Coal on the Move

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 18th Year

Issue

Issue No.

6

Date Released

Feb 1965

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Emergency
2. 2Amicable Arrangement
3. 3Coal on the Move

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Summary

NoS synopsis: The movement of coal by rail.
NCB Commentary - The coal has been here for millions of years. It’s been on the move since it was forward. Imperceptibly moving, finding its resting place in the strats.
Now its last journey is starting.
Ride it on a conveyor.
Shift it in a minecar.
Haul it up the shaft to meet the daylight it forgot in the ages gone by.
In Britain in 1964, 144 million tons of coal were moved by rail. 7 million wagonsful of it.
Cynheidre, in South Wales, sees another consignment off on its last journey.
The big wagons are marshalled into block trains.
The routing: Port Talbot, then on to Luton, Bedfordshire.
To begin, it rolls along by the sea.
Barry Island in summertime is a miner’s resort. Now the heat is off and Barry is deserted.
Coal moves in to bring back warmth to those who live in Barry year round.
Coal travels by ship, too. In 1964, 23 million tons of it by coastal shipping. Another 6 million tons for export.
The train is closing on Luton. If all the coal the railways handle in a year were made up into one train, that train would be over 30,000 miles long.
Destination, Luton.
A new handling depot: one of the many.
Another lap of this last journey - by conveyor.
Twenty kinds of coal. For twenty coal merchants in Luton. To deliver to their 200,000 customers. A pattern repeated all through these Islands.
Coal on the move has finally come home.

Keywords

Railways; Transport; Mining

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Films on Coal Catalogue   1969, p.50
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit