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Post by specialbeer on Sept 20, 2015 12:14:05 GMT -5
An elderly lady has large maps of the Linby coalfield as well as an old scrapbook of Linby pit. She would like to donate them to an organisation where they will be appreciated. Can anyone help?
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Post by colly0410 on Sept 21, 2015 3:09:50 GMT -5
Hucknall library often have displays of old local pit artifacts, they might be able to help. Tel 0115 963 2035.
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Post by dazbt on Sept 21, 2015 4:25:25 GMT -5
The National Coal mining Museum would not doubt welcome such a contribution, it would seem to me to be the best place for ensuring their preservation and proving a world wide access for posterity; www.ncm.org.uk/collections/collections-donations |
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Post by colly0410 on Sept 22, 2015 11:43:45 GMT -5
I've spoken to a bloke at 'Hucknall tourism & regeneration group' & they'd be interested. www.hrtg.co.uk. E-mail hrtg@outlook.com. Also on facebook & twitter. Maybe copies if mining museum want them as well. |
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Post by specialbeer on Oct 6, 2015 15:42:38 GMT -5
Thank you both for your help with this. Sorry to have taken so long to reply. I forgot to bookmark the site! I'll be looking into all these suggestions - it's so sad there's no mining museum in Nottinghamshire.
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Post by tygwyn on Oct 6, 2015 18:41:28 GMT -5
Thank you both for your help with this. Sorry to have taken so long to reply. I forgot to bookmark the site! I'll be looking into all these suggestions - it's so sad there's no mining museum in Nottinghamshire. Bilsthorpe Heritage Museum. |
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Post by colly0410 on Oct 6, 2015 19:52:33 GMT -5
Agree with your comment about no Notts mining museum. I worked down Moorgreen & Hucknall & a lot of my friends worked down Linby. I've been part way down the Lancaster drift which connected Linby underground workings (High Main seam I think) to Bestwood pit top, so I've sort of been down Linby pit, well a little tiny bit of it..  |
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Post by John on Oct 7, 2015 5:18:05 GMT -5
Agree with your comment about no Notts mining museum. I worked down Moorgreen & Hucknall & a lot of my friends worked down Linby. I've been part way down the Lancaster drift which connected Linby underground workings (High Main seam I think) to Bestwood pit top, so I've sort of been down Linby pit, well a little tiny bit of it..
It was used to raise coal from Hucknall/Linby for a few years to be processed through Bestwood's washery. |
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Post by eleceng on Oct 7, 2015 15:10:43 GMT -5
Brought a few memories back about Lancaster drift at Bestwood. As you know John, I was an apprentice & mech/elec. there late 50s, early 60s.
The drift ran down for about 300yds. did a right angle turn then continued to seam level (High Main).
It was accessed by a rope haulage with a steel car attached. Rode this many times. Also rode up it illegally on the belts many times, very often if we had stayed overtime & loco's weren't available. Rode the cable belt, from the districts, to bottom of drift & out pit.
Interesting fact. The first Winster manless system was tried out on the drift c/v's. One day shift we had some trouble with it. Winster rep was there also Eric Drury (eng). We rode down to 1st tandem. Winster man did some checks, nothing. He took the front cover off & proceeded to defeat the power interlock. Eric went mad. "Put it back together & run on back up. I'm not running a system if this is what you have to do". We returned up to top where he gave the rep such a bollocking. He the instructed us to take the system out & send it back to Winster. |
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Post by John on Oct 7, 2015 21:18:54 GMT -5
We must have been a leper colony at Clifton, as never once in all the time I was there did I see an AB engineer, or a Winster bod, nor any of the other reps, either that or the blokes I served my time under were the best...LOL
I went on regular nights after I was 18 as I just couldn't roll out of bed for dayshifts, the Chargehand elec was a "green ticket" holder, trained as a fitter at Mapperley Colliery in Derbyshire, no idea how he became a Mech Elec though. But one thing for sure was he was one of the best fitters I've ever known in mining. He could make an AB 16/125 sing!! Nothing stumped him on the hydraulic circuits, he just had to be told the symptoms and within minutes he'd got the solution. He introduced me to the "Nobel method" of removing a shearer drum..
When I was about 19, around 1966, I assisted Tommy Shaw install the Winster Manless Conveyor System, it covered four trunk conveyors and the main console was situated on the outbye plate belt bunker platform. It was Tommy's pet project, prior to the equipment arriving, he got hold of the schematics and wiring diagrams and spent many hours studying them. Tommy was old school, was a "green ticket" holder, class 1 elec, class2 fitter, good on both elecs and mechanical.
He would take time out to go through schematics with apprentices, he taught me a lot, both when things were quiet and when we were on a breakdown.
I was with him one day shift, prior to me going on shifts, we got called to the outbye bunker, the Crawley stageloader that fed the Cablebelt wouldn't start, I forget the make of switchgear that controlled it, was a "tombstone" so could have been AEI/Met Vick or whatever.
U/M showed up and wanted to know how long Tommy would be, "Well it's like this Mr Ward, I'll be a lot longer while you're looking over my shoulder" Tommy's polite way of saying eff off....LOL
We had many teething problems with the Winster set up, but nobody from Winster ever showed up on sight that I'm aware of.
Now when I was at Angus Place in NSW, Alex Downey was a regular visitor for Anderson Strathclyde on nightshift.
