|
Post by John on Aug 12, 2008 11:35:31 GMT -5
Now the NCB is long gone, there will be a generation who not only will have seen a headstocks in the areas where they liv, but have no idea about the training we went through as miners, tradesmen, Deputies, Under Managers, Managers etc etc.
Lets hear what you did at the pit and the statutary training you went through. I doubt we have many "Green Ticket" men as members, but if there is one, lets hear about your training too!! Green Ticket, (Service Certificate) holders must be getting very thin on the ground today!!
For those reading this who don't know what a Green Ticket is. Tradesmen who served a practical apprenticeship without the technical schooling as required before a certain date, sometime in the 1950's, were issued with a "service certificate" to prove they had the experience required by the new training and legal requirements of the Mines and Quarries Act of 1954. It was issued by the Mines Qualifications Board and was green in colour, hence "green ticket".
Maybe someone who qualified under the above will add more details.
|
|
|
Post by coalfire on Sept 17, 2008 19:31:21 GMT -5
O.K. I know I'm not from the U.K. but, heres how I got my training. I was working for Princeton Fire Dept and wanted to get married, knowing I couldn't put her through school making less than 30,000 a year I took my 80 hour underground class at place called triangle safety. After that I went to work at massey energy Aracoma Longwall mine doing outby work and Longwall setup. After that took a job at rockhouse creek development as an electrical apprentice, Took my electrician classes at Mingo Mine Academy. I made my shot firer card through the State of WV, by a small class and test. I also took my Diesel instructor through the state. I took my Mine foreman through WV University. My EMT(Emergency Medical Technician) I had prior to working the mines.
|
|
|
Post by John on Sept 17, 2008 19:42:07 GMT -5
O.K. I know I'm not from the U.K. but, heres how I got my training. I was working for Princeton Fire Dept and wanted to get married, knowing I couldn't put her through school making less than 30,000 a year I took my 80 hour underground class at place called triangle safety. After that I went to work at massey energy Aracoma Longwall mine doing outby work and Longwall setup. After that took a job at rockhouse creek development as an electrical apprentice, Took my electrician classes at Mingo Mine Academy. I made my shot firer card through the State of WV, by a small class and test. I also took my Diesel instructor through the state. I took my Mine foreman through WV University. My EMT(Emergency Medical Technician) I had prior to working the mines. Sounds a lot easier than what we had Lannie! Ours was based in a nationalised UK coal industry where our employer laid down the training rules plus the UK M&Q Act stipulated the minimum standards. As soon as I get time, I'll be adding to my web site, I have a few old training manuals we used in mining tech in our first year at Tech college, I'll also clean the M&Q Act of 1954 and change the format Daz emailed it to me in and get that up there too, you can see for yourself then what the legislation we worked under. We had to learn that parrot fashion as our annual exams asked questions on parts of the Act. I served a five year apprenticeship, 16 yrs to 21 yrs old.
|
|
ken
Trainee
Posts: 46
|
Post by ken on Mar 10, 2010 23:10:27 GMT -5
I did my apprenticeship at Easington Colliery. Much of it was a waste of time. The policy at the time was to give apprentices experience in the other trades but we were just considered a nuisance by the shop foremen. We did a certain amount of time in the Blacksmith's shop where we were put to work fixing coal tubs. In the carpenter's shop we spent most of the time putting shafts into tools - shovels etc. In the fitting shop we spent our time on the drilling machines. I remember drilling holes into newly treated sleepers for a new drift 3ft guage. Boy were they heavy. We had to do underground training at the next colliery down the coast- Horden. The we learned to set timbers, drive horses and suchlike. Really usefully for electricians. There was a training centre at Sheffield where apprenti from all over the country went for several weeks. I remember the flame proof demonstration well. The had a heavy steel box about the size of a gate-end box with an open front which they could seal with cellophane and do demonstrations with gas mixtures, flange gaps etc. The resultant bangs were impressive. There was a pub we used to visit called the Black Swan - the mucky duck to us. I never new there was such a thing until I came to NZ. I worked my way up the ladder until I was assistant engineer underground before leaving for New Zealand in 1964.
|
|
|
Post by John on Mar 11, 2010 7:37:13 GMT -5
Sounds a lot like most of us had, I started in 1964, late starter, as I was 16.5 yrs old, but first year was mostly a mechanical workshop, turning, welding, etc at Tech plus all the classroom studies and week about at training centre doing basic mechanics, stripping pumps, compressors, drives and putting them back together. Surface training was basically cleaning the training centre classrooms, swabbing out toilets etc. Underground training was so many hours pony haulage, rope haulage, clipping on live ropes etc, building packs, back ripping, setting props, all the mundane stuff we'd never use in later life! Back at our pits, I assisted in the electric shop, as soon as I'd done my underground training, it was down below!! CPS, then face training and on my 18th birthday was told next week was afternoons then nights! I think when the 4 year apprenticeships came in, that useless first year was dropped and each discipline just did their own courses. Although still on the old Mech/Elec scheme, I did derive some benefit from that first year.
