Nottinghamshire - Merry Go Round

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 19th Year

Issue

Issue No.

11

Date Released

Jul 1966

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Yorkshire - Mayor’s Day
2. 2London - Chess
3. 3Northumberland - Payout
4. 4Nottinghamshire - Merry Go Round

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Summary

NoS synopsis: Merry-go-round trains between colliery and power station in Nottinghamshire
NCB Commentary - The mighty cathedral of Lincoln stands guard over the city and looks out across the waterways that reach into the fens and over the rich pasture lands of the Trent Valley.
Along the banks of the Trent a complex of new power stations is rising.
This is West Burton - capacity 2 million Kilowatts.
Two elements go to the making of electricity: water, and coal. The Midlands have both in aNoSance.
And the vital connecting link between the mines and the river-based generating stations is British Rail.
Coal and Rail and Electricity have jointly developed the system of merry go round trains - continuously coupled units which run non-stop on a circular route from pit to power station and back again.
Loaded on the move, each train carries 1000 tons of coal. And West Burton will need 112 trains like this one, every week.
At the power station the wagons are weighed on the move. The locomotive driver sets his speed indicator, and from now on automatic control takes over.
As the train passes over the unloading hoppers at precisely 1/2 a mile an hour, the coal is released from six wagons at a time.
As the train passes out of the hopper shed, the bottom doors on the wagons are closed, again automatically. No shunting, no sidings, no coupling and uncoupling of wagons.
At West Burton, they stockpile coal against future demand. They’ll burn 18,000 tons of coal a day at full load - 5 million tons a year - and once the heat is on, there’ll be no question of running short.
Long belts carry the coal into the crushers and pulverising mills.
Then on into the 200 foot high boilers, to raise 3 1/2 million pounds of steam an hour, and pass through the turbines which drive the generators.
The colling towers condense the steam back into water. The nearby river Trent makes up the quantity lost.
From this vast power warehouse, electricity passes on out to the grid and to you and I, the customers.
Today’s power station gets as much power from 2 tons of coal as a 20 year old station got from 3. And one ton in every 10 mined in Britain goes to the Midlands power stations.
Back on the merry go round circuit another train pulls out - to fetch another 1000 ton load.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 3 June 1966.

Keywords

Railways; Mining

Locations

England; Nottinghamshire

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Films on Coal Catalogue   1969, p.52
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit