;D I did pass the info on to Peter Alan and the other central elecs though... As John Blower would have said...."See, see, he's a wanker" ;D
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Post by scottishooo on Mar 29, 2012 10:36:00 GMT -5
Well John I think we have all met those so called Engineers, You find them in all walks, I don' have much inclination to go back to the uk, We became Grandparents for the first time about A year and A half ago, so will probally stay in Canada, Would be nice to find out if Womble is still in Canada or if he went back to the UK
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Post by John on Mar 29, 2012 10:52:07 GMT -5
Well John I think we have all met those so called Engineers, You find them in all walks, I don' have much inclination to go back to the uk, We became Grandparents for the first time about A year and A half ago, so will probally stay in Canada, Would be nice to find out if Womble is still in Canada or if he went back to the UK Ironically, he's the only one of his kind I ever "bumped" into in any company.
Would be nice to locate him, didn't have any luck with the white pages around the area the coal mine was situated, but he could well have an unlisted number. I've been surprised that more of my old mates haven't come across me, this site attracts a fair amount of hits per day!! Almost any keyword used in searches puts us either at the top or Googles first page or at leas in the first 15 entries. That's another reason I opened a Keyword Analysis thread, helps to keep us at the top.
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Post by scottishooo on Apr 4, 2012 11:41:56 GMT -5
Hi John just A pity no more people from that era would log in, but I guess A lot of the people mentioned have probally retired,
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Post by John on Apr 4, 2012 13:12:00 GMT -5
I tend to think, either most are not interested in computers, not on the internet, or just want to forget. Been a long time, But John Barret emailed me once, he'd found my webpage and wanted to touch bases. I'm surprised he never found this forum too. He did tell me a funny story though, about a certain bloke who became a foreman, I'll let you guess his name, but he was from the North East..
John ended up on North Sea Oil rigs as an engineer, he had this certain person working for him as an electrician, he did say hopeless and hadn't a clue too. Well things got so bad he had to sack him before he blew the rig up.
The same feller bought himself a Mercedes and drove to Boulby to see the old crowd and brag how well he'd been doing....
"nuff" said... ;D
I did contact John Littleton a short time before I started this site, he still held a grudge with me and was pretty rude..Oh well, I did have words with him a couple of times over his attitude problem, when I worked for him.... ;D
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 8:20:45 GMT -5
Hiya John,can you remember using bratice and stemming rods to pass away snap time??!!
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 11:56:04 GMT -5
Hiya John,can you remember using bratice and stemming rods to pass away snap time??!! Don't know what you mean.. Usually I had to take mine when I could, especially when I was working the central district, breakdowns didn't know the time unfortunately..
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 12:31:47 GMT -5
Think i can place you John, i worked as fitter on 'c' shift on the north panels. Started in 1975 and im still there to this day. Theres been a few changes over the years but the cracks still good!!!
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 12:48:23 GMT -5
Think i can place you John, i worked as fitter on 'c' shift on the north panels. Started in 1975 and im still there to this day. Theres been a few changes over the years but the cracks still good!!! I'll bet you remember "JC" then, he hated that nickname, all he needed to complete it was a pair of "Jesus Sandle's" Eddie Callandar. Also Peter Elliott, came from North Derbyshire, ex NCB fitter. Can't recall the C shift Mech Foremans name now, but he lived in Whitby, he and his wife also ran a B&B, he had a large car, I think it was an Austin something or other that had problems with the Carby freezing up in summer.
The only production areas when I left were to the South, the workshops, No2 fan were in the North side, long hole drilling had been carried out to the west just north of the old north workshop, and the West Links were still heading west and were a few hundred yards inbye working in salt.
When the mine started full production in mid 1975, I was assigned as the East district electrician and covered the South East district as part of my job. Fred Fletcher left for SA, and I was moved to the Central Ore Handling District right up to when I left. Although it was an easier job than the districts, I had a lot more area to cover and a fair amount of equipment to keep running.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 12:54:43 GMT -5
Yes i remember all the names, i seemed to rememeber the foreman being 'joe homes'.Now i think back it probly was the east panels where it split into 2 districts side by side, seem to think the oversears were Dick Sadlercheck and Brian Webb.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 12:55:22 GMT -5
There was also a dayshift fitter in the workshops, Dennis something or other, he had the nickname of "Shirley Temple" as when he let his hair grow longish, it was all curly. He could walk up to a group of blokes and within minutes he'd have them fighting among themselves... ;D
There was a fitter with long hair who covered the East District on "C" shift, can't for the life recall his name, he had a labourer too.
One afternoon shift he'd come to work after having a rather short hair cut, never noticed before, but his ears stuck out like Prince Charles. He was sat in the bait room and someone walked in and shouted "It's wingnut and his mate springwasher" Of course everyone was peeing themselves laughing. The fitter got rather nasty, which raised more howls of laughter..
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 13:00:46 GMT -5
Yes i remember all the names, i seemed to rememeber the foreman being 'joe homes'.Now i think back it probly was the east panels where it split into 2 districts side by side, seem to think the oversears were Dick Sadlercheck and Brian Webb. That was him, Joe Homes, got on well with him.
