>I have been asked by a friend if I knew how coal was loaded on to railway
>wagons around the turn of the century. He is a model railway enthusiast and
>has a layout based on a branch line in the Nottinghamshire coalfield which
>includes a mine. He would like a photo of a typical building for this
>operation which I suppose would be called a bunker so that it can be
>included on the layout. As my interests lay in hard-rock mining I have only
>a scant knowledge of coal! Can anyone point me in the right direction with
>either an internet source or a book, etc?
>
Tony Brewis' desription is very good - a similar system existed at nearly
all pits, varying only in scale. Some of the smalle pits in Somerset would
have only one or two tracks under the screens building, larger collieries
like the S Wales anthracite mines, or the important pits of the north east
could have as many as 8 tracks under the screens.
The method of operation was fairly standard too, where possible gravity
being used to move wagons into and out of the loading screens.
As for further sources, almost any book with pictures of collieries should
have something of use. The Beamish museum also has a set of screens set up
on their site, with a few rather woebegone chauldrons!
Richard Kelham
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|