Selby Superpit

List of Coal Faces at Stillingfleet Mine

Plan of coal faces at Stillingfleet Mine with seven worked in the North Selby Mine area.

The first coal faces at Stillingfleet Mine were worked from the east / west lateral roadways. The first face worked in Jan 1988 was H01Bs on the west side of the mine. H01Cs started production in May 1988 at the east side of the mine. The lateral heading to the east of the mine was the connection with the North Selby Mine lateral conveyor roadway called West 2 and was completed in July 1989. The heading was driven by two Dosco Mk 3 roadheaders with heading being driven from both mines simultaneously and was over 3,600m long on completion.

The early face developments were driven using Dosco Mk2a Revised Hydraulics roadheader setting arch supports with Dosco Mk3 roadheaders driving the lateral roadways. As the mine progressed the face heading development roadheaders were replaced with BJD flat chain mat continuous miners (Heliminers) and roof bolting replaced the arch supports to achieve faster drivage rates.

BJD (Dresser) Heliminer

Lee Norse LN800 continuous miners were also used in the mid 1990s.

Lee Norse LN 800 2TT

Dosco LH1300 roadheaders were used for the lateral roadways to replace the Dosco Mk3 roadheaders.

The Gascoigne Wood coal clearance connection roadway to the south of the mine was completed in Dec 1987 to load coal into Gascoigne Wood Mine via a 2000 tonne, 7.5m diameter staple shaft called Bunker 6. A 7.5m diameter, 2000 tonne staple bunker was created in the North Intake near to the pit bottom area called the Kelfield Bunker and a bunker was created in the south west lateral towards the Bunker six staple bunker. A ventilation connection, already existed from Mar 1987 and this was kept in use with a .8m diameter 20° inclined borehole. A small section, one in one (45)° drift was also created at the end of the lateral to give access and supply air to Gascoigne Wood Mine.

Plan of Bunker 6, Ventilation Borehole and 1 in 1 Drift connections to Gascoigne Wood Mine

The Bunker 6 Westerland feeder coal clearance connection from Stillingfleet Mine.

The conveyors in the east and south intake lateral roadways at Stillingfleet Mine had to transport coal from North Selby and Stillingfleet Mines. Roadways in the drive house areas of 5m high by 7m wide, square section stanchion girders were created to house the double, 6.6 K.V. 750kw, steel cord conveyor drives. The Drive House was situated at the of the south Intake roadway near to the pit bottom which loaded onto a lower lateral roadway which delivered via a 2000 tonne staple shaft into the Gascoigne Wood Spine Tunnels.

Stillingfleet Mine developed the east and west lateral headings to the furthest extent and worked faces from 1988. The west side of the mine worked 12 faces, the last being H219s in 1998 and the east of the mine worked 6 faces, the last being H256s in 1995 very near to the North Selby Mine workings. During this period the north lateral headings were developed and a further north east lateral was driven where 2 faces were worked. As the mine progressed northwards a west and east lateral was developed with 9 faces worked from 1995 to 2002.

An east lateral heading developed was developed at the south side of the mine. Production started in this area in 1995 with H300s face. Eight faces were worked in what was known as the Escrick Brickworks area and finished with H307s in 2004. When this area of the mine was developed a 1000 tonne horizontal bunker was created as storage for surges in production in the east lateral which loaded onto the South Intake lateral conveyor.

When North Selby and Stillingfleet Mine merged in 1997, reserves became available to be worked from Stillingfleet Mine in the North Selby area. Seven faces were worked in this area, the final face being H853s which finished production in August 2004, one week after H272s.

From production starting in Jan 1988 until closure in August 2004, Stillingfleet Mine worked 49 longwall coal faces, 7 of which were in the original planned area of North Selby Mine. The faces were worked using Anderson Strathclyde AM500, 375 KW D.E.R.D.S shearers with face equipment supplied by Gullick Dobson and Dowty Meco. As the mine progressed, Joy 4LS shearers with Joy face equipment replaced the original equipment on the faces.

