BulwellBrian
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Posts posted by BulwellBrian
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There was a coking plant at Avenue near Chesterfield that produced a hard coke called Sunbrite, it was run by NCB coal poducts. Coalite had a plant at Bolsover which was a softer coke and then at Ollerton there was the Rexco plant which used a different process to turn lumps of coal smokeless. The plant at Snibston was also a Rexco plant. There were other NCB plants at Manvers in Yorkshire and in the North East and South Wales their coke was more for industrial use in foundries and blast furnaces. Iron & Steel works all had and still have coke ovens.
Other smokeless fuels were Homefire made at Coventry colliery and Phurnacite which was made in South Wales. Anthracite came from South Wales.
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I was at High Pavement at the same time as Robert Pollard, I wish I had known him better, I am keen on railways & cricket.
RIP Rob.
Brian Wakelin.
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The Retford underpass was built mainly for coal trains, the collieries were west of the ECML & the new power station to the east. The power station required about 20,000 tons of coal per day thus about 40 trains over the ECML 20 full and 20 empty.
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Its not easy to pinch overhead electrification wires with 25000 volts in them. You could only get near them with a large insulator.
Cable theft if of the signal wires at the side of the railway.
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I think the cave was in the cutting on the southbound connection from Bestwood Junction just North of Bulwell Common station.
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There is some radioactive substances in coal as well. It can come out of power station chimneys! I once read that coal fired power stations released more radioactivity into the environment than nuclear power stations in the UK. I don't know if that is true or not.
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Its in the right place, you can see Moorbridge cottages in the top centre of the picture - the old bridge as well.
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How deep were those seams Brian?
Not very deep, they were close to the outcrop. A lot of the Denby area has since been opencasted. They opencasted some pillar and stall workings and found shovels and such. I visited one site where they had found a small staple shaft (from one seam to another without going to the surface).
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Most are too thin to work Compo, some of the thin seams are so variable throughout the coalfield they were worked at some pits but less than a foot thick at others.
Take top hard, it was worked at Bestwood but too close to the surface at Wollaton, too close to water bearing strata at Clifton. A lot of the upper measures were missing from the western Notts pits and Derbyshire pits.
All those seams below the Ashgate were unworkable, less than a foot thick.
The Alton & Belperlawn seams were worked at Denby Drury Lowe colliery in Derbyshire.
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Ayupmeducks: Are the lower seams, such as Baslow, a better grade of coal and the upper more like lignite?
The simple answer is no. All the seams in Notts Derbys & Yorkshire are bituminous coals. The coal being a natural substance varies from seam to seam, and within a seam both most seams contain bands of different quality.
Coal quality both in situ and as sold was normally analysed for Moisture, Ash, Volatile Matter and Fixed Carbon. Sulphur content and Chlorine content, its ability to produce coke and the fusion point of the ash were determined. These all varied from seam to seam and colliery to colliery.
A few examples from No6 Area of the East Midlands Division:-
The High Main seam at Bestwood, Calverton, Hucknall & Linby had a high ash fusion temperature and a low Sulphur content.
The Main Bright seam at Hucknall was very low in ash but was thin. It produced fine house coal.
The Deep Soft at Babbington was low in Ash & Sulphur but high in Chlorine, again a good house coal, but the Deep Hard was not liked as a house coal. It was also had a higher ash content.
The Piper seam at Clifton & Wollaton was higher in Sulphur as was the Blackshale seam.
None of the coals produced was suitable for coke ovens - the coking properties were too poor.
Its quite a complicated subject!
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Remember when the railways were built the only alternative form of travel was horse drawn or walk. The railways were the only way to get any distance. The building of the railways produced the demand just as new roads do nowdays.
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The first Daimlers came before the first Atlanteans, but I dont know when or on which routes.
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The Leen valley was certainly over supplied with railway stations Hucknall,Bulwell & Basford all having at least 3 stations.
But you could use a differant station depending which part of the city you wanted to be in or where you were going on to when you got to Nottingham.
Plus after 1901 the trams ran a frequent service into the city.
The railways were built for the coal traffic not passengers. Thats where they got their money!
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Hucknall No 1 (Top Pit)
After the colliery ceased winding coal the downcast shaft remained connected to Hucknall No 2 and was used for materials for the High Main seam and also as the Area training centre. The upcast shaft was deepened to the Deep Soft seam and linked to Babbington colliery workings to provide additional ventilation it was then known as Babbington No 7 shaft. Babbington Soft workings extended well beyond this shaft to the north. The shaft also pumped mine water. I am not sure when it ceased to be used but it could have remained in used until Babbington closed.
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Sorry I have not been arround, I have been ill. After Newcastle colliery closed its site was used as a landsale wharf presumably for coal to Nottingham. The coal was brought in by rail from Babbington. It was supposed to be NCB internal wagons but many BR wagons were also "borrowed".Not sure if you've noticed it, but there is a thread on the subject in which BulwellBrian (who doesn't visit here much these days) says it closed in 1928
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They were cut up at scrap yards all over the country, many were scrapped at the railways own works including Derby.
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I was one of those watching on Bulwell Forest when Flying Scotsman came up the GN/GC connection with the Crosti held on the main line. I do have still photos of the occasion. I must look at the film again to see if I can see myself.
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1959 started at the NCB laboratories at Cinderhill, continued with the NCB/British Coal till 1993 laterly at the HQ at Hobart House, London.
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Most of the locos were O1's on freight! Later 9F's.
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I have a feeling that David Crick taught Geography but I could be wrong. Taffy Davies was not a Prof until he left HP and went to Uni.
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The swish of the trollybus on the wires (silent death). Steam engine whistles. Newspaper sellers in the Old Market Square - E---Po, Po, Po, E----Po (Evening Post!).
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White dog sh1t.
How do you know its from a white dog?
Isn't this racist!!!!
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When I first studied there it was the Nottingham & District Technical College, Then it became the Nottingham Regional College of Technology, Then the Trent Polytechnic.
I studied first for a National Certificate in Chemistry, later for a Diploma in Management Studies.
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Looking at Google Maps, the junction on the tram line is much further north than the area covered by the old map, I assume that the colliery line was on the same site.
Smokeless Zones
in General Chat about Nottingham
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You would have a job burning coke from steelworks. Its very hard, it has to support the weight of the charge in the blast furnace. You would need a blow torch to light it!