Country Durham - Two-Way Belt

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 19th Year

Issue

Issue No.

12

Date Released

Aug 1966

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1National story - New Areas for Old - 1
2. 2Nottinghamshire - New Warmth
3. 3Country Durham - Two-Way Belt
4. 4Nottinghamshire - Flying Spark

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 4

Summary

NoS synopsis: Man-riding conveyor belts underground at Eppleton Colliery
NCB Commentary - At Eppleton Colliery engineering and ingenuity are boosting production and saving time and energy of many miners.
A new shift starts to ride down the shaft, while on one of the faces a plough team is ready to leave for the surface.
In the past, time and energy have been taken up in the long walk to and from pit bottom.
There’s a man riding train at Eppleton but, of course, it doesn’t take men right up to the face. But every little helps in the effort to speed men on and off the job and to make the fullest productive use of skilled miners’ time.
Now today, when the train reaches the end of the line, there’s a brand new ride waiting to take men the rest of the way.
Riding the conveyor is usually forbidden, but here, with special safety precautions and permitted places to get on and off, conveyor riding is encouraged.
And here’s the twist. While men are riding in on the top belt, others are riding out on the specially engineered bottom boelt. It’s like a bunk bed on the move.
Along the journey is a transfer point feeding coal onto the same belt. This looks as if it might be awkward.
But as men near the transfer point, they pass through a beam which interrupts the flow of coal. The belt runs clear, and the riders pass safely by.
When the last man has gone through - and only then - the transfer point operator can start feeding coal again. At the end of the ride, special platforms and handrails make it easy to leave the belt in safety.
And should a man be so comfortable that he forgets to get off, there’s another safety device to stop the belt as he goes through.
Every extra minute a coalface machine can be kept running is worth £5 to the nation.
So the Eppleton manriding system is one worth copying. The men of Eppleton who use the belt would be the first to agree.

Keywords

Mining

Locations

England; County Durham

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