Stanley Main Seam Drifts.

Stanley Main Drifts showing Pit Bottom area, West and East developments of the mine.

Stanley Main Drifts when completed.

During late 1997 a series of canteen meetings with the staff were called at Riccall Mine. An announcement was made that Whitemoor Mine and Riccall Mine were to become a combined mine and that Whitemoor was to be closed in 1998 when the last face was worked out. We were also told by the manager that Riccall Mine would produce coal for seven more years if we were lucky. Riccall men were told that they had options to either stay at Riccall Mine until closure, apply for redundancy, transfer to Wistow Mine or go to Whitemoor Mine to work the last face, which was H635s and then be redundant. These options gave the chance for any Whitemoor men to transfer to Riccall.

Rumours were rife from 1992 that the Selby Coalfield was under threat of closure due to diminishing coal contracts with the two newly privatised energy generators but to be actually told was a surprise as we had achieved exceptional production figures for many years. The announcement was also made that Riccall Mine was to develop drifts up into the 2.5 m thick Stanley Main seam for the last few years of production which was another big suprise as the Selby Coalfield had planning permission for the Barnsley Seam only.

The application for planning permission to work the seam was presented to North Yorkshire County Council in mid 1998 and was passed in July 1998 without major objections. The permission was to mine 9 million tonnes of Stanley Main Coal. Permission was also granted in 1999 to tip the waste from the Stanley Main Drift developments at the Gascoigne Wood tipping site.

The Stanley Main Drifts junctions were 250m from the pit bottoms in the North Intake and North Return roadways. Skanska were chosen as the contractors for the work to be carried out. The first drift to start was the Intake which started development in early 1999. The junction was created with a Boart Multi Drill Rig using boring and firing. The drift progressed on an upward North East incline at 1 in 16.

When the Intake Drift had reached 70m a junction was created. The Boart Drill rig then turned to the East and drove an 80m heading at 1 in 23 on an uphill incline. The junction for the Return Drift was created in August 1999 and the Boart Drill rig then drove back South West at 1 in 20 downhill to create the circuit to the North Return which was completed in early 2000

The Intake Drift was developed with a Paurat Titan E134b Roadheader using heavy duty arch supports.

The development of the Intake Drift from the cross slit started in May 1999 and drove at an incline of 1 in 12 uphill. It passed through the Dull Seam, Kent Thick seams and the Kents Thin Seam reaching the Stanley Main Seam in late Dec 1999.

The Return Drift was started in September 1999 and was driven by a smaller Paurat Titan E169. The heading progressed well at 1 in 20 on an uphill incline and reached the Stanley Main Seam in April 2000. When the junctions for the Stanley Main Intake and Return Lateral headings were made a roadway was driven west from the Intake lateral junction back towards the North Conveyor Road. A borehole was made for the Stanley Main coal to load onto the North Steel Cord Conveyor from the Stanley Main level.

The Paurat Titan E134b and E169b Roadheaders were made under licence by Dowty. Below are a couple of information sheets for the machines very similar to the machines used in the Stanley Main Drift headings.

Information for the post was provided by Phil Wright, Ian Steele, ( Steely ) who worked for Skanska in the Stanley Main Drifts and Kevin Grant, S.C.E. at Riccall Mine.

Mines Rescue Practices.

As part of ongoing training, to ensure competency, part-time Rescue Men had to attend a training session every two months. The training sessions were called Rescue Practices and were programmed so that every part-time rescue worker used the S.E.F.A. breathing apparatus 6 times per year.

S.E.F.A. Closed circuit oxygen Breathing Apparatus.

If a practice was missed due to holidays, illness or injury it was reprogrammed as soon as practicable to ensure competency. The training sessions were usually programmed so that the teams at each pit trained together.

One of the training sessions every year was the Selby Group Competition which included a rescue scenario and a question and answer oral exam.

Rescue competition log entry.

Due to the revision of training after the Lofthouse Colliery disaster in March 1973 a training session working in water was added and had to be carried out every 2 years. This practice involved moving around a swimming pool as a team with diving weights around your waist, and a black bag covering your helmet and facemask to ensure sensory deprivation.

The practice was designed to see what working in teams in slurry and deep water up to 10 feet in depth felt like.

Disorientation and breathing difficulty due to pressure in deep water were issues on this practice. Working under water would only ever be used to save life at a incident.

In Water Training notes.

Using Breathing Apparatus in extreme heat and humidity is very stressful when working in an incident underground. Every 2 years rescue teams were tested in the Rescue Station Hot and Humid chamber to ensure awareness of the dangers of working at physical and mental limits. The S.E.F.A breathing apparatus were set to high oxygen flow for this training session. The teams were set a training scenario early in the session. The teams then entered the chamber for the last 19 minutes at maximum temperature and humidity. The Captain of the team monitored the atmospheric conditions inside the chamber using a piece of kit called a Whirling Hygrometer and saturation / heat chart.

Whirling Hygrometer.

Photograph courtesy of Science Museum.

Temperature / Saturation working time chart

Continual physical checks ensured the team’s safety whilst the men carried out heavy exercise consisting of either riding a static cycle, shovelling piles of gravel, carrying water barrels or lifting weights in rotation. The men were very closely monitored for signs of heat stroke and exhaustion.

Training log entry for hot and humid practice.

Rescue men attended practices at collieries in the Rescue Station area to familiarise themselves with the location of all the other pits they may be called to in the case of an incident.

On arrival at a practice the Captain and the team were given a brief on the rescue scenario along with the mine plans needed. They checked and tested all the equipment likely to be needed and progressed to the Fresh Air Base. The pits in the Selby Rescue Station area were Gascoigne Wood, Wistow, Stillingfleet, North Selby, Riccall, Whitemoor, Kellingley, Hatfield Main, Thorne, Prince of Wales and Hayroyds Colliery.

Below are some of the Rescue Practices I attended at different collieries.

Practice at Hayroyds Colliery.

Practice at Thorne Colliery.

Practice at North Selby Mine.

Practice at Whitemoor Mine.

Practice at Wistow Mine.

Practice at Riccall Mine.

Practice at Kellingley Colliery.

The above Rescue Practices are some of the entries from my training log. These show the types of scenarios and some of the collieries visited to familiarise the teams. The Rescue Practices were designed to test the teams in very difficult conditions and over a 12 month period all the rescue equipment available for use is used as part of these training scenarios.

Many thanks to Katie Cavanagh and Stephanie Thompson at the National Coal Mining Museum for making my training logs available.

Gascoigne Wood Washery Plant.

During the early stages of development and planning of the Selby Coalfield, a huge project was undertaken to prove the available seams were workable. Nearly 90 boreholes and 345 in seam seismic surveys were carried out to prove the available coal. The planning permission was based on the findings which proved 2 billion tonnes of available reserves of which 600 million tonnes were the Barnsley Seam. The comment made at this stage of planning was the Barnsley Seam is clean coal, good enough to send straight to the power station and that the 600 million tonnes were relatively dirt free reserves.

Gascoigne Wood mine was designed to have no coal preparation facilities or tipping space but due to underground faulting, dinting, sinking of cross measure drift and face conditions across the complex the amount of dirt in the coal was becoming a problem. The decision was made in the early 1990s to build a huge screening and coal preparation plant on site. The existing covered coal storage facility was chosen to house all the equipment needed to build the new preparation plant.

The coal storage was redirected to an adjacent open area that could store up to 400,000 tonnes of coal; which is over two months’ production. The new stocking ground had coal stackers with boom conveyors capable of raising, lowering and rotating to ensure the coal was stacked efficiently. Each stacker could process around 3,500 tonnes of coal per hour with the whole system mounted on a transportable carriage rather like an overhead crane. The coal was reclaimed from the storage area, to be processed, using a rotating barrel incorporating a reclaiming bucket. This system operated at 1500 tonnes per hour and sent the coal to the preparation plant inside the old storage area.

