When the main drivages at Riccall Mine were completed and the connection to Whitemoor Mine was made at the South Conveyor Roadway in December 1986, the job of creating a coal clearance system for both mines was started. One of the first jobs in early 1987 was to make a connection with Gascoigne Wood to allow men to travel to work at the furthest point of the Gascoigne Spine tunnels. Amco were given the job of sinking a 66.2m, 1.2m diameter inclined access borehole.
The incline shaft to Gascoigne Wood.
This was sunk at the far north of the mine between the ends of the North Return and North Conveyor Roadways. The initial shaft was bored from Riccall Mine to Gascoigne Wood. A larger bore was made by pulling the shaft borer back up the shaft from Gascoigne Wood to Riccall. A ladder access was then installed. This allowed access for the Amco contractors to work on the two staple shafts, called Bunker 7 and Bunker 8. The bunkers were 57m in depth and 7.5m in diameter and were designed to allow 2000 tonnes of storage of coal if there was a problem with the Gascoigne Wood coal clearance conveyors.
During the final 9 months of the Robbins TBM South Spine drivage, bad ground was encountered and the drivage slowed up considerably. A decision was made to drive an heading West from Riccall towards Stillingfleet and make a further connection until the Robbins TBM South Spine was completed. This was called The Stillingfleet Connection.
Riccall Mine bunker area.
The heading machine used to drive the Stillingfleet Connection was the ex North Return MK2B Roadheader with FSVs supplying the heading. This heading was driven but was never used for it’s original purpose of coal clearance. The conditions improved in the Robbins TBM heading and it was successfully completed.
The North Conveyor Roadway Bunker, Conveyor Drivehouse and Bunker area had to be created.
The North Conveyor MK2B Roadheader was tracked back from the furthest point north to a point 100m from the new planned drivehouse. The Roadheader then recut the roadway, widening in the drivehouse area, dinting the roadway and setting large, square section girders for 300m. The Roadheader was tracked back again to the start of the square work. A setting platform, on monorail was created. The Roadheader then dinted approximately 2m of roadway, replacing the girders legs as it moved forward, creating a huge roadway section through the Drive House and Roadway Bunker up to the site of the Bunker 8 Staple Shaft. The Drive House was dinted again with a Dosco Dintheader to allow for the dimensions of the Steel Cord Conveyor Drive to be built.
Dosco Dintheader.
The final size of the drivehouse was 8m high by 80m in length square section roadway.
The Riccall Steel Cord Conveyor, one of six installed in the Selby Complex, was a very powerful Conveyor capable of moving 2000 tonnes per hour. The installation was designed and commissioned by Huwood Mining. OMEC Mining were contracted to build the gear head and Conveyor with it’s associated structure. The structure was built from various points of the North and South Conveyor Road where loco access was available. The conveyor was installed in 300m lengths each weighing 14.5 tonnes and were 1.35m wide and 17.3mm thick. For the purpose of installation and maintenance, purpose designed lifting, handling and vulcanising facilities were installed and were situated in the No2 shaft pit bottom area. The return end was at the Whitemoor Bunker Connection.
The Riccall Conveyor Drivehead was a double drive operated by two modified 6.6kv NEI Peebles HF2VG in sequence. It had scoop trim fluid couplings with acceleration control operated by modified KLS lighting and signal transformer units called Scoop Trim Panels. The coupling scoops were controlled by electrohydraulic actuators. Each motor was rated at 750 kw (1000 Horsepower).
When the huge square section Bunker Roadway at the end of the Riccall Steel Cord Conveyor was finished the job of creating a coal storage and clearance system was started.
A twin inboard AFC was installed in the bunker roadway underneath the conveyor which ran the length of the bunker. A BJD Maximatic shearer with a large scrolling drum was mounted on the panzer. A suspended walkway was built in the top of the bunker with a remote control system to operate the Coal Reclaim Shearer. A traversing plough delivery was installed on the Conveyor to be used if a problem occurred at Gascoigne Wood. This ploughed the coal from the conveyor onto the bunker floor. When Gascoigne Wood Coal Clearance re started the coal was loaded back onto the panzer which loaded back onto the Conveyor to be loaded into Bunker 8.
At the Steel Cord delivery end a control point called The Wendy Box was created. This was staffed and all the production passed through this point. The production could be directed onto the Bunker Conveyor directly to the Staple Bunker 8 into Gascoigne Wood, ploughed into the bunker for reclaiming later or directed to the North Intake Conveyor via a Westerland Weigh Feeder Conveyor, a conveyor containing load cell modules to weigh the coal passing through the system to be sent to Staple Bunker 7 into Gascoigne Wood. All production was controlled via a control panel with information from Gascoigne Wood Control.
Selby Superpit 