Hi Phil
Excellent detailing of the weigh house.
if it's not too much trouble could you show us some of your photos of the steam winders referred to above?
Cheers
Dave
As requested a few photos of the Parsonage steam winders. Space inside the engine houses was fairly restricted and I only had a standard lens on the camera, a wide angle lens would have given better views. The photos were taken in 1976.
In contrast to the rather attractive brick weigh house the main pithead buildings including the headframes were constructed of reinforced concrete. Sinking of the pit began in 1913 but was delayed because of the First World War and the first coal was wound in 1921. In this view the No.2 downcast shaft is on the left with the engine house behind and the No.1 upcast shaft on the right with its engine house off to the right. The boiler plant was at the rear behind the No.1 shaft headgear. Two gantries led off the photo on the left to the screening plant and sidings, some distance from the pithead. The view looks roughly northeast with the Victoria Cotton Mill in the left distance.
The No. 1 shaft winding engine, a two cylinder horizontal by Galloway, installed in 1920, with drop valves and cylinders 40" diameter x 72" stroke, working pressure 150 psi. Winding depth 920 yards. Note how relatively clean and tidy the place is including the engine itself. The black on the wall behind the drum would be debris from the rope, and the drum is shielded this side to keep as much debris as possible out of the rest of the engine house.
The view from the opposite corner of the building. The valves are operated by a layshaft running alongside driven from bevel gears in the centre of the photo and with a reversing gearbox part way along. The operators cabin is at the top of the two posts on the right with the access stairway just off the photo. The post in the foreground carries the dial which indicates the position of the cages in the shaft.
On the left of the LH photo is one of the brake engines, there would be another on the other side of the winding drum. The brakes were connected to counterweights which automatically applied them on, the brake engines held them off, so in the event of an interruption to the steam supply the brakes would automatically apply. To the right is the reversing engine and beyond that in the RH photo, is the controller, which prevented overwinds of the cages in the shaft.
The No.2 shaft headgear. The narrow gauge system was 2ft. gauge and battery locos were employed underground from the 1950s, later replaced in the 1960s by Ruston & Hornsby and Hunslet flameproof diesel locos.
The No.2 shaft winding engine, looking down the LH side with the operators cabin in the distance. The engine was a two cylinder horizontal built by Markham in 1920, with drop valves, cylinders 40" diameter x 84" stroke, working pressure 150psi. Winding depth 960 yards.
The winding drum was conical 28ft. maximum diameter with a brake ring on each side with bolted replaceable liners.
At that date (1976) two other Lancashire Collieries had working steam winders:
Sutton Manor - two cross compounds with Corliss valves. One was replaced by an electric winder in 1986, but the other remained until the pit closed in 1991 and was the last steam winder operating on a working British coal mine. In 1976 the colliery still had a steam fan engine, spare to the electric fan, and two steam compressors.
Bickershaw still had two steam winders on the shafts used for men and materials, the two coal winding shafts had electric winders. The steam winders were replaced by electric in 1977.
Astley Green still had its No.1 shaft steam winder, a tandem compound with Corliss valve gear, developing over 3,000 hp and one of the largest steam winders in Britain. It was last used for coal winding in 1970 and has since been preserved and restored.