The Original Covered Coal Storage Area

The Boom Stacker and Reclaimer System

Gascoigne Wood site showing coal preparation facilities.

The coal preparation plant contained inside the old storage consisted of 4 screens manufactured by Don Valley Engineering. These were known by their nickname ‘banana screens’ due to their curved design. Two screens were used in each route from the drifts and were capable of processing 900 tonnes per hour at a size of 1 inch. The coal was then blended with smaller coal from the 16x flip flow IFE screens. The coal washing system was 6x Parnaby barrel type natural medium with a capacity of 1200 tonnes per hour. The smaller coal was washed using cyclones to deal with the slurry filtration.

Click on the link to show the plant in October 2004 during the last days when the only production in the complex was from SM 504s at Riccall Mine. It gives you an idea how vast and complex the coal preparation plant was.

Due to the site not having planning permission to tip waste and a ban on road haulage transportation, the dirt from the preparation plant was sent to Allerton Bywater Colliery for tipping via railway. Liquid slurry was sent to Wheldale Colliery via an overland pipeline for disposal in the shafts. Coarse waste was sent via railway to Welbeck Site, near Normanton to be used for landfill and reclamation.

When the closure of Allerton Bywater Colliery was announced in March 1992 the need for tipping space at Gascoigne Wood site became a major priority. Planning permission was applied for in July 1993. A full review was carried out on the 133.8 hectare farm land site. At the time, 98% of the land was used for agricultural production with grade 3b moderate soil types covering 79% of the site. Planning was granted in late 1993 to start a 340 acre tip to the East of the mine site. The tip was started in 1994 with precise planning and environmental conditions imposed. As the tip progressed in a modular manner, called cells, continuous restoration took place. 110,000 trees were planted in an 10 metre wide border around the site in the first year with a further 50,000 to be planted as the restoration of the site progressed. Topsoil was added to the site on completed sections within 18 months of completion of each phase.

Gascoigne Wood tip looking south.

Gascoigne Wood tip looking south east.

Gascoigne Wood tip looking north west.

The original planning permission was for an area of 340 acres. Further planning permission was added as the tip was completed with a further extension added to the north and east of the existing one. In 1999 a further planning permission was granted to allow the tipping of waste from the Stanley Main Drifts being developed at Riccall Mine.

Due to the very high standard of restoration work carried out on the site, Gascoigne Wood Mine was awarded the accolade of ISO 14001, the first mine in Europe to be awarded the International Environmental Standard.

The tip is not recognisable as a Colliery tip now, with vast areas of grass and trees. If you enter ‘Gascoigne Wood’ into Google Earth you can see the extent and standard of the remediation work carried out.

Bibliography

DOWNES, E. (2016). YORKSHIRE COLLIERIES 1947-1994.

Photographs kindly provided by N. Rowley.

List of coal faces at North Selby Mine.

The faces worked at North Selby Mine at the North and South West of the mine.

As you can see from the plan, the faces marked were taken when North Selby was a stand alone mine before the merger with Stillingfleet Mine. Nine faces were mined at North Selby in this area. Four coal faces are shown, but not marked, as they were developed at a later date working from Stillingfleet Mine.

The faces taken at North Selby Mine at the South East of the mine.

As you can see from the plan seven faces were mined at North Selby in this area. One face is unmarked as it was worked from Stillingfleet Mine at a later date. This area of the mine was very hot with heat exhaustion being a major problem due to the working depth of 1100m.

North Selby Mine and Stillingfleet Mine merged in July 1997 but in its short life of 7 years, 16 coal faces were mined. The first face started in November 1990 at North Selby which was H801s.

It was the first face in the country to have a remote face support pump system and supplied the face at 4,500 psi. North Selby Mine was also the first mine in the UK to both develop and use load centres instead of individual gate end boxes to supply the coalface equipment.

On the nightshift of 6th December 1992, North Selby H903s coalface, using an AM 500 DERDS coal cutter sheared 5055m of coal (3.14 miles). This was a European record and along with Thoresby Mine the first time 3 miles of cutting was achieved in a single shift.

The face headings were developed using Lee Norse LN800 Continuous miner. The lateral roadways were developed using Dosco LH 1300 roadheader machines with a Dosco MK3 roadheader driving the west connection to Stillingfleet Mine. As happened at Whitemoor Mine, the heading developments were taken by mining contractors with British Coal/ RJB Mining teams working the coalfaces from 1993.

The faces were equipped with Anderson Strathclyde 375 kw AM500 DERDS or 375kw Joy 4LS DERDS shearers. The face equipment was initially Gullick Dobson and Dowty Meco. Due to mergers of mining equipment suppliers in 1994, Longwall International equipment was used.

Memories of Stillingfleet Mine.

I have been in contact with Martin Thomson who moved from Ledston Luck Colliery to Stillingfleet Mine. He kindly gave me his memories of working at Stillingfleet from 1986. It is always great to hear people’s memories.

Martin remembers the following, but is happy to be corrected –

The mine was split into east and west sides from first development – I started there in 1986 transferred from Ledston Luck as ‘elsewhere below ground’ worker – at that time the main laterals were still being driven and the ‘run of mine’ was sent by conveyor to horizontal bunker in the pit bottom where it was loaded into ~2t mine cars and lifted up the downcast shaft – at the pit top the coal was taken by wagon for sale and the waste used to build the screening etc – B1 was the first longwall on west side – 200m long 2.6m thick Barnsley seam – gates were in region of 1500m – all chocks on the face run were controlled by 3 man team with two machine men DERDS – gate ends had a separate 2 men teams and then a stage loader man – additional team members were 2 mechanical and 1 electrical and deputy – this first face was a production record breaker – the output per manshift was enormous (can’t remember the numbers I’m afraid) and the management team were excited to think all the faces would be equally productive – C1 was the second face this time on the east side -the equipment /mechanics were the same as B1 but the geology was different and although successful, never really matched the production rates of B1, and this continued on east side for second third and fourth faces with some very difficulty faulting creating lots of cavities to contend with (unfortunately for me, these were the faces I did my face training and face work on) – many ‘happy’ hours were spent drilling great lumps of immovable sandstone that dropped onto the armoured face conveyor, ready for the shotfirer and his explosives! and then even more hours putting up shuttering with timber and plastic sheets in order to pump the void above the chocks with a cementitious material which when set, could later be sheared through thus creating a new stable roof – the laterals were laid with rails which incorporated ‘rack-a-track’ to enable the diesel locomotives to drive their pinion ‘cog’ along, thus enabling them to transport loads up/down a general inclination east to west – the laterals followed the Barnsley seam which dipped eastward (can’t remember the gradient ~1in8? with faulting in some parts making it steeper) – I spent a few months on diesel loco transport and can remember they really struggled with frequent overheating problems – later, the mine used all electric battery powered Bobo locomotives with rubber tyre wheels which were successful, reliable, very capable (including the transport of powered supports) cleaner and quieter – later still, the mine used diesel powered FSV which were flexible, powerful but noisy and dirty and were limited to drivage gates – the floor heave outbye created lots of problems with constant need for dinting – later still, the mine used manriding conveyors to try to speed up journey times for face teams – the mine developed northward and was successful with a number of shorter length face/gates – the south side did not have face units (at least not while I was there up to ~1996) as it was a lateral that the main conveyor was installed within connecting to the 2000t capacity vertical staple bunker down to a lower lateral which then used a vertical borehole down to Gascoigne Wood drift mine tunnels and the Anderson Strathclyde steel cord belt (south tunnel?) and the cable belt (north tunnel?)

Many thanks to Martin for giving me the above information.

Gascoigne Wood transport system.

