Category: Riccall Mine

Riccall Mine, South Side

South Side

Introduction: The first two faces at Riccall Mine were HO2DRs known as D2s and HO1CRs known as C1s. They started production in January 1988. The ‘C’ coal faces were at the south side of the mine. The ‘D’ coal faces were at the north of the mine. The first eight coal faces were all developed from the north and south return roadways, retreating from east to west with the seam dipping to the east.

Face Team. Photograph courtesy of Dave Greenwell

The first south side face, HO1CRs

The first face at the south of the mine was C1s. This face was around 700m from the pit bottom and had a face length of 150m working at 800m from the surface with a gate length of 800m. The Main Gate roadway was developed using a Dosco Roadheader MK 2a Revised Hydraulics. The roadway was driven using supports I had seen at South Kirkby Colliery with a face side support leg called a Cruciform. Each setting had extra braces welded on to the part of the face side of the crown of the support. This enabled extra support steel to be bolted between each girder, rather like a heavy duty strut, but the same size as the support. This type of support allowed the face workers in the main gate to remove the leg of the support whilst keeping the extra support brace in place to maintain integrity when the shearer was cutting into the main gate.

The face supports on C1s were Dowty 4 X 700 tonne  shield supports. The supports had a coal interface unit in each chock, with the ability for automated A.F.C. and support advancement and shearer initiation which was never used on this face.

During the first few weeks of production it was realised that the supports were difficult to keep level due to the front of the supports digging in when advancing due to soft floor. This was subsequently rectified by fitting base lifter rams on the front of the chock. This lifted the leading edge of the chock base by acting on the relay bar as the chock advanced.

The face was lit throughout using the Dowlite system of intrinsically safe, high frequency lights. The transformer units were designed by Status.

Dowlites.

The armoured face conveyor was a twin inboard 28mm chain, powered by two, 2 speed motors of 150/300 kw. The panzer was a side discharge onto the Stageloader, the first I had ever seen.

Original photographs on the Dowty Archive at the Gloucestershire Heritage Hub.

The shearer was an Anderson Strathclyde AM500 Double Ended Ranging Drum Shearer power loader for cutting the coal.

C1s AM500 DERD Shearer. Okker Armitage and Gary Pollitt were the drivers.

The stage loader was 150 horsepower with an 150 horsepower, inline sizer/crusher. The face hydraulic system was supplied from 2x 150 horsepower powerpack pumps and a tank mounted on the pantech. The coalface equipment cables and hydraulic hoses were installed in a system called a Back to Back Bretby cable handler. This comprised of 4 sections of bretby approximately 50m in length, mounted on monorail, bolted together mounted top and bottom and side by side.

This allowed the cables and hoses to compact when the face retreated and extend when the Pantech was pulled out during production.

Between the Stageloader drive head and the Pantech was a Hausherr Dinting Machine. This gave the roadway in front of the Stageloader delivery sufficient height to move whilst retreating

The Main Gate coal clearance system was designed to be able to produce 1500 tonnes per hour. The slit onto the main steel cord conveyor had a powerful overband magnet to remove any steel fragments coming from the face conveyors. The electrical and hydraulic equipment supplying the coal face, known as the Pantech, was mounted on steel frames, hung on a monorail system from the roadway support girders. The Wallacetown A74, A74/9 Panzer GEBs and all the electrical equipment was powered by two, 1 MVA transformer supplied at 6,600v to 1,100v for the face equipment. They were supplied by a Wallacetown M82 face isolator through a 6.6kv type 631 pliable wired armour cable, mounted on monorail pivoting brackets, enabling the pantech transformers to be moved as the face retreated during production.

The Tail Gate of C1s was driven using a Joy Continuous Miner CM12 with two shuttle cars loading onto a conveyor. The shuttle cars were the first and last time they were used at Riccall Mine. Having 2 Shuttle Cars gave extra coal storage during cutting.

The second South side face, H02CRs

C1s face progressed well and production was as expected. The face headings for C2s were driven using a new Lee Norse Miner LN800 2TT in the tailgate and the ex C1s tailgate Joy CM 12 in the maingate. The headings were supplied with a new fleet of diesel free steered vehicles. The headings were driven using arch supports. 

LN800 2TT Continuous Miner

The face roadways on C2s were 1400m and once the face line was completed the heading machines were driven out of the Tailgate and around to the new face headings, now designated as H443s.