|
|
|
Post by philipford734 on Jun 18, 2010 3:34:02 GMT -5
I started with the NCB in 1965 as a mining apprentice, that scheme was just being started. I was fifteen. :)I started at Old Boston training centre, Haydock, Lancashire. We did our underground training at Bold Colliery where there was a large training gallery. The tech collages that we used where Wigan and District Mining and Technical Collage and St Helens Technical Collage. For loco training drivers where sent to Gresford Colliery, North Wales they had built a surface training circuit for locos with steep banks for break training. When I went to Old Boston in 1968 for a pre-face training course we started to build an underground training gallert on the the tip. This was greatly expanded after out first four rings.
|
|
|
Post by chocknog on Jun 25, 2010 2:39:35 GMT -5
basic training,Crown farm,Mansfield Coll,Bevercotes Coll,Loundhall Training centre;Face training,Thoresby coll,final few weeks back at own pit,Blidworth coll on a 365yard retreat face in Top Hard seam,Single ended shearer course Sherwood coll,Treppaner trained at own pit,Chargemans course Loundhall T.C.Supervising workman own pit.Unoin safety committee own pit.First aider Loundhall T.C.
|
|
|
Post by John on Jun 25, 2010 6:36:19 GMT -5
Any chance of you writing down your experiences at each pit etc "chocknog"?? I'm rebuilding my website from ground up. It started out as my own experiences in the industry and just covered Cotgrave and Clifton Collieries. Then Terry Blythe past on a couple of years back and I included his old site on the Notts and Derbyshire pits. It's now being rebuilt to include all pits from Vesting Day to the end. A formidable task to say the least!! I give credit to all photos, stories, maps etc to their owner. You can check out the Mk2 site at coalcollieryandmining.110mb.com/I was hoping to have the Mk3 site up and running, but still have loads of work to carry out on it before I pull Mk2 down and install Mk3 version.
|
|
|
Post by chocknog on Jun 26, 2010 8:47:55 GMT -5
Any chance of you writing down your experiences at each pit etc "chocknog"?? I'm rebuilding my website from ground up. It started out as my own experiences in the industry and just covered Cotgrave and Clifton Collieries. Then Terry Blythe past on a couple of years back and I included his old site on the Notts and Derbyshire pits. It's now being rebuilt to include all pits from Vesting Day to the end. A formidable task to say the least!! I give credit to all photos, stories, maps etc to their owner. You can check out the Mk2 site at coalcollieryandmining.110mb.com/I was hoping to have the Mk3 site up and running, but still have loads of work to carry out on it before I pull Mk2 down and install Mk3 version.
|
|
|
Post by chocknog on Jun 27, 2010 12:32:20 GMT -5
no problem,basic training was done in the galleries at Crownie(mansfield pit)there were two of us from Blidworth,after a month at mansfield we finished basic traing at Loundhall,with underground visits to Bevercotes,one thing i remember about Bevercotes,was the seem where duckboards were covering the floor of the roadway,where oil was seeping through from the nearby Bothamsall oil field.Back at Blidworth an Overman saw i was fed up with a main roadway button,and told me if i wanted to learn my way around the pit,he would get me on his normal 5pm shift and train as a beltman.This set me in good stead,and a year later myself and the chap who did basic with me,went to Thoresby for face training,enjoyed learning all aspects of facework,the shift pattern was not the same as Blidworth,i remember the production men calling us Daffodills,(yellow helmets}.We both fell foul of friday nights,because of absenteeism,we got held off,and our records showed no shift,our Training officer asked why we missed friday nights,so the next time on nights we refused to do any other work,and managed to get colliers held back and we bored and fired supply gate rip,we were for the highjump ,and on the monday Thoresby,s training officer threatened to send us back,but we won our argument,we eventually had a training panel at Blidworth,365yds long on retreat,we both felt we learnt more back home with men who we knew well,and they saw us as the future,rather than a hinderance.The single ended shearer course was shared with apprentice fitters,and was 4 days at Sherwood pit workshops,basically it was a static shearer,powered up where we learnt the safety aspects of starting,changing cables,changing picks,ranging the arm.I hope its not bored you,more if you wish,BEST WISHES,CHOCKNOG,(tony)
|
|
|
Post by John on Jun 29, 2010 7:12:25 GMT -5