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Post by bulwellbrian on Oct 8, 2015 3:01:25 GMT -5
Agree with your comment about no Notts mining museum. I worked down Moorgreen & Hucknall & a lot of my friends worked down Linby. I've been part way down the Lancaster drift which connected Linby underground workings (High Main seam I think) to Bestwood pit top, so I've sort of been down Linby pit, well a little tiny bit of it..
It was used to raise coal from Hucknall/Linby for a few years to be processed through Bestwood's washery.When Bestwood closed some of Linby High Main output was diverted to surface at Bestwood via the Lancaster drift. This was to enable Bestwood landsale to continue to supply local industrial customers with suitable coal. The coal was marketed as Linby ex Bestwood. The remainder of Linby output was wound at Linby as usual. No Hucknall coal came that way, Hucknall High Main was finished and the Deep Soft was being worked. |
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Post by eleceng on Oct 12, 2015 17:41:13 GMT -5
John, the only reason Winster reps were there was it was the prototype system. Not very successful at the time. I moved to Cotgrave shortly after.
I had similar experience there with a U/M. On a breakdown with a trepanner I had an apprentice with me. We had to get into the switch on the m/c. We were laid head to head on the panzer & I was explaining to app. what I was doing. A voice said if there was less talking we would get the m/c going quicker. I scrambled up to see who it was. U/M. It would take much longer while he was interfearing, & I was teaching my app. He would be qualified one day & needed to know his job. Now eff /off & let me do my job. The m/c team cheered. So he left. You had to stand your ground against such people!! |
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Post by colly0410 on Oct 13, 2015 8:05:16 GMT -5
I first saw the Lancaster drift when I first moved to Bestwwod Village (Park Road) in 1968, I was still a kid & the local kids used to trespass on the pit top, of course I joined in & remember seeing the drift. I got caught & marched back home to a good hiding off Dad. (who worked at the workshops) Fast forward a bit. I was at Moorgreen training centre when we went to the loco school behind the pit baths, big Jock (the loco instructor) would let us all have a go at driving. (Under his supervision of course) We were waiting for a van to take us back to Moorgreen TC when big Jock took us for a short walk down the drift. Trouble is we had to walk back up, that made us puff, lol..
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Post by eleceng on Oct 13, 2015 8:33:17 GMT -5
Yeah, it was some walk ! Trouble was the steps were awkward. Too close or too far for normal pace.
You mention your dad at workshops. Was that Central or pit workshops ? If it was pit, I might have known him! |
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Post by colly0410 on Oct 13, 2015 9:13:05 GMT -5
You mention your dad at workshops. Was that Central or pit workshops ? If it was pit, I might have known him! He worked at the central workshops, started in 1958/9 & left in 1984. He worked on phone, trepanner & exploder sections. My then next door neighbour was a hostler down Bestwood. (George Nicholson) Dads mate Tommy Jackson & my Wife's Grandfather George Potter (ex Shonky pit) also worked there. There were quite a few in the Village who worked down Bestwood.. |
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Post by John on Oct 13, 2015 9:22:07 GMT -5
I first saw the Lancaster drift when I first moved to Bestwwod Village (Park Road) in 1968, I was still a kid & the local kids used to trespass on the pit top, of course I joined in & remember seeing the drift. I got caught & marched back home to a good hiding off Dad. (who worked at the workshops) Fast forward a bit. I was at Moorgreen training centre when we went to the loco school behind the pit baths, big Jock (the loco instructor) would let us all have a go at driving. (Under his supervision of course) We were waiting for a van to take us back to Moorgreen TC when big Jock took us for a short walk down the drift. Trouble is we had to walk back up, that made us puff, lol..
Walked up the Stone Head drift at Clifton many times, mostly after having to walk several miles from the faces after both bunkers were full of an afternoon shift. If you didn't keep the pace up you'd be breathing the dust of those ahead of you...My heart would be thumping my chest.
Steepest drift I walked up was at Angus Place in NSW, I don't recall the angle of it, but it was short and a nasty climb!! We had a few weeks of walking it after a fire in the winchroom control cabinet. Waiting for spares was the reason. Riding the belt drift was too dangerous, belt was too fast and the belt had steel supports for the pullwire, hitting one of them would have reduced a mans height by a neck...LOL |
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Post by John on Oct 13, 2015 9:36:48 GMT -5
John, the only reason Winster reps were there was it was the prototype system. Not very successful at the time. I moved to Cotgrave shortly after.
I had similar experience there with a U/M. On a breakdown with a trepanner I had an apprentice with me. We had to get into the switch on the m/c. We were laid head to head on the panzer & I was explaining to app. what I was doing. A voice said if there was less talking we would get the m/c going quicker. I scrambled up to see who it was. U/M. It would take much longer while he was interfearing, & I was teaching my app. He would be qualified one day & needed to know his job. Now eff /off & let me do my job. The m/c team cheered. So he left. You had to stand your ground against such people!!
I much preferred the Huwood Mk1A system, if a belt sequence roller failed to stop a belt, Huwood had inbuilt circuits that could be used to trip the transformer supplying that belt, in conjunction with the pilot circuit of the GEB feeding the belt...It was known as anti freeze in detection, but still worked as a fail safe method should a sequence roller failure. Thinking back, I didn't like Winsters blocked chute detection either, it was prone to failure caused by dust, but at least it worked as failure to safety, pity it didn't stop 1's No 4 "temporary bunker" happening at Clifton. 
Not sure when Huwood developed their manless system, maybe a few years after Winster I'd presume, but from the lads I worked with from the North East coalfields, it was a common set up in those pits. |
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