When C1s face was nearing the finish point in June 1988 the face was prepared for salvage. Rolls of plastic mesh with straps and roof bolts were installed in the front of the face after each strip of coal. The supports were advanced and the meshed roof passed over the supports and eventually into the gob at the back of the face when enough cuts of coal were taken. When the gob at the back of the supports, the roof above the supports and the face front were fully bolted, meshed and strapped the face supports were ready to be withdrawn along with the AFC. The face finished on 14th June 1988.

Face meshed and bolted for salvage.

The AFC was split into sections of 3 pans and withdrawn along with the supports. They were transferred using a Gullick Dobson MP150 free steered vehicle to C2s faceline to be reinstalled. As the chocks were withdrawn, the face had secondary concrete block support chocks installed. 

F.S.V. hauling coal face support

Once the face salvage bolting cuts were completed and all coal cutting had ceased the stage loader, crusher / sizer and cable troughs were transferred and built up in the new C2s maingate.

The face hydraulic pumps, tanks, electrical gear, cables and transformers were brand new so were transported from the surface, already built on the Pantechnicon sections. C2s face trialled a new set of electrical gate end boxes to supply the face machinery called S.I.M.O.S., manufactured by Wallacetown Engineering. The panels were a new, microprocessor operated, vacuum contactor. The Pantech set up was identical to C1s, so everything was monorail mounted. C2s face started on 13 July 1988

Due to design upgrades, the S.I.M.O.S. switchgear were all replaced with updated versions at a later date. This job involved two very long weekend shifts to get it done before starting cutting again on monday dayshift.  

The plan below shows the four faces at the south side of the mine showing the depth of the Barnsley seam with start and finish dates. The green line at the top left shows the shaft pillar, an area around the shaft where coal cannot be mined to protect the shaft from subsidence.  

C2s coal face progressed well but the soft top of the coal seam was a cause for concern on both C2s and D2s faces. C2s face finished on 7th April 1989 and all the face equipment was transferred to the new face, now called H443s, with the addition of extra face supports due to the face length being 200m. The only changes to the electrical equipment, pumps, tanks and transformers supplying the face was the Wallacetown S.I.M.O.S. gate end boxes supplying the face electrical equipment were replaced with a new switchgear called Baldwin and Francis B.F.S. The face started production on 8th June 1989.

During the development of H443s main and tailgates, a partial washout was encountered at 900m mark in the roadway. The headings progressed to 1600m and the face was installed at that point. The AM500 DERDS shearer used on C1s and C2S was replaced with two single ended AM500 Selectronic M.I.D.A.S. shearers.

The M.I.D.A.S.( Machine Information Display and Automation System) had been trialled at Wath Main and Silverwood Collieries on single ended shearers and was designed for automatic steering of the shearer. When installed, the shearer transmitted data to the surface control room via the mine transmission system via a new type of trailing cable called a type 7S with transmission cores, to relay the data to the main gate and then to the surface.

Using the onboard system called a Machine Automation Digital Display(M.A.D.D.) , the shearer had parameters set, including seam section, face length and amount of coal top to be left. During cutting, the machine had a roof follower arm mounted on top of the shearer ranging arm touching the top of the seam. As the shearer progressed through the face, the follower arm gathered data on the coal seam undulations from a unit mounted at the base of the follower arm, transmitting it to the M.A.D.D. unit. At the end of the cut, an end of face detector sent a signal to the M.A.D.D. unit to save the last cut information, along with data gathered from inclinometers on the shearer called Face Advance Tilt(F.A.T) which measuring face advance angle of the seam. On the return cut the shearer, using the last cut data, automatically steered the ranging arm, using solenoid operation of the machine to control the operation. The shearer also had servo operated control of the shearer speed with a push button and electronic speed controller called a PB8 End Station.

When the face retreated to the partial washout on 11th October 1989, the face was salvaged and very quickly re-installed. The main gate electrical equipment was pulled out on the monorail system to the new face start position and face was cutting again on 7th November 1989.

On the 7th December, a visit by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip was planned. The face was prepared for the visit with cover plates fitted over the pan side cable and hose brackets to ensure no accidents happened during the visit. A roof bolting demonstration and a demonstration of the shearer cutting coal was planned. During the visit only a skeleton staff were allowed underground. I remember that three electricians, from our team, were at strategic points to ensure electrical problems were quickly dealt with, one being in the pit bottom substation, one at the main gate end substation and myself on the face. When it came to the visit day Queen Elizabeth was ill so the visit went ahead with Prince Phillip attending. I was waiting in the tailgate when I got a call to say that the face A.F.C. would not start. A very concerned undermanager appeared in the tailgate to ask me to go and see what was wrong. I quickly went to the maingate to see what the problem was. A power supply fuse had blown In the BFS switchgear supplying the panzer and it would not start. I replaced the fuse quickly and thankfully the A.F.C. started. The visit went ahead as planned with no further problems.