When the Gascoigne Wood drifts were finished and the spine tunnels were underway, the transport system to supply the two headings and provision of manriding facilities were installed. Due to the lengths, extreme temperatures and the huge amount of heading supplies needed on a daily basis in the spine tunnels, the transportation system had to be designed to be very robust and reliable.

The drifts had rope haulages with manriding cars, operated from a surface engine house. The haulage engines were very similar to a small winder operating as a winch.

The Qualter Hall Manrider Haulage Engine.

The rope haulages had captivated mine cars and ran to the 1680m mark in the North Spine Tunnel and 1600m mark in the south spine. The rope haulages were both capable of carrying 21.5 tonnes of materials. The south drift had manriding capability of 96 men with the north only 8 men capacity. The Drift haulages used a system of communication called a Leaky Feeder which had an aerial cable running the length of the haulage with a radio system on board the haulage drive car.

Drift Haulage Manriding Car.

At the inbye end of the rope haulages Hunslet-GMT 150hp diesel rackatrack locomotives took over to transport the men and materials into the headings.The diesel locos were used until the Gascoigne Wood spine tunnels were completed. The Hunslet-GMT locos worked in extreme temperature and overheating was always a problem. The fitters who worked on these machine devised many ways of keeping them operational using the water from the water range to cool the engine.

Once the spine tunnels were completed the diesel locomotives were phased out and Clayton battery rubber tyred BoBo locomotives were introduced with battery charging and replacement station in the spine tunnels.

Clayton BoBo with manrider cars.(photograph shows BoBo from Rossington Colliery)

Becorit battery changing station.

Manriding conveyors were never used at Gascoigne Wood, unlike the other mines in the complex, due to the speed and complexity of the conveyor systems used for the production of the Selby Coalfield.

Riccall Mine 1 in 7 Booster Fan.

When production had started at Riccall in Jan 1988, the conditions at the bottom of the Bunker 7 and Bunker 8, which was the furthest point in the spine tunnels at Gascoigne Wood were extremely hot and dusty. Booster fans were urgently needed to cool the area and improve ventilation. A 1 in 7 drift was driven from the North Intake at Riccall Mine into the Gascoigne Wood Wood south spine tunnel to remedy the ventilation problems.

Riccall Mine / Gascoigne Wood, 1 in 7 Booster Fans.

AMCO were given the contract to drive the heading with a Dosco Mk2A revised hydraulics roadheader. The heading started in April 1988 and finished in March 1989. The heading drove on a 30° dogleg for 30m then turned north east to drive at an incline of 1 in 7 under the Riccall Bunker area and completed at the junction where the south spine Robbins TBM was laid to rest.

The heading was driven from a junction 500m outbye from the North Intake junction with Bunker 7. A conveyor was installed from the 1 in 7 junction to the bunker 7 conveyor coming from the Riccall bunker. A drift conveyor was installed loading onto a short conveyor to the North Intake junction. This conveyor loaded on to the floor where it was pushed outbye into the North Intake slusher bunker. The heading muck was loaded at a later time, using the slusher, onto the conveyor. This allowed for sufficient cutting muck storage.

As the 1 in 7 heading progressed it cut through the Dunsil and Swallow Wood seams as it passed throught the cross measures. Two Pikrose haulages were installed in the short heading and the 1 in 7 drift heading, at the top junction, to supply the development and transport the substation installation equipment. Two hundred metres from the Gascoigne Wood junction the heading was widened and two parallel headings were created either side of the main heading for the booster fans installation. The heading continued forward and completed to Gascoigne Wood in early 1989.

At the booster fan switchgear site, concrete tiered pads were created for the 6.6kv substation, including 3x 6.6kv MIVAC switches, a 6.6kv HF2VG double drive control panel for the two 750kw booster fans, local 6.6kv/1100v transformer to supply the Elram control panels, MINOS outstation and lighting transformers. Double electrical Elram operated ventilation doors were installed in the main roadway outbye of the substation.