Yes the East Panel was a split, south east cut headings both east and south with one set of machines, and the east just went plain east, with two sets of machines and a spare set in a maintenance bay. Bernie Walker was the district supervisor from the start in the east, and the south east district super was another ex NCB feller, he was also assistant shift supervisor and held a class2 coal mines ticket. The east side finished not too much longer after I'd been reassigned to central. The ore was better quality on the south.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 13:02:43 GMT -5
Yeah the dayshift fitter was called Dennis Roper,hes been retired a long time now. I'm racking my brains to remember who wingnut was but the name decieves me.I did a lot of swapping shifts in the early days but settled on 'C' shift when the continuous miners where up and running!
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 13:16:24 GMT -5
When the Marrietta Miner was being modyfied in the North W/S's we had a team of French fitters come over from France, not one of them could speak English and of course we had no French speakers either... Dennis would go up to them and say Bon Jour, plus other odd French words he knew, he was hilarious..I'm sure the French guys thought he was insane...
Yeah, it's had trying to recall all the names after being away so long, been 33 years since I left there.
I see by the Keyword Analysis someone is searching for my old mate, John Blower, better known as JAB, he was "D" shift central elec.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 13:26:52 GMT -5
Amazing, the cogs are freeing up in my memory, the third C shift electrician was Brian ? I recall he was late for work one afternoon, and called the office... Turned out he'd bought a pig, had took the passenger seat out of his car to transport the pig, and the damned thing managed to get out the car in Skelton. He'd been chasing it and eventually caught it but would be running a little late... ;D ;D
We had some characters at that mine.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 13:36:17 GMT -5
Another incident that springs to mind, first heliminer came by road split into sizeable loads, one heavy casting section was on the back of a lorry and going up Loftus Bank from that sharp curve at the Skinngrove turn off, when the load shifted and dropped on the bonnet of a car behind the lorry..... Luckily the driver wasn't hurt or worse!! Wrote his car off though..
That Dosco Mk1A we had that drove an access drift down to the West Links. A few fitters went down to Dosco in North Notts for a course. Sadly one of the fitters got killed, I think he had a flat tyre and was changing it and got hit by another vehicle passing. I don't recall who it was, too long ago now.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 13:41:15 GMT -5
I seemed to the think the marrietta came from canada and the HR 120 cme from france.However i may be wrong. Jab retired around 10 years ago now,still living in brotton. Those miners are long gone now,the two miners used now are the Jeferey 1060's and joy miners but i can't think of the spec.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 13:44:08 GMT -5
I had already been on that course 2 weeks before with derek simmons and unfortunetly i was standing in for that lad. His name was Mick Cleery!
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 13:52:53 GMT -5
Cant remember that incident but im sure many jokes were made about that.We did have alot of characters yeah,times have changed and many of them have moved on now.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 13:54:05 GMT -5
I seemed to the think the marrietta came from canada and the HR 120 cme from france.However i may be wrong. Jab retired around 10 years ago now,still living in brotton. Those miners are long gone now,the two miners used now are the Jeferey 1060's and joy miners but i can't think of the spec. Yes it came from Canadian Potash as a used machine I believe, but Marrietta had a works in France. Oddly enough, I was asked about the Marrietta a couple of months back from another old retired ex NCB electrician who now resides in Canada.
The Helis did indeed come from France, I recall Peter Elliott was one of the fitters sent over to the factory to learn about them.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 13:57:05 GMT -5
I had already been on that course 2 weeks before with derek simmons and unfortunetly i was standing in for that lad. His name was Mick Cleery! That would be him, I know it was a shock to all who knew him, I might be wrong, but he'd gone in his own car, and the others were in a rental car and had just left him as he started to change the tyre..Sad, as were the accidents we had at Boulby during those early years.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 13:59:58 GMT -5
Yeah unfortunetly we had many sad incidents right at the begining but weve learnt a lot from them now.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 14:00:08 GMT -5
Cant remember that incident but im sure many jokes were made about that.We did have alot of characters yeah,times have changed and many of them have moved on now. Many of those I worked with would have retired now, I'm 65 this year, I was one of the "older" elecs on the staff, we were the youngest electrical staff I've ever had the pleasure of working with, oldest on our staff was George James, he'd have been in his late 40's back then.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 14:04:23 GMT -5
Yeah george is still living in whitby i saw him not long back funnily enough.I've just turned 61 in february, 23 years old when i started at boulby.
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Post by John on Apr 15, 2012 14:34:37 GMT -5
Yeah george is still living in whitby i saw him not long back funnily enough.I've just turned 61 in february, 23 years old when i started at boulby. Nice to hear he's still with us, pity a few more of the old crowd haven't found the site.
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Post by boro123 on Apr 15, 2012 16:21:02 GMT -5
There isnt many of the old school left now,maybe only me and a couple of others. My son is now an electrician on the central area along with other young and youthfull lads ready to take on the new future of the mine (polyhalite).
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Post by John on Apr 16, 2012 8:15:01 GMT -5
Here's a page from the Boulby Crystal issue No9 March 1978, I kept a couple, wished I'd kept them all!!
I like the May Day Bankholiday notice, just a normal shift to us shift workers, paid at premium time of course plus the day off in lieu.
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Post by John on Apr 16, 2012 8:23:00 GMT -5
Just a note for anyone too young to recall, the West Links was a large roadway driven in salt a few feet down from the potash floor for stability. It was to be a main trunk conveyor road and intake or return airway, (I don't recall which now) for the main South side workings. It was driven with the second Heliminer and two UK assembled Joy SC10 shuttlecars which had all UK made motors and switchgear on them. The heading was the first road that had Laser centering for the miner driver to keep on centre at Boulby too.
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