List of coal faces at North Selby Mine.

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.

North Selby H801s face.

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.

Video footage of some of the Selby Mines.

North Selby Mine.

This video snippet shows the filling of North Selby mine shaft in October 2000 after the mine had ceased production. It shows the No1 winder house, No2 Winder house and Fan house.

Gascoigne Wood Mine and Selby Mines Rescue station.

This video snippet shows the Gascoigne Wood Drift control room, conveyor drive house with the drive systems visible and drift man riding haulage. It also shows the Mines Rescue station S.E.F.A. breathing apparatus and training galleries.

Stillingfleet Mine.

This video snippet shows the lamproom, No1 winder in operation and cage detaching gear, No2 Koepe 6 rope friction winder in operation and the Fan house.

Videos were filmed by IA Recordings who kindly gave me permission to embed the snippets.

Riccall Mine South West Trunk

The South West Trunk road was driven by Thyssens using a Dosco Mk3 roadheader. The roadway was driven from the West Conveyor at H472s cross slit to the south of the mine to connect with Whitemoor Mine. It was driven in two sections. The heading started in Aug 1989.

The South West Trunk.

The first part of the South West trunk headed south and created junctions for H478s maingate and H479s face. H480s junctions were started at slightly later date. They then continued onwards to create a major junction for the South West Lateral, known as Angina Hill. The heading then continued towards the demarcation with Whitemoor Mine to join with the Whitemoor West Conveyor roadway to create an intake roadway. When the heading got to the South West Lateral junction the coal, due to a downthrow fault, dipped so a small shallow drift was made. The heading then continued to the Whitemoor connection creating 2 further face junctions for H437s on the westside and H439s face on the eastside of the heading. The original plan for this area of the mine was to continue 1000m with the South West Trunk heading a and create a further junction. At this point a lateral roadway was to be driven to develop faces at the West and East. This development never happened.

Dosco Mk3 Roadheader

The furthest face to be worked from the West Return of the mine was H477s. This face was on the boundary with Wistow Mine. The face finished in September 1995 and was made ready to be transferred to the first face on the South West Trunk which was H478s. This face was planned to start in early 1996. This face used the West Conveyor Road as the tailgate for the face so only the maingate had to be driven.

The H477s pantech of electrical equipment and transformers were sent out of the mine for overhaul leaving only a pump and tank for the transfer. The stageloader, face supports and AFC were tranferred from the maingate through the cross slit between the Return and Conveyor road straight onto the new face. A refurbished electrical pantechnicon including pumps and tanks was installed from the surface via the new H478s maingate. As the face retreated it had to passed through every junction from H477s to H472s which was quite a task due to the height of the return roadway.

The face had retreated 200m when an urgent modification was needed to both of the transformer Wallacetown B80 LT end supplies. They needed replacing urgently due to a technical problem with some internal contacts. We spent two very long weekend shifts getting the new switchgear onto site, removing the faulty switches, fitting new items and getting the defective unit out of the pit. The face progressed well and was completed in  September 1996.

The face equipment from H478s was transferred to H471s.

The next face to be developed from the South West Trunk Road was H437s. This face was developed at the inbye end of the trunk road near to the junction with the South West Lateral.

This face was installed in late 1996 using Longwall International equipment with an Anderson Strathclyde AM500 DERDS. The next expected face developments to the south were never started and when H437s face had retreated a short distance a seismic survey was carried out from the main gate testing the seam to the south of the mine. This survey apparently showed that the coal had faulting and due to the low risk mining strategy undertaken by RJB Mining, a huge area of coal was abandoned to the south of Riccall Mine. H437s proved to be a good face with no geological issues. Wistow Mine subsequently worked 3 longwall faces, H93s, H94s and H95s adjacent to H437s. The area of the coal abandoned was equivalent to the coal worked at Riccall Mine during it’s production life.

The next face to be worked from the South West Trunk was H479s. The 1500m face developments were started in January 1998 using Lee Norse LN 800 Continuous miners. The 150m face line was situated on the Wistow Mine boundary at the side of H46s and was worked from West to East. The face was equipped with a Joy 4LS shearer and face equipment. The electrical equipment and pumps were ex H437s. The face started production on 10th August 1999 and completed production in 6 months on 28th February 2000.

The last face to be worked from the South West Trunk was H480s. This face started development in November 1999 and started production on 24th August 2000. The face headings were 1250m long with a face length of 230m. This face was installed with Joy equipment, Joy 4LS Shearer and a 3.3kv Baldwin and Francis CHL Load centre (ex Kellingley Colliery) to control the electrical equipment. The face produced extremely well and was completed in 8 months.   

