Advice please: How does one get coal from pit head to wagon?

[Chops]

"I forgot. If you model a mine and its workings do not forget a small first aid building. I spent the night in the one at Easington Colliery, (but that is another story. )"

If not too embarrassing, I'd like to hear that story!

[glencairn]

The last operating deep coal mine, Kellingley Colliery, closed 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... 0in%202014.

Pit ponies spent their lives underground never seeing the light of day. The ponies wore a bell around their neck, so miners knew they were coming with full or empty tubs. When a colliery closed in Consett, County Durham it was possible to see the ponies grazing in a field. We were given one such bell. On it was the ponies name. It has been handed down through the family. My daughter is now the proud owner of 'Victoria's Bell'.

Glencairn

[glencairn]

"I forgot. If you model a mine and its workings do not forget a small first aid building. I spent the night in the one at Easington Colliery, (but that is another story. )"

If not too embarrassing, I'd like to hear that story!

Oh! Nothing serious or whatever.

A long story severely shortened.

I grew up in and around road transport. Taken to Liverpool, Hull, Newcastle and even Scotland in a road haulage vehicle.

This day was my last day at school. Just after lunch I was called to see the Headmaster. He shook my hand and wished the best for my future and was allowed to go home. I ran all the way.
My father was in. After I explained why I was home early. "Would you like to go to Scotland with him," he asked.

Half an hour later we were heading north. First stop Easington Colliery. After unloading and talking to Staff it was getting late. A night in the cab of the lorry was due. One of the Staff Members said we could sleep in the First Aid building. We would have to leave if there was an emergency. There was none. I slept on the operating table. Uncomfortable was being polite.

Following day we headed towards Scotland and the Kingdom of Fife.

Glencairn

[Chops]

Marvelous!

[sandy]

I know the Busty seam runs all the way down from Scotland through the North of England right down to South Wales. Lot of it has not been touched. But not a lot of demand for Coal these days.
There is talk of going over to burning Hydrogen but I cant see filling the atmosphere up with water is a good idea when we are worried about sea levels flooding coastal parts and and people having to leave their Islands and homes on Island countries. Because of rising sea levels. H/2o= water.

[Chops]

I don't know how hydrogen is manufactured on an industrial scale. In science lab we used to add acid, or something, to some mineral which caused a reaction to split off hydrogen. In any event, creating hydrogen on a large scale would require a lot of energy, presumptively.

As far as rising sea levels, it sounds the entire continent is drying up, as is much of the United States reservoirs. One reads that China is really puckering up, as their stinking, polluted rivers are running dry, and they rely for 80% of hydro power.

Trains are wonderfully green. Pound for pound, or kilo for kilo, they move so much more efficiently than lorries and cars.

[Stese]

is electrolysis used I wonder. Pass a high enough current through h2o and it splits into h and o... the hydrogren rises above the oxygen as its lighter... so they can shipon both off and use it.

[GeoffAlan3]

is electrolysis used I wonder. Pass a high enough current through h2o and it splits into h and o... the hydrogren rises above the oxygen as its lighter... so they can shipon both off and use it.

All you need to do is keep the anode and cathode a distance away from each other and collect the bubbles coming up from each, one was pure Hydrogen, the other pure Oxygen. As my last chemistry lesson was well over 50 yrs ago, can't remember which is which, but it's not a good idea to mix the two in quantity as they tend to go bang!

[cheshire lines]

To answer your question about current mining operations in the UK, most, if not all of our coal mines have now closed. There are currently plans to open a new one in Cumbria to supply specialist coal for steel making, but it's facing a lot of opposition from the environmental lobby.

The area of Cheshire where I live was well known for salt mining, particularly in the 19th century. This led to a lot of subsidence with some buildings collapsing into holes in the ground and others where what was the upper floor now being the ground floor.
There is still one salt mine open at Winsford which supplies rock salt for treating roads
In icy weather. Unlike coal mines, the tunnels are huge, with roadways with full sized lorries (trucks) running down there.
In addition to the one remaining mine, salt is also extracted by brine pumping to supply the local chemical factories.
The fields around our village are dotted with.small pumping stations and every now and then we see a mobile drilling rig sinking another bore hole.

[Simon_100]

Moreover, it is possible that a British mine might have been digging out coal for several, or many, centuries in the same spot. Conversely, American mineral deposits are relatively recent (within the last century) and the trend was to exhaust one vein and travel down the road to the next, with little attention to any sort of permanence.

No sure about coal but there was lead mining in the South Shropshire Hills dating form Roman times but possibly in permenet production form the 11th Century ...

The area of Cheshire where I live was well known for salt mining, particularly in the 19th century. This led to a lot of subsidence with some buildings collapsing into holes in the ground and others where what was the upper floor now being the ground floor.
There is still one salt mine open at Winsford which supplies rock salt for treating roads
In icy weather. Unlike coal mines, the tunnels are huge, with roadways with full sized lorries (trucks) running down there.
In addition to the one remaining mine, salt is also extracted by brine pumping to supply the local chemical factories.
The fields around our village are dotted with.small pumping stations and every now and then we see a mobile drilling rig sinking another bore hole.

There was coal mining in Cheshire too, at least of you can still count The Wirral as Cheshire like wit was when i was a lad. The Neston collieries dated from 1855 until 1927. I 'discovered' them while reseach the station at Park Gate, where my mother's family had their annual holidays before and after the war, travelling by train from their home in New Brighton (Wallasey) - all of 12 miles being long haul in those days I guess! In 2019 I went there in the company of my now very elderly aunt who is now succumbing slowly to Alzheimer's. Recalling the visit a few months ago over the phone I quized her about these train jourmey's, "Change at Hoylake!" was her quickfire response - made my day it did