RAKE’S PROGRESS

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 12th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

Mar 1959

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1CLEANER
2. 2ON THE SPOT
3. 3BIG SHOT
4. 4RAKE’S PROGRESS

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: New German tunnelling machinery brings life to a long disused pit.
NCB Commentary - Brynlliw Colliery, abandoned in 1927 as uneconomic, is to live again. Reconstruction going on since 1954 is to make the old pit into a 750,000 tons a year unit. A new tunnel will link it to nearby Morlais, and to speed the job a Salts-gitter boring machine is being used.
Compressed air at 70 lbs a square inch, supplies the power and the whole operation is controlled by a single operator. 58 holes can be bored in the sandstone face in under three hours. As name implies the Salts-giter was originally designed for work in the German salt mines.
After firing, the Westfalia Rake is brought forward. Unique in this country, it was seen earlier in Mining Review when on show at a Mining Equipment Exhibition in Poland. In operation the Rake is a potent implement.
Happy in the hands of a German contracting company, it’s clawing out the spoil and loading it into mine cars.
New tunnelling techniques and machines like the Westfalia rake are giving new life to an old pit. The efficiency of the new Brynlliw can be gauged by the fact that a productivity of 30 cwts a man shift is expected, well above the national average.
Up go the arches and another section of the new drivage is nearly finished. Corrugated fire resistant sheet are used for lagging.
When completed the new pit will produce up to 3,000 tons of best steam coal a day with reserves to last for 50 years. As other pits run down the new Brynlliw till take over.
On the surface the spoil is tipped from mine cars on to a vibrator, then to the conveyor and away for disposal. Every week 30 yards more are added to the tunnel. Soon a new and important colliery will have emerged from the forgotten ruins of the old.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 2nd February 1959.

Keywords

Mining; Engineering; Energy resources

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.13 No.157 November 1959, p585.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board