Plan showing all the faces worked at the West and South West of Riccall Mine

List of Coal Faces at Whitemoor Mine.

Whitemoor Mine West and South faces.

Whitemoor Mine North and East faces.

During it’s 10 year life Whitemoor Mine worked 19 longwall coal faces. The machines used to carry out the lateral drivages were Dosco LH1300 and Anderson Strathclyde RH22 roadheaders. The face drivages were developed using Joy CM 12 Continuous miners. From March 1993 all underground tunnelling was carried out by contractors with British Coal/ RJB Mining, men working the coal faces. The faces were worked using 300kw BJD Ace DERDS and 390 KW Joy 4LS DERDS shearers. The face supports and A.F.Cs were supplied initially by Dowty Meco and Gullick Dobson. Due to mergers of the mining equipment suppliers Longwall International equipment was used from 1994 onwards.

Whitemoor Mine face plan showing connections to Riccall Mine.

Note; H611s is shown on plan but is missing from the above face list.

Riccall Mine South West.

Plan showing the South West development from the South Intake roadway.

The South West Conveyor lateral roadway was started in November 1991 by mining contractor AMCO using a Dosco LH1300 roadheader.

When the Dosco LH1300 arrived at Riccall Mine it was painted a strange pale blue colour. I later became aware that machines in this colour were owned by the contractors AMCO.  

Dosco LH1300 Roadheader.

The heading was driven on an uphill incline from the South Intake junction heading towards the junction with the South West Trunk being driven by Thyssens and was nicknamed Angina Hill. At the same time a cross slit and conveyor was developed from the South Intake towards the South Conveyor to transport coal from the faces planned in the South West area. When the connection was made with the South West Trunk this roadway became the supply road for the trunk roadway. A manriding conveyor was installed when the connection was made.

The first face to be developed was H430s which was driven 800m using LN800 continuous miners and started production in September 1992. The face equipment and A.F.C. were Dowty Meco equipment similar to H444s but with a new rail mounted pantechnicon, electrical equipment, transformers and pumps. The shearer was an Anderson Strathclyde AM500 DERDS. The face retreated from north to south and progressed well  completing production in May 1993. The face equipment was salvaged and transferred to H432s face.

The South West faces ( H437s, H438s and H439s not shown)

As the South West heading progressed, junctions were made for four faces, H430s to H433s, to be worked to the north. A roadway was later developed in 1995, heading South from the lateral to develop H438s and H439s faces.

H432s, which had gates of 1200m, started production on 26 July 1993 and completed in Jan 1994 for the equipment to be transferred to H433s face which was 1000m. This face started production in March 1994 and completed in late September 1994. The equipment was transferred to 1000m, H431s, which started production in November 1994. All the faces in this block of coal were developed using Lee Norse LN800 continuous miners and created european drivage records during these developments.

Lee Norse LN800 continuous  miner.

The faces were successful and helped Riccall to achieve record production figures during this period. All the faces were equipped with Dowty face equipment and Anderson Strathclyde AM 500 DERDS shearers with identical rail mounted electrical systems and were all supplied using Clayton BoBo locomotives. The last face on the north side of the South West, H431s, completed production in mid 1995. The next face H438s, was taken from the south side of the South West roadway. A slit was driven going south and a short face was developed with the headings driving West towards the South West Trunk. This face was installed using H431s equipment and started production in Sept 1995 and finished in Mar 1996

The slit gate from the South West roadway continued for 300m and a further face H439 was developed. The face development roadways went all the way to the South West Trunk. The face was installed in the slit gate from the South West roadway. This face used the equipment from H438s.

H439s had a huge slip fault, what we knew as a white wall, 70m from the main gate. This caused huge problems with the shearer and chocks due to the steep angle of the fault. The problems with bad ground around the fault stopped production for periods of time to enable grouting in the faulted area. Eventually the face conditions became too unsafe and the face was abandoned at the half way mark. Attempts were made to salvage the face supports but due to coal being left in the waste area at the back of the face from the faulted area an heating developed, known as a gob fire and the face had to be sealed off. Explosion proof seals were immediately instigated at the face gate ends off the South West Trunk roadway. When they were completed, nitrogen was pumped from the surface, via an existing pipe range, by a rig supplied by NOWSCO to control the heating but the face and all the equipment was lost.