Yorkshire in the 1960's

Yorkshire in the 1960's

Postby almark » Sun Aug 17, 2014 11:25 pm

Hi All,

Posting this in some ways hoping that someone might be able to point me in the direction of resources,if indeed they are available....

I've been making a small route based in the heart of the Yorkshire Coalfield in the 1960's for a while now,it really doesn't consist of much,trying to get my dad's home town (Featherstone) as close to how it was as possible before I move along the route....

Essentially what is complete so far is the colliery (Ackton Hall Colliery,in the centre of the town) and the line through the town of Featherstone. Featherstone for those who don't know lies on the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Rly from Manchester to Hull and the route between Turners Lane Jct (Wakefield) and Knottingley was regularly used as a diversionary route for Leeds-KX expresses for many years,meaning variety of traffic over this line was tremendous (even though little is seen of it online!). If you wish to see some of my dad's shots from the 60's-present at Featherstone (and along the Wakefield-Knottingley) line then check out my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=423772 ... atherstone

There are many stories associated with Featherstone that my dad has told me over the years. My personal favourite is the tales of when Class 47's would work the coal trains out of Ackton Hall in icy conditions and take anywhere up to an hour to make the 1 in 107 climb out of town towards Pontefract Tanshelf,one can only imagine the sight when the steam loco's struggled to lift them up this section!

My main aim with this route (even if it never sees the light of day) is to try and capture some of the gritty West Yorkshire/Wakefield atmosphere and industrial/country combination that I believe is unique to this area.



However what I am in need of is a gradient profile for Wakefield-Knottingley so if anyone could possibly provide me with this info it would be hugely appreciated.

A few screenshots I took this evening are below:

One of the Colliery shunters prepares to leave the exchange sidings at Ackton Hall Colliery with a short rake of wagons to be loaded,the loading lines were very steep and as such only 4-5 wagons could be loaded at a time (also the headshunt at the top end could only comfortably accommodate this amount)
Image


8F no.48430 waits in the background in the exchange yard with a rake of loaded wagons as the colliery shunter begins to meander its way towards the loaders.
Image


The short loaded rake makes it's way towards the headshunt and bridge over Station Lane,note the typically rough colliery sidings...
Image


Prior to dropping back down the loader avoiding line towards the exchange sidings,the NCB shunter takes a short breather after slogging it's way over the hill.
Image

A photographer on the closed platforms of Featherstone station captures an image looking towards the 1 in 107 climb to the east,the shunter in the headshunt can just be glimpsed through the fog:
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One of the first "MGR" trains roars through the closed Featherstone Station behind a Brush Type 4
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48430 slogs up the 1 in 107 with the loaded wagons,a match appears to be taking place and the cheers (and jeers!) of the "Flat Cappers" (Nickname for us Featherstone Rovers fans!) are drowned out by the roar from the plodding 8F!
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The 8F continues it's climb past my grandads well kept allotment right next to the railway...oh if only I were 40 years older!
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Into the night now and an unidentified B1 roars through Featherstone with short freight in 1962.
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Comments welcome :)

Cheers,
Mark
Last edited by almark on Mon Nov 27, 2017 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby malkymackay » Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:30 am

Mark, you should find what you are looking for over on UKTS. File 29877 is a collection of LYR Gradient Profiles. :D
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby almark » Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:36 am

Cheers Malky,just found that this morning,lesson is to look first before asking I guess!

This morning laid track from Featherstone through to Crofton and now laying the colliery sidings at Snydale Colliery,just 1/2 mile down the line from Ackton Hall Colliery but on the opposite side of the line...

Regards,
Mark
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby almark » Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:22 am

This is the track-map of the Featherstone/Snydale collieries. Loco's from both collieries had special certification to run across the main lines to transfer wagons between the exchange sidings....this may well have happened after the end of normal BR steam also..?

Image

Wakefield is to the left (West) and Pontefract/Knottingley to the right (East).

Cheers,
Mark
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby Rockdoc2174 » Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:18 pm

As an ex-NCB employee, though not at a pit, something that frequently niggles me when I see models of colliery complexes is it only having one set of headgear. That is occasionally correct but most pits had at least two and Acton Hall had three. Are you planning to add any more?