The 6.6kv supply for the substation was a dedicated supply from the surface via No1 shaft to a MIVAC shunt trip switch in the No1 pit bottom main substation. 250m lengths of 120mm 6.6kv armoured cables were run from the substation along the North Intake roadway and were connected using Scotchcast inline joints. It was quite a job jointing and hanging the cables in the middle of winter in the main intake.

When the 6.6kv supply was energised the commisioning of the fans took place. Booster fans are an integral part of a mine ventilation system so many air pressure, air velocity, methane level, leakage and flow checks were made as part of the environmental systems at both Riccall Mine and Gascoigne Wood to ensure no problems were caused with the new installation.

The control, monitoring and system transducers on the fans were checked including fan vibration, bearing vibration, bearing temperature, air pressure, air flow and automation system for stopping and starting the fans from the surface control room at Riccall. When all the checks were made the fans became operational.

Water pumping systems were also installed at the spine tunnel tail end which used the 1 in 7 Drift to clear mine water via Riccall Mine.

1 in 7 Drift from Riccall to Gascoigne Wood.

North Selby Mine Conveyor System.

Line drawing of the North Selby Mine Conveyor System.

Drawing and information kindly provided Dave Free, S.C.E. (systems) North Selby Mine.

Due to the sheer size and expense of developing the Selby Coalfield, plans were revised, not only for costs, but to overcome mining problems. The original plan was to drive the Gascoigne Wood spine tunnels to 14,930m so that Stillingfleet and North Selby Mine had a direct connection to the spine tunnels through two, 2000 tonne, 70m bunkers. The complex was planned to have 11 bunkers. This did not happen. To overcome this change of plan a connection was to made with Stillingfleet Mine for the coal clearance of the North Selby Mine via the Stillingfleet bunker onto the Gascoigne Wood spine tunnels.

The tunnel connecting Stillingfleet Mine with North Selby Mine was 3600m long. The tunnel was driven from both ends and was completed in July 1989. The North Selby drivage used a Dosco MK3 roadheader.

Dosco Mk3 Roadheader.

The face main gate conveyors were standard 1100v twin drives with automated loop take up which were PIAB load cell controlled. H801s and H802s, the first two faces, loaded onto a conveyor which delivered onto the H801s slit conveyor to the South West Transport Road Conveyor. This was a complex, one off, conveyor. It was downhill 1 in 20 incline with a jib loop tension take up. It had a standard loop take up at the rear of the drive with retarding structure to keep tension during start up due to the incline. This was achieved by using two PIAB load cells to control the tension during start up.

PIAB load cell.

The PIAB load cells were used throughout the Selby Coalfield and were used as part of all conveyor tension control systems.

The South West Transport Road conveyor delivered coal onto the Bunker Slit Conveyor. This conveyor also had coal loading from the South East coal faces starting with H901s in Nov 1990.

During the development of the South West Transport Road the heading hit a fault. Water was issuing into the heading which was tested for chemical constituents and was found to be 5 times saltier than sea water and was as warm as a hot shower. The surrounding rock was also very warm to touch.

The Bunker Slit Conveyor was a 120 kw single drive conveyor which loaded onto the 1 in 4 Drift Conveyor. The North Conveyor also loaded onto this conveyor which delivered coal from the North West faces, H851s and H852s. The 1 in 4 drift was created to give North Selby Mine a 70m, 2000 tonne bunker to allow for problems in the coal clearance. The Bunker Infeed conveyor was 1 x 750 kw Gullick Dobson drive fitted with torque responsive disc brakes operated by a load cell placed under the gearbox superstructure due to the incline. This conveyor took the entire production of the pit and delivered it into the Staple Bunker.

The Staple Bunker had a twin Westerland hydraulic speed control feed onto the West 1 Conveyor which was a 1×750 kw Gullick Dobson steel cord conveyor. This delivered coal onto West 2 Conveyor, a 2×750 kw Gullick Dobson steel cord drive which loaded onto the Stillingfleet East Conveyor.

