DOWN DIESELS

Series

Series Name
Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.
6
Date Released
Feb 1952
Stories in this Issue:
  1. 1DOWN DIESELS
  2. 2EMERGENCY LAB
  3. 3BIRD IN HAND
  4. 4FIRE DOWN BELOW

Story

Story No. within this Issue
1 / 4
Summary
NoS Summary - lowering diesel locomotives at Moorgreen colliery, Nottinghamshire.
BFI synopsis: The underground installation of two diesel locos while the colliery is closed for the annual August holiday.
NCB Commentary - Holiday time at Moorgreen Colliery didn’t mean a rest for everybody. For the maintenance men there was a special job.
Two new diesels were needed down this newly modernised pit. First, each 100 horsepower loco, built to pull 240 tons of coal on the uphill roadways, had to be dismantled on the surface.
Meanwhile, at the pithead, the skips that usually slam nearly 500 tons of coal an hour into the hoppers had to be dismantled too. With only a week to complete the job, everybody was fighting the clock.
The stripped chassis of the locos were manhandled across to the headstock one by one. With block and tackle they were inched over into position. At the best, this is a slow job; and slower still was the process of hauling the chassis upright.
But finally, after many hours of hard manoeuvring, the first engine was ready to drop. Cyril Crouch, winding engineman, wasn’t allowed to take his orders literally. It was an inch by inch job, lowering with infinite care so that the chassis didn’t swing and damage the shaft walls.
But they got them both down inside the week, and not a ton of coal was held up when the holidaymakers came back.
Researcher Comments
BFI sources suggest that this story was researched by Ingram in June 1951. It was filmed from the 15th to the 16th July 1951. Commentary recorded 8 January 1952.
Keywords
Railways; Mining; Engineering
Locations
England; Nottinghamshire
Written sources
British Film Institute Databases   Used for Synopsis
National Film Archive Catalogue
Film User   Vol.6 No.74 December 1952, p651.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956
Credits:
Production Co.
Documentary Technicians Alliance
Director
John Reid
Sponsor
National Coal Board

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