Erringden Colliery

[Asterix2012]

3 hours ago, locotracteur351 said:

I think this is a possible explaination. Having had to manually fire a loco with damp coal sludge, I can testify for its fire retardant properties; definitely something to keep dry! I’ve also found that coal dust is an incredibly abrasive paste once damp, certainly something you’d want to avoid in a mechanical stoker.

Having said that the Great Central trialled pulverised coal and a colloidal fuel which is basically pulverised coal suspended in a carrier liquid.   
 

Not that the trials were successful though at the time

[locotracteur351]

Well having sat and looked at the old screens building and never been happy with it, not the style, more the location, I have moved the screens and the colliery has been modernised! I recently purchased a number of Gordon Edgar’s brilliant books on ‘Industrial Locomotives and Railways’ and have been inspired by excellent pictures of screens in the North East and Scotland. 
 

The locos bring the empty wagons into the loop, run round and shunt them a couple at a time for loading under the screens. I imagine that the majority of this colliery’s coal goes out by canal to power stations but a rail link is there to connect to the rest of the colliery system. 
 

Plenty of room in the foreground for smaller buildings and general colliery rubbish now. I keep looking at my wooden engine shed and thinking about modernising that too...

[doilum]

Never seen it modelled. I believe the screens at Wheldale operated on a rope haulage. Once the final wagon had reached the shute and was full the loco would return to take the full rake. I doubt that this was unique.