no problem,basic training was done in the galleries at Crownie(mansfield pit)there were two of us from Blidworth,after a month at mansfield we finished basic traing at Loundhall,with underground visits to Bevercotes,one thing i remember about Bevercotes,was the seem where duckboards were covering the floor of the roadway,where oil was seeping through from the nearby Bothamsall oil field.Back at Blidworth an Overman saw i was fed up with a main roadway button,and told me if i wanted to learn my way around the pit,he would get me on his normal 5pm shift and train as a beltman.This set me in good stead,and a year later myself and the chap who did basic with me,went to Thoresby for face training,enjoyed learning all aspects of facework,the shift pattern was not the same as Blidworth,i remember the production men calling us Daffodills,(yellow helmets}.We both fell foul of friday nights,because of absenteeism,we got held off,and our records showed no shift,our Training officer asked why we missed friday nights,so the next time on nights we refused to do any other work,and managed to get colliers held back and we bored and fired supply gate rip,we were for the highjump ,and on the monday Thoresby,s training officer threatened to send us back,but we won our argument,we eventually had a training panel at Blidworth,365yds long on retreat,we both felt we learnt more back home with men who we knew well,and they saw us as the future,rather than a hinderance.The single ended shearer course was shared with apprentice fitters,and was 4 days at Sherwood pit workshops,basically it was a static shearer,powered up where we learnt the safety aspects of starting,changing cables,changing picks,ranging the arm.I hope its not bored you,more if you wish,BEST WISHES,CHOCKNOG,(tony) Any chance you can expand that please Tony, if you go to the "Terry Blythe section" of my website, you will see what I mean, as I work on each colliery in the "rebuild" I will be needing colliery information, ie Bevercotes, hi my names Joe blogs and I spent several years down Bevercotes as a faceman driving a conveyor mounted trepanner. I worked on H7's N9's and 23's in the Purple harlem seam where we had intrusions of potatoes in 1923" Something like that but without the tators... But there are some experiences like that, one is on the Cotgrave Colliery page from an assistant engineer I worked under.
|
|
|
Post by chocknog on Jun 29, 2010 8:11:54 GMT -5
Ok,here goes,after finishing face training,i was put on a team on 50,s in TOP HARD seam,under a Chargeman,ALF USHER,he was a Geordie,and was considered the best to work for.Six months on Alf gave me a chance to learn the single ended shearer,with another older collier Eric Bradford,and i worked with him for over a year.Shortly after i had passed out learning the shearer,i was put on the third team on 116,s in the High Hazles seam,as chargeman on the supply gate shearer,the cleat of the coal ran the length of the face 375yds,and as you can imagine when it broke down it was a pig.The management tried allsorts of ways of avoiding the large breakdowns,the supply gate corner was regularly having to be timbered and then aqualited.On the face they tried a CMT with a neucleonic sensor,to cut just below the shale top,unfortunately this was only partially successful,and in 1986,i was Chargeman on the 3 shifts,cutting forward ,setting props and bars,gobbing the original chocks,and installing 146 Low seam full shield support chocks,once installed the chocks stood back one web,ten years of hard slog on 116,s,and Maggie had her way.
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 2, 2010 7:22:42 GMT -5
Ok,here goes,after finishing face training,i was put on a team on 50,s in TOP HARD seam,under a Chargeman,ALF USHER,he was a Geordie,and was considered the best to work for.Six months on Alf gave me a chance to learn the single ended shearer,with another older collier Eric Bradford,and i worked with him for over a year.Shortly after i had passed out learning the shearer,i was put on the third team on 116,s in the High Hazles seam,as chargeman on the supply gate shearer,the cleat of the coal ran the length of the face 375yds,and as you can imagine when it broke down it was a pig.The management tried allsorts of ways of avoiding the large breakdowns,the supply gate corner was regularly having to be timbered and then aqualited.On the face they tried a CMT with a neucleonic sensor,to cut just below the shale top,unfortunately this was only partially successful,and in 1986,i was Chargeman on the 3 shifts,cutting forward ,setting props and bars,gobbing the original chocks,and installing 146 Low seam full shield support chocks,once installed the chocks stood back one web,ten years of hard slog on 116,s,and Maggie had her way. I'll C&P that later, thanks. Been busy, seems some photo files were corrupted when I backed them up from my old computer, so been downloading them all from my email box and backing them up as I go along. 200 down, and 300 hundred at least to go! I've a few pictures of Mansfield, Thoresby and Bevercotes. The plan will be to add all the photos with thumbnails linked to the large pictures.
|
|
|
Post by emleymick on Jul 9, 2010 17:38:06 GMT -5
I started in the mining industry in 1976. I signed on at Emley Moor Colliery which was still hand filling in the Beeston seam. I did my training at Barnsley Main training centre and the underground training in the Barnsley Bed training gallery at Grimethorpe Colliery.