Checks given to the men at Riccall Mine after the Royal visit.

H443s completed production slightly earlier than planned on 23 May 1990 due to a small washout fault in the tailgate and the equipment was transferred to H444s, the last face at the South side off the South Return roadway. This unit was a 250m long face with 800m face gates. and started production on 3rd July 1990. The single ended shearers were replace with an AM500 Selectronic M.I.D.A.S. D.E.R.D. shearer. All the other face equipment was transferred. All the electrical equipment was replaced with overhauled equipment, including transformers. The face was completed in 6 months, finishing production in Dec 1990. The face equipment was returned to the surface for overhaul by Meco International, to be re used on the faces at the east of the mine.

H443s and H444s faces.

Starting at Riccall Mine

 

 Riccall Mine

I remember my transfer to Riccall Mine like it was yesterday. I was working as a heading / coalface electrician at South Kirkby Colliery from 1979 to 1986. The pit seemed to be doing quite well with two new seams, the Fenton and the Highfield or Top Newhill having successful faces running. Suddenly the pit was planned to merge with Ferrymoor/Riddings Drift Mine. The writing was on the wall, as we all knew in the coal industry, merge a pit with another and then close two for the price of one. I knew I had to make my own way to the Selby Coalfield if I had a chance of staying in the industry as transfer options were still very difficult due to planned staffing at Selby taking place from closing collieries in the old North Yorkshire Area mentioned in previous posts. After a few phone calls and an interview with Bill Hagan at North Yorkshire Area manpower to explain the transferring, travelling and moving house allowances I transferred to Riccall Mine. It proved to be the best move I made. I signed on at Riccall Mine in September 1986 with a lot of lads from Kingsley Drift Mine, signing on the same day due to closure of their pit. It was on a thursday so my last day was to be Friday at South Kirkby Colliery. I said my good byes on the Friday dayshift and had the weekend off before starting Monday, on the day shift at Riccall Mine. The first day consisted of getting my new two piece overalls, something I had never seen before, tools, pit head bath keys, electrical locks and PPE for the new pit and introductions to some of my new shift. Quite a few of the people who signed on the same day as me ended up on the same shift including one of my new Shift Charge Engineer who I worked with until my last day at Riccall Mine.
As I walked around the surface buildings I was very impressed by the brand new pit and how clean, tidy, modern and well designed it was. When I went into the pit yard for a look around the surface the first thing I noticed was the mine car handling plant at the No1 shaft.

Qualter Hall were the contractors for the Mine Car Handling Plants in the Selby Coalfield.
Coal is unloaded from the cages in mine cars through a tippler, which emptied the coal, and returning back onto the cage to go underground using a LOFCO chain driven system. The coal was then sent by road for processing elsewhere. This system was used at all the Selby Mines, for the heading drivages, before the mines were connected to Gascoigne Wood Drift in December 1987. This was not the equipment I expected to see at Selby but it served it’s purpose well.

Riccall No 1 Pit Bottom with mine car coal clearance in 1987

The mine car handling plant was later removed when the Gascoigne Wood coal clearance was fully operational. During the time the mine car handling plant was used for coal clearance, the underground supply system was a double bogie GMT (Gyro Mining Transport ) mine car system using the No2 shaft, something I had never seen before.
The surface was 64 acres, very small compared with my old pit, and was built on a disused WW2 airfield, virtually invisible from the road. It has a huge soil banking which was landscaped around the visible edges of the mine surface using trees to hide the mine from view as agreed in the public enquiry in 1975. The plan, after closure of the mine, was to restore the mine surface back to farm land using the soil in the banking as infill but this was never used as the mine is used as a business park nowadays.

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Riccall Mine Surface Buildings