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7008/6504 ... 168660.jpg

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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby almark » Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:36 pm

Rockdoc2174 wrote:As an ex-NCB employee, though not at a pit, something that frequently niggles me when I see models of colliery complexes is it only having one set of headgear. That is occasionally correct but most pits had at least two and Acton Hall had three. Are you planning to add any more?

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7008/6504 ... 168660.jpg

Keith



Thanks Keith,I wasn't aware,my only resources are images I find on the web,my dads images (which granted is a fairly large catalog in the area,well over 1000 from the 60s-80's.) Have added in 2 more sets of headgear,bit of a kit bash fitting them into the already crowded area but it looks alright.

With regards to Snydale Colliery...on this shot I cannot see any pit headgear but then in an earlier shot I can...was the headgear/building pulled down around 1970 do you know...? https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-walker/6468817445 (This is 1970 https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-walk ... 689-dE5rew )



I will also move onto Sharlston Colliery at some stage then Prince of Wales at Pontefract.

A shot from this morning of a 37 hauled rake of mineral wagons waiting to leave Snydale Colliery

Image

Cheers,
Mark

Any advice you can give is great,I'm 23 so never saw the pits at their best!
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby Rockdoc2174 » Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:08 pm

I never visited Snydale but the few photos I've found show two shafts, which would be normal as I said before. The upcast shaft would have had an exhauster fan near the surface that pulled air around the workings. The downcast shaft was where air entered the mine and where coal was always wound out as it meant any dust was drawn back down. Men and supplies normally rode in the upcast. Occasionally, you'll get a drift (sloping) entrance but they are usually later additions when production levels were increasing and belt conveyors were built along them to bring coal straight from the face to the surface.

Sharlston is another I never visited but it seems to have had two shafts. There is a Facebook page that has some interesting and potentially useful photos on it.

POW was a big pit. I did go down that a few times but it was usually at some God-forsaken hour of the morning when counting shafts was the last thing on my mind! :-)

Do be careful to check on the date for your photos. Pits changed an awful lot from the fifties to the seventies and eighties, MGR trains being the main cause. Instead of filling 20T wagons almost piecemeal from screens (in effect sieves with different sizes of mesh) and making up trains on demand, the pits had to be able to fill large, hopper wagons in train-loads so the need was for improved washing plant - to produce coal to the CEGB specifications - and massive bunkers to store the coal between trains.

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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby almark » Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:15 pm

Rockdoc2174 wrote:I never visited Snydale but the few photos I've found show two shafts, which would be normal as I said before. The upcast shaft would have had an exhauster fan near the surface that pulled air around the workings. The downcast shaft was where air entered the mine and where coal was always wound out as it meant any dust was drawn back down. Men and supplies normally rode in the upcast. Occasionally, you'll get a drift (sloping) entrance but they are usually later additions when production levels were increasing and belt conveyors were built along them to bring coal straight from the face to the surface.

Sharlston is another I never visited but it seems to have had two shafts. There is a Facebook page that has some interesting and potentially useful photos on it.

POW was a big pit. I did go down that a few times but it was usually at some God-forsaken hour of the morning when counting shafts was the last thing on my mind! :-)

Do be careful to check on the date for your photos. Pits changed an awful lot from the fifties to the seventies and eighties, MGR trains being the main cause. Instead of filling 20T wagons almost piecemeal from screens (in effect sieves with different sizes of mesh) and making up trains on demand, the pits had to be able to fill large, hopper wagons in train-loads so the need was for improved washing plant - to produce coal to the CEGB specifications - and massive bunkers to store the coal between trains.


Keith


Thanks again for the fantastic info! You will no doubt be able to spot errors with what I have done purely as resources for Snydale (in particular) seem so thin on the ground,I'm getting the impression that it wound down (literally) in the early 70's as like I say the buildings and also winding gear seem to have disappeared? Currently I am working on scenery around Streethouse.

With regards to accuracy,it won't really be accurate to any set year,but should be accurate over a period of 5-10 years (1968-75) with any luck!

I visit the Sharlston page regularly and as you say looks to be some valuable info in the pics on there.

Mark
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby DPSimulation » Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:41 pm

Wonderful Mark, love the B&W pictures.
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Re: Yorkshire Coal

Postby almark » Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:45 pm

DPSimulation wrote:Wonderful Mark, love the B&W pictures.



Cheers Darren. :)
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