I am proud to say that I experienced hand filling and whilst it was hard work its at least taught me the pride of a working man. When Emley Moor closed in 1985 its ironic that I transferred to Grimethorpe where I worked in the Fenton seam.
|
|
|
Post by John on Jul 9, 2010 21:34:00 GMT -5
I never worked on hand got faces, I can only imagine it was hard bloody work. As an apprentice, I did pass some time giving the M/G stable hole men a hand, for nothing more than to get warm!!! They did teach me how to shovel a ton or two without killing myself in the process!!
|
|
|
Post by erichall on Sept 27, 2010 7:35:37 GMT -5
My first experience of face training was at Barrow Colliery, in the Lidget Seam, on what was the last hand-filling that I could recall for real. I say for real because as a Shotfirer I worked on a 'reserved training' face at Rockingham colliery. On the production face at Barrow, every man took 9 yards of stint, with the exception of the Tail gate Stablehole, wher the collier took 13 yards, but had a man 'casting' for him so that the coalcould be filled onto the face belt. This position as 'caster' was saved for the trainee. In other words, officially the trainee had no 'designated stint' as per the rules. Unofficially he started out with 5 yards. The crafty old collier, for the first few days filled his own 9 yards and some of the Caster's as well. Very quickly this reduced until the Trainee qwas filling most of the stint out. The annoying part,was that, under the payment system, a certain amount of money was put into the 'big note' to pay the caster, and this would be done automatically in the pay office. My problem was that, as a Student Apprentice, I was paid from Area, so this money was simply shared between the whole team. In every other job I worked at during my training, the men would always say 'be outside the pay office on Friday' and would tip you the odd bob or two if you'd got stuck in, but not at Barrow. i well remember after I moved to Rockingham, I was sent to the Skiers Drift Mine to work on the at then new Joy Road Ripper. This was an arm with 3 discs that were sumped into the rip and arced round. The debris was 'slushed' into the side packs. the team consisted of a machineman,and a slusher operator in the gate, with a man either side in the face ensuring the pack was properly filled by the slusher. A team of 4 men, who were allowed to go at whatever time there was the most ripping to attend to. Obviously, being 'between shifts' there were never any market men to make up for absentees. On the third Monday, we had gone underground around 2 pm. and were travelling inbye when one of the chaps accidently swalloweda chew of tobacco. This caused him to be violently sick and he had to go out of the pit. 'What now?' said on of the slushers. The machine man turned to me and asked 'Do you feel confident enough to handle the machine,Son ?' 'Certainly.' I replied, believing that the only way to know how to handle any machine was to get hold of the controls. We worked like that for the full week, and it was only on the Friday that the signal came to stop cutting because someone was coming off the face. I duly stopped the machine, but stood there, the controls in my hand, obviously driving a machine I had no papers for. Out from the rip came no other than the Manager, and the Training Officer. the Manager was most interested in the performance of the machine and questioned myself and the swiftly appearing Machine man quite thoroughly about its performance. He then turned and set off down the gate, closely followed by the TO. who, on passing me , hissed 'My Office Mon.Morning!' As we went out the pit, the lads then said 'Pay Office after baths' They tipped me very generously, leaving 4 very satisfied miners. Monday morning, I duly stood 'on the carpet' in the Training Officer's Office, and received the usual dressing down about operating a machine without papers, something that hurt my pride a little. As I turned to go, he said 'I think you'd better take these!' 'These' were my official authorisation to operate any face machinery at he Colliery!
|
|
|
Post by John on Sept 27, 2010 14:38:05 GMT -5
The only machinery I operated during my apprenticeship was watching a conveyor belt when a switchman had to go early. Although I have operated a manual coal clearing device to keep warm in the stablehole a few times. ;D
When I was the longwall face electrician in a colliery in NSW, I did drive the shearer to pass the time and help keep our bonus up, I became quite a proficient shearer driver after a short time. One of my duties was to train new miners on how to operate the machinery, so it helped me too.
I did drive a shuttlecar during crib time at Wongawilli Colliery again to keep our bonus up, wasn't authorized though!!! And I did get the nickname of "Vent tube", as I kept knocking the damn things out cornering until one of the crew instructed me on the best way of turning a tight corner.
|
|