H439s coal face heating at Riccall Mine

I was attending Selby Mines Rescue station for my annual medical and treadmill fitness test when a rescue officer told me that conditions on H439s coal face at Riccall had got worse and the CO levels had started to rise due to the heating on the face. The face had a slip fault 70m from the main gate and the coal left in the gob was causing an heating.

Coal mines in the UK are required to have prepared sites with sealed concrete blocks walls started at the required dimension in all gate roads to a coalface.

The explosion proof seals in both roadways to the H439s face had been started. Equipment and resources were being transported to the Fresh Air Base for the stoppings to be made. I was told if carbon monoxide levels got any higher that rescue teams will be called to complete the stoppings. I returned home for some lunch when my alerter was activated. I phoned the Rescue Station and was told to go to Whitemoor Mine and that an emergency incident had been called due to the heating getting worse. The underground access at Riccall Mine was suspended for safety reason and all staff attending the heating on H439s face had to access the face from Whitemoor Mine.

When I arrived at Whitemoor Mine I was told that a Fresh Air Base had been set up between H439s main gate and tail gate. Rescue officers were underground and a Selby Rescue Station team were en route to H439s. I was told by the surface senior officer of the incident to go to the canteen and wait.

30 minutes passed by when the senior officer came to the canteen and called for a team to go underground. The team was chosen and I was made captain as I worked at Riccall and I had knowledge of the mine and the face, as I had been working on it the day before.

All men had been withdrawn from the mine except for a minimum staff of officials and craftsmen to cover the concrete pumping operations. All person going underground had to do so using the emergency check system at Whitemoor Mine. All operations were controlled by the Senior Rescue Officer at Whitemoor Mine Surface Rescue Control.

After checking and donning our S.E.F.A. breathing apparatus in the rescue room we gathered all our equipment which included, a mine plan, Whirling hygrometer, Sked stretcher, Microvent resuscitator, Drager gas sampling tubes and pump and Status Mentor gas analyser and the team went underground. We were transported by rope haulage from Whitemoor Mine pit bottom as far as possible in the West Conveyor Road towards the Whitemoor Bunker area. We then continued on foot to H439s Fresh Air Base which was approximately 3500m from the pit bottom. When we arrived at the F.A.B. we were told to relax and wait on standby. After an hour we were called and given a brief. I was told that the carbon monoxide levels were rising and to check the CO levels regularly and hydrogen cyanide, a toxic gas produced when plastic mesh burned. Our first task was to start installing an air sweetening system from the Fresh Air Base.We then had a 2 hour spell in breathing apparatus, building and pumping concrete at the tail gate stopping site. The team then went back on standby, as a safety team for 2 hours until the next relief team arrived. .

When the relief team arrived, we were released from the fresh air base and were told to return to the surface. Once on the surface we had a debrief then cleaned, recharged and serviced our SEFA breathing apparatus so they could be re-used. We completed all the necessary training records and Captains Report for the incident.

Operational experience report for H439s.

I returned to Riccall Mine to attend a meeting regarding the situation on H439s. By the time I arrived home I had been awake 26 hours and ready for some sleep.

On completion and simultaneous sealing of the maingate and tailgate explosion proof stoppings all men were immediately evacuated from the mine and nitrogen was pumped into district from the surface pumping rig supplied by NOWSCO. The mine gases behind the stopping were checked using tube bundle monitoring. The sealing process proved successful with no methane ignition recorded on the mine environmental monitoring system.

Note; The reason nitrogen, an inert gas, was pumped into the district with an heating was to lower the oxygen level below a point where combustion can take place. When a district is sealed, methane gas levels can quickly enter the explosive range of 5% to 15%. If the oxygen levels are reduced below 13% before the methane levels reach explosive range no ignition can occurs. The company who provided the nitrogen pumping service was called NOWSCO, an oil well service company, who specialise in pressurising blocked pipelines.