EIMCO625 TRACKED SHOVEL LOADER PARKED FOR EVER IN10s TAILGATE STENTON BY BIG WILLY

high pit wilma :- I even jacked the bucket up,to give the fitters better access to the hydraulics,with regard to strip-down...it never happened! She is still sitting there under the north sea,happily rusting away...may'be home to some big congers now...!

high pit wilma :- The pit wasn't lit up like this all over,you know!!
It was only because the huge 6,600volt transformers,and associated switchgear,were located here,cos it was a rare dry place,down the 3/4 drift!!! 
You can see the authorisation notice on the left,and more lighting in the recess behind the security chains slung along the girders.

jojojood :- Had a few "rests" on top of those same type transformers,except being beside the machine,only source of heat we had lol. Our pit was wet also and with the air flow quite cool when you weren't busy .For sure no one was allowed on top of them,but when the cats away........

high pit wilma :- Heh! heh! Boiler burns...!....mostly sparky's who went into the pit baths looking like a zebra,from the back...!!
Where did you work Jo Jo?,it's nice to hear from somebody who knows the score about pitwork,not just what they've read!
At bait-time,down the 3/4 drift, where it was running in from the seabed,you couldn't get moved,on or beside the "boiler",for bodies...!!
Happy days eh?!!

jojojood :- Worked 20 yrs. underground in Cape Breton Canada. Like you guys,the government shut down the pits here,now they import coal here from the USA. My old grandad is rolling over in his grave i'm sure ( coal to Newcastle ). By the way most of our gear was from the UK,dowty, dosco, pikrose, oldham, huwood etc.

high pit wilma :- Hi,jo-jo, ironically, it was one of your guys,called Ian Mcgregor,who was appointed chairman of British Coal,in the 1980's,by Maggie Thatcher, the most hated woman in Britain,our PRIME MINISTER.
His job was to "Have a confrontation with the miners"

The result was the 1984 miners strike,which broke the miners union,the communities,and the Trades unions as a whole..!!
ONE WOMAN!
Now we import "cheap" coal from China,and our government says nothing to our country,when MASSIVE explosions rip through the chinese mines,frequently,killing hundreds of chinese miners......
THEY are just like you and me,they have wives and families like us,..........

jojojood :- And you know wilma,we only hear about over here when theres 100 or so killed .30 or 40 gone, wouldn't get an inch of column in the papers. As for this Mcgregor,never heard of em, but sounds like he should of been tossed in the gob with the rest of the waste. We had a henchman come down here from Ottawa to announce the pits were being closed, I had one week notice after 20 years. Another 5 yrs. and i would have had a pension,some of the guys missed a pension by just a few weeks. Coal has been mined here for abt 250 yrs but that way of life ended in 2001.The sad part of it all,this Island has so much coal,dig a hole almost anywhere and eventually you will hit a seam,yet its imported from the US and South America to fuel our power plants. I'd love to know what they pay per ton,maybe 3 or 4 dollars a ton less than what it was when they closed the pits here,not a lot when all else is concidered. At one time there were 10 to 12 thousand miners here,now those jobs are gone along with those wages, so the economy here is in trouble still.

high pit wilma :- Yeah, jo-jo, I understand fully! People here,have forgotten that BRITAIN,was BUILT on COAL, the industrial revolution,came about,when steam engines were invented,suddenly there was a huge demand for coal,but the only millionaires were the coal owners,and rich landowners,while the miners struggled to survive.
Over here,in the 1800's,women,[sometimes heavily pregnant],worked down the mines,in really low seams[ 2ft- 6inches,and less..],pulling baskets of coal along the ground,with a harness around their waist,and a rope attached,and passed between their legs,to the "basket".
Children as young as six years old,had to sit beside "air doors",and open them when necessary,to let coal tubs through,for about sixteen hours a day,in total darkness,after their candle burned out.
My blood boils when i start getting wound up about how the mining families were treated.
It's good to share stories with you,jo-jo,my Broadband has been off for a week or two, so i have some catching up to do!