Morning Star Article About Kellingly

[John]

For a reporter who claims he's been on a coal face a few times he sure shows his ignorance!! Stainless steel, 40 props on a quarter mile longwall.... "panzer" moves on tracks, giant ripping machine..Jeeze, worst piece of reporting I've seen in years..Oh there's more if you read the article.

Morning Star Article.

[Wheldale]

I read it this morning, plus Kellingley wasn't the first million tonne mine in yorkshire either!

[John]

Apr 18, 2014 14:19:10 GMT -5 Wheldale said:

I read it this morning, plus Kellingley wasn't the first million tonne mine in yorkshire either!

Too many inconsistencies, typical uneducated journalist.

[John]

If I recall right, we had 136 shields on a shorter than a quarter mile face.

[Wheldale]

I've read somewhere that the faces at Kellingley were something like 375 m wide, pretty wide faces.

[John]

Apr 18, 2014 15:26:46 GMT -5 Wheldale said:

I've read somewhere that the faces at Kellingley were something like 375 m wide, pretty wide faces.

You can find out how wide the shields are on the manufacturers sites, but at a guess, 1.5 metres, that would work out at 250 supports on a 375m wide panel.

[John]

Joy shields come in 1.5M, 1.75m and 2.05metre widths...

[Wheldale]

Im not quite sure how old this link is but its from Joy about a new face at Kellingley, it says the face is 349m wide. That's really wide compared to the old British Coal faces of 200-250m. Whats the average panel width in the USA or Australia? I wonder if it compares??

www.joy.com/joymining/perspectivesmagazine/x5398_perspectives_vol17no1_joy.pdf

[John]

Apr 18, 2014 16:02:39 GMT -5 Wheldale said:

Im not quite sure how old this link is but its from Joy about a new face at Kellingley, it says the face is 349m wide. That's really wide compared to the old British Coal faces of 200-250m. Whats the average panel width in the USA or Australia? I wonder if it compares??

www.joy.com/joymining/perspectivesmagazine/x5398_perspectives_vol17no1_joy.pdf

Lost track now, but I think, don't quote me on that, but 400 to 500 metres now, hence all the high voltage high horsepower AFC motors in use.

From what I gather now, to reduce voltage drops in cables, they bore a hole from the surface and transmit power from a surface substation to a convenient point close to the mining area!!

I'd never have thought using 11Kv that they'd be worried about volt drops... But in my day we had two transformers rated at 600Kva, now they talk in Mva on installed power...
Again shearers were supplied with 1.1Kv now it's 3.3Kv voltages with 11Kv motor on the AFC M/G drive.

[John]

That was an impressive face set up...1340hp afc motors, jeeze, the two fan motors at Boulby were 1350HP each, and they were huge motors, I wonder how the could make those size motors small enough for AFC duty??

[Wheldale]

Size wise it's all modern technology, look at tv's and mobile phones, tiny compared to the old stuff. Quite frightening when you look back at past stuff. Like you say afc drives the same power as vent fans, how times change!

[shropshirebloke]

He missed out the bit about the miners holding singing competitions for their canaries at snap time - and miners' children entering pit ponies in showjumping competitions...

[John]

Apr 19, 2014 5:47:57 GMT -5 shropshirebloke said:

He missed out the bit about the miners holding singing competitions for their canaries at snap time - and miners' children entering pit ponies in showjumping competitions...

It was a tad like the Wizard of Oz...LOL

[John]

Apr 18, 2014 17:12:48 GMT -5 Wheldale said:

Size wise it's all modern technology, look at tv's and mobile phones, tiny compared to the old stuff. Quite frightening when you look back at past stuff. Like you say afc drives the same power as vent fans, how times change!

There's a lot of room with electronics in miniaturization, but with things like transformers and electric motors, you have the laws of physics, ie power and something to restrain it, like motor casing castings, then there are windings and cores. Problem is you go larger horsepower, you need larger cores, windings and rotors together with larger casings. I'd guess they made them longer, seems the only practical course.

[shropshirebloke]

Apr 19, 2014 5:51:10 GMT -5 John said:

It was a tad like the Wizard of Oz...LOL

...am I the only one who finds the film of "How Green was my Valley" hilarious? Not as funny as the Comic Strip spoof "The Strike", but that was meant to be funny.

[tygwyn]

To be fair to the reporter,at least it was an article in the Miner`s favour for a change,and highlighted the ridiculous energy policy we have,if it can be called a policy.

Most newspaper or BBC article`s and program`s on Mining can be pulled to piece`s for their in-accuracies,
They`re still harping on about the Gleision been working for a 100yrs,the place started late 50`s.

[John]

Apr 19, 2014 6:19:00 GMT -5 shropshirebloke said:

Apr 19, 2014 5:51:10 GMT -5 John said:

It was a tad like the Wizard of Oz...LOL

...am I the only one who finds the film of "How Green was my Valley" hilarious? Not as funny as the Comic Strip spoof "The Strike", but that was meant to be funny.

Been many years since I've seen that movie, my memory is a bit dim, was that about the Welsh lad who was bright and encouraged to go to Uni to learn how to be a teacher??

There was black and white one I recall where the miners broke out into song on their way up to the pit, was this the same one?

Of all the movies/TV series, "The Stars Look Down" by AJ Cronin was probably pretty historically accurate.

[Clive]

The one where they sang going up to the pit was proud valley and stared paul robeson. The stars look down was filed up in workington...good coal up in scupper flats.

I got the dvd of the brave dont cry last week. that was very good, not totaly factualy acurate but it wasnt bad