National Story - Transport Today

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 18th Year

Issue

Issue No.

12

Date Released

Aug 1965

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1National Story - Transport Today
2. 2Lincolnshire - Gently Does It
3. 3Scotland - On the Mat
4. 4National Story - NCB - TV

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

NoS synopsis: Up-to-date methods of transporting supplies and men underground
NCB Commentary - For every hundred tons of coal that comess out of a mine, £80 worth of supplies must be sent down the shaft.
In order to keep the face advancing, a continuous stream of materials - supports and spare parts - must be fed in along the roadways, through a complex transport network.
In the past, this has meant a lot of manhandling - transferring bulky loads from one transport system to another as they moved deeper into the mine.
But today, there’s a new approach to the job. Here are wooden props, bulk-loaded on the surface into standardised containers which will carry their loads right up to where they’re needed.
From pit bottom, the containers travel by main line train, on flat trucks.
As they get closer to the face, the complete loads are hoisted off the trucks by mobile winches. It’s an easy job to secure the containers to flat bogies - rope hauled this time - and off they go on the next leg of the journey.
Overhead monorail transport is used more and more. Lift the containers by block and tackle, signal the load away, and another consignment of steel arches takes to the air. Sharp corners and steep gradients are no problem.
And men, too, are benefitting from the new techniques. Footslogging up steep, slippery inclines is exhausting - and timewasting. So let the men take wings, too - on cable transporters like the ski-lifts at mountain resorts.
Handling materials the modern way means more efficiency, more time saved and less cost.
And riding men to and from their workplace means more time on the job - as well as less wear and tear on the legs.

Keywords

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