My first day underground.

[colly0410]

I'd been at Moorgreen training centre a week, (I was just turned 15) I'd been shown round the pit top: canteen, showers/lockers, lamp room, top of Waterloo seam drift, screens, skips unloading at top of downcast shaft from the low main seam, the upcast shaft winding engine & driver & some other things I've forgotten.

Underground today, GULP! Got my light & put it on my belt, walked to upcast shaft airdoors, never been through them before, lots of hissing. Went through first door, when it closed my ears popped & I went deaf, swallowed & hearing came back, no one told me this would happen, went through second door & there was a roaring noise, it was the ventilation fan. Went to shaft side & a cage was waiting, gave banksman my tally disc & went on the cage, doors closed, there was lots of bells ringing & the cage went up a few inches, the banksman pulled in the keps & away we went. As we went past the fan drift the pit smell hit me & my stomach churned like on a fairground ride as we gathered speed. We started to slow down after a while & lights came into view, we stopped in mid air at the Piper seam inset landing & the cage bounced up & down. Lots of bells ringing again. A loading ramp clanged onto the cage floor & screeched as the cage carried on bouncing, shaft side door opened & the onsetter opened the cage door & off we trooped. As I walked over the loading ramp I could see further down the shaft to the low main pit bottom, GULP!

The piper pit bottom was massive, so high, I was impressed. We went through some air doors on to an intake, ears popped again & it went cold & the air smelt fresh. We walked past a drift that went up to the waterloo seam, there was a manriding conveyor in it, the cold air came down there from the surface drift. we went down a short drift with steps in it (it was wet) to the piper seam training gallery, it was like a maze in there. I was shown the training face, (25's I think) the training rope haulage & we went on what was known as a nature walk round old disused roadways. It was drilled into us not to wonder off from the group as if you got lost they might never find you, GULP! (There were stories off men who'd vanished & were never seen again) After that lot it was time to come back up again & it was reversed. Had a shower then on the bus & back home, I had a tale to tell that night.

[John]

Amazing how we can recall our first day underground, and yet last week is a blank....

Mine was before I'd started my U/G training, I can even recall the electrician I was sent with "Plonk". He'd got a job underground and needed an apprentice to carry his tool bag, I was the only one available, but I wasn't U/G trained.
A CPS certificate was soon arranged by the Safety/Training Officer and signed by the Manager.
Picked a spare lamp up from the lamproom, lamp checks and off we went to Bank...Must have been an uneventful ride down as I don't recall the ride down. In fact not a lot comes to mind, but I recall being at 1's/42's junction at one of the main U/G substations, pretty cold there too being on the main intakes.. I also recall my first experience with shotfiring, 42's was being backripped for the new manrider road. Sounded like a huge steel door being slammed shut when the round was shot.
I was instructed on how to ride the Cable Belt up the Stone Head Drift to pit bottom when we'd finished, pretty easy as there were getting on platforms and getting off platform at the top.

About a month after that, I was at Hucknall Training Centre starting my 20 days U/G training, then back to the pit and ever after underground...I did have spells on nightshifts assisting the Surface electrician, but it was mostly on faces for me...

[colly0410]

I remember my first shotfiring experience, it was in the deep soft seam down Hucknall: my ears popped & my body shook as the blast wave went past, then I heard the crash noise. I thought there'd been an explosion & I was scared, but no one else seemed bothered. One bloke saw my look of horror & explained it was only shotfiring & not to worry, phew. One day I was in a pit bottom office & they were making an engine house for the deep soft/black shale drift rope haulage a short distance away, they blasted & the door flew open & it nearly came off it's hinges, I nearly jumped out of my skin, then the office filled with shotfiring smoke, lots of coughing & spluttering followed, lol..

[John]

Aug 15, 2014 16:37:36 GMT -5 colly0410 said:

I remember my first shotfiring experience, it was in the deep soft seam down Hucknall: my ears popped & my body shook as the blast wave went past, then I heard the crash noise. I thought there'd been an explosion & I was scared, but no one else seemed bothered. One bloke saw my look of horror & explained it was only shotfiring & not to worry, phew. One day I was in a pit bottom office & they were making an engine house for the deep soft/black shale drift rope haulage a short distance away, they blasted & the door flew open & it nearly came off it's hinges, I nearly jumped out of my skin, then the office filled with shotfiring smoke, lots of coughing & spluttering followed, lol..

The new workshops down Marblaegis Mine at East Leake had breeze block walls with a few blocks left out at the top, not for ventilation mind you!!! When they fired the faces, a couple of hundred yards inbye, the walls shook.

It always amazed me when the shotfirer fired the ripping lip, he could pick up a missfire...STOP the belt, he'd shout, then he had everyone sorting through the rock on the belt...Sure enough, there was a missfired cartridge.. He'd dispose of it safely.

[smshogun]

Amazing how we can recall our first day underground, and yet last week is a blank....

That's called dementia John.

[John]

Sept 7, 2014 20:13:52 GMT -5 smshogun said:

Amazing how we can recall our first day underground, and yet last week is a blank....

That's called dementia John.

I've had that for years...