No1 Shaft was a downcast with a ground mounted double parallel winder with two eight tonnes or 72 manriding capacity cages . No2 Shaft was an upcast with a tower mounted multi rope friction winder with a single cage and counterweight. The cage capacity was 16 tonnes or 149 manriding capacity on 2 decks. It also had a system of a tilting deck cage so larger or longer pieces of equipment could be lowered underground inside the cage without using slinging under the cage. The tilting deck cage was used for the huge amount of compound girders used in development drivages and bunker / drivehouse roadways at the North of the mine where the coal was loaded into Gascoigne Wood.
The shift I was put on had two Shift Charge Engineers, one from Royston Drift Mine and one from Kinsley Drift Mine who started on the same day as me. The lads on the shift were mainly from Newmarket Colliery with a couple of Woolley lads, one Fryston and myself from South Kirkby Colliery. The chargehand was from Woolley Colliery who I knew from my apprenticeship times at Monk Bretton Training Centre.
My first day underground was to give me an idea how the pit was set up and how things worked. I rode underground in the No2 shaft and was suprised how large the cage was. It would carry 149 men on two decks. When I got off the cage the temperature was quite warm and I realised why we were given 2 piece overalls.
The mine was set up to use No2 shaft as the mine supply shaft. The pit bottom was very modern with a Qualter Hall hinged platform and chain ram system used to push full articulated G.M.T. Mine cars off the cage using the empty G.M.T.’s. The full cars were kept in the pit bottom passbye system for later transportation to districts. Headings were supplied with arch packs, a pre packed system with all the materials needed for setting a pre determined amount of girders. If the girders were 16 x 12 ft they were packed in 5 settings with 19 x 13ft being packed in 4 settings. The materials were transported by flameproof Clayton BoBo or Clayton Pony rubber tyred battery Locomotives.

Clayton BoBo rubber tyred battery locomotive.

Clayton Pony rubber tyred locomotive hauling a powered face support.

The charging and maintenance station for the loco’s was in the pit bottom with dedicated fitters and electricians looking after the loco’s.
No1 shaft was used as the coal clearance shaft loading 2 tonne mine cars from the strata bunker in the north conveyor road onto the pit bottom coal handling system  and then loading onto the double deck cage for disposal on the surface. The system was another Qualter Hall Engineering design and worked well. When I first saw the system I was very surprised at a brand new mine.
The mine was developed with three lateral roadways, two intakes and one return. The North Intake and North Conveyor were the intakes from the No1 shaft with the North Return to the No2 upcast shaft. The North Return had a central rackatrack installed on the sleepers from the pit bottom to 700m mark. This was intended for Rackatrack locos but they were never used as rubber tyred Clayton BoBos and Pony locos were a preferred option.

The North Intake and North Conveyor  roadways were the connections to Gascoigne Wood for coal clearance. The North Conveyor and North Return were driven by Mk 2B roadheaders and were both completed when I started in September 1986. The North Intake was still under development using a Dosco Mk 2A revised hydraulic Roadheader with a trial MEDC intrinsically safe pilot circuit unit. The only one I have ever seen.
The South Headings were the South Intake and South Conveyor from the No 1 shaft with the South Return heading to the No 2 upcast shaft. I was to be the electrician in the South Return heading. All the headings were developed with cross slits for the coalface main and tailgates which also kept the temperatures in the lateral headings slightly cooler. The South Conveyor heading was driven with Dosco Mk2B roadheader and was nearly completed to the Whitemoor Mine connection when I started. The South Intake and South Return headings were being driven using Mk2A revised hydraulic roadheaders.
I started the next day in my new job with the heading team. The team was a mixture of men from different pits consisting of two young back up lads from Newmarket Colliery, the Deputy was from Fryston Colliery with the heading team from Rothwell, Peckfield and Newmarket Collieries, the fitter from Park Hill Colliery.
The South side coalface headings were HO1CR’s (C1’s) main and tailgate. The tailgate was developed using a Joy Continuous Miner (JCM12) with two shuttle cars for coal clearance to the gate conveyor. The maingate was driven by a Mk2A revised hydraulic roadheader.
The North side face headings were HO2DR’s (D2’s) Main and Tailgate. The tailgate was developed using a Lee Norse Continuous Miner (LN800 1TT). This machine was an American specification and could cut out for a setting in 7 minutes. This was the first heading at Riccall Mine to use bolts as a support system. The maingate was driven by a Dosco Mk 2A revised hydraulic roadheader.
I settled in to working at Riccall Mine within days and quickly realised I had made a good move. The mine was developing very quickly and new installations were happening on a weekly basis. The availability of overtime was limitless and the development production bonus was very good due to good mining conditions cutting a 2.6 metre seam and very powerful, high speed continuous miners being used in the face developments.

I worked in the South Return heading, which progressed well, until just before the heading made the connection with Whitemoor Mine, when I became chargehand on my shift. In April 1987 the heading hit a partial washout. In this area of the heading, water started dripping from the roof and sides. The water was incredibly acidic and left awful red marks all over any bare skin, so anyone entering the heading had to cover their skin with a special slimy barrier protection cream. The roadheader turned from a machine white to a very rusty orange within 2 days. This acid water continued for about 150m before it disappeared. The heading thirled in May 1987 as shown on the plan below. The roadheader was so badly damaged by the water that it was left when the heading was completed.

Mine plan showing South Return and South Conveyor roadways at demarcation mark.