Staffordshire - Checkpoint

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 21st Year

Issue

Issue No.

3

Date Released

Nov 1967

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Staffordshire - Checkpoint
2. 2Nottinghamshire - J. Bacon & Sons
3. 3London - Goggle Box
4. 4Leicestershire - Vision from the Dark

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

NoS synopsis: The new computerised weighbridge at Kingsbury Colliery speeds fully loaded coal trains on their way to the consumer
NCB Commentary - The mining of coal on the face is only the beginning of a long journey out of the mine and on to the consumer. Once on the surface, coal goes through a preparation plant, where it is washed and graded for the market. Only then will the next stage of its journey start - lowered by conveyor booms into rail wagons. But it still hasn’t left the mine, and before it does it must be weighed.
At Kingsbury Colliery they’re using a brand new technique. Empty wagons coming into the mine are weighed automatically as they pass over one of 3 weighbridges. Their weights are transmitted electronically to the set of full weighbridges, where the outgoing loaded wagons are weighed again.
In the control room a computer, which has made a mental note of the weights of the empty wagons, now does a subtraction sum and prints out the exact weight of the coal.
The wagons are weighed on the move. This means that the weight on each axle is measured as it passes over the weighbridge - not the complete wagon. The computer looks after all the arithmetic.
After the whole train has passed by, the superintendent punches a button to get an instantaneous total.
The electronic system is accurate to wintin 1/10th of 1 percent - far more precise than the traditional weighbridge scales.
Then tickets for each wagon are written out from the computer’s printed slip. These can then be clipped on to each wagon on the waiting train.
Manager McKniff uses electronic monitoring to tell at a glance the state of production in various parts of his pit. This way he can keep right in touch day or night - and the weighbridge computer doesn’t sleep at night either.
The coal that heads out of Kingsbury is being handled more efficiently and more accurately, and will get to its destination that much more quickly.

Keywords

Railways; Mining

Locations

England; Warwickshire; Kingsbury

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Films on Coal Catalogue   1969, p.54
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit