Bolsover Coalite Traffic

[penyghent]

Just about to do a short photo  feature about Bolsover Coalite traffic for a magazine, and would like to add which collieries sent coal to the plant in the 1990s to closure. I have photos of Bolsover bound trains at Bevercoates and Kiveton in the 1990s but I dont have info about where the coal came from after that until closure of the plant in 2004.

 

I also have shots of a 6G95 Bolsover to Healey Mills train being loaded there, my question is does anyone know which collieries sent coal to Bolsover and where the Healey Mills traffic was bound? Also anyone have any idea of when the final train ran?

 

Any help appreciated 

 

Thanks

[John_Miles]

There was a Bolsover colliery right next to Coalite and about a mile or two further north was Markham (not to be confused with other Markhams) which was the biggest pit in the area. A few miles south of Coalite there were Ramcroft and Glapwell. I think Ramcroft closed in the 1950s but Glapwell went later. All of these were served by the ex-Midland Staveley to Pleasley branch and would be good candidates to supply Coalite. The stream that runs past all this lot is the Doe Lea and it was so polluted you could smell it before you saw it.

[penyghent]

There was a Bolsover colliery right next to Coalite and about a mile or two further north was Markham (not to be confused with other Markhams) which was the biggest pit in the area. A few miles south of Coalite there were Ramcroft and Glapwell. I think Ramcroft closed in the 1950s but Glapwell went later. All of these were served by the ex-Midland Staveley to Pleasley branch and would be good candidates to supply Coalite. The stream that runs past all this lot is the Doe Lea and it was so polluted you could smell it before you saw it.

Bolsover Colliery did indeed supply the plant until the colliery closure, that I have read, but I don't know about the other collieries along the branch, maybe someone else does?

[drjcontroller]

I have a couple of pictures of a train of empty HEA's coming out of Bolsover in 1999/2000, it ran as a 6Y42 19:04 Bolsover - Worksop, but I'm afraid I don't know where the inward working originate from.

 

Douglas

[Echo]

Glapwell closed in 1974. There was also the adjacent Bramley Vale drift mine, which closed in 1970.

[John_Miles]

What about the loading point at Oxcroft? I believe this was for opencast coal but maybe this also supplied Coalite. I presume the coal had to be coking coal - not every seam in North Derbyshire was of the right chemical content so it would depend what was being mined at the time.

[penyghent]

I have a couple of pictures of a train of empty HEA's coming out of Bolsover in 1999/2000, it ran as a 6Y42 19:04 Bolsover - Worksop, but I'm afraid I don't know where the inward working originate from.

 

Douglas

That's the train I regularly photographed, i got it with classe 37,47,56 and 58 hauling it, but like you I don't remember its origin

[martin1]

Does anyone have pictures of the North British shunter or the steam locos used at coalition?

[Michael Edge]

I don't know about NBL locos but they did have this Sentinel at Coalite - now owned by Harry Needle and seen at Barrow Hill.

 

 

[hmrspaul]

Three of the late use diesel shunters are in this collection http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/bolsovercoalite

 

Paul

[18B]

Clipstone sent some trains,.

[Richard Pike]

Just came across several several pictures relating to Mansfield area to Coalite workings.

 

Coalite working

[Paragon]

There were around 8 collieries locally, all rail served. They were Bolsover, Duckmanton, Grassmoor, Bonds Main, Markham, Glapwell, Williamthorpe and Calow. All closed at differing times, and not all served Coalite due to the nature of the seams they worked and its mineral properties. One must consider also that there was the gargantuan Avenue coking plant in the Derbyshire coalfield also, albeit off the MML further south which would have taken quite a bit of feeding as well as the varying Trent power stations...

Worksop had Manton colliery, which I'm not sure went through Oxcroft for screening/ washing and onto the cokers or power stations, I don't think Coalite coals would have been processed at Oxcroft as the washing process used to make Coalite was done at Bolsover proper. Kiveton near Rotherham had a myriad of seams on the go, some domestic and some used for manufacturing, it definitely sent trains to Bolsover albeit in later years (1990-onwards are the only photos I've seen) (there are references to Coalite in working time tables, head code 6Y41 loaded outbound and 6Y39 empty inbound, the latter bizarrely listed as originating and terminating at Worksop but I think this was a routing move for the line through/ from Sheffield and onto Seymour Junction and truncated South Yorks joint railway) so I would stake Kiveton as the main contender, the line to Clipstone was closed I think circa 1993 when production there wound down. As for Kiveton it would have seen an increase in industrial grade output, almost certainly after 1970 when the Barnsley Seam was exhausted, this being primarily high grade domestic coal, thus leaving the industrial grade mining as the prime extract. Clipstone in Nottinghamshire would be the other earlier colliery yes but it was closed in 1993 and reopened with a much constrained operational licence which is when the switch to Kiveton would have stepped up I'd postulate.

HTH

Paragon

[penyghent]

There were around 8 collieries locally, all rail served. They were Bolsover, Duckmanton, Grassmoor, Bonds Main, Markham, Glapwell, Williamthorpe and Calow. All closed at differing times, and not all served Coalite due to the nature of the seams they worked and its mineral properties. One must consider also that there was the gargantuan Avenue coking plant in the Derbyshire coalfield also, albeit off the MML further south which would have taken quite a bit of feeding as well as the varying Trent power stations...

Worksop had Manton colliery, which I'm not sure went through Oxcroft for screening/ washing and onto the cokers or power stations, I don't think Coalite coals would have been processed at Oxcroft as the washing process used to make Coalite was done at Bolsover proper. Kiveton near Rotherham had a myriad of seams on the go, some domestic and some used for manufacturing, it definitely sent trains to Bolsover albeit in later years (1990-onwards are the only photos I've seen) (there are references to Coalite in working time tables, head code 6Y41 loaded outbound and 6Y39 empty inbound, the latter bizarrely listed as originating and terminating at Worksop but I think this was a routing move for the line through/ from Sheffield and onto Seymour Junction and truncated South Yorks joint railway) so I would stake Kiveton as the main contender, the line to Clipstone was closed I think circa 1993 when production there wound down. As for Kiveton it would have seen an increase in industrial grade output, almost certainly after 1970 when the Barnsley Seam was exhausted, this being primarily high grade domestic coal, thus leaving the industrial grade mining as the prime extract. Clipstone in Nottinghamshire would be the other earlier colliery yes but it was closed in 1993 and reopened with a much constrained operational licence which is when the switch to Kiveton would have stepped up I'd postulate.

HTH

Paragon

Thanks for your input. Manton coal latterly went direct to Cottam but I don't recall it ever going to Coalite. Stewarts & Lloyds traffic also came out of there in the 1980s I recall.Yes Kiveton did send to coalite, I photographed several trains from there so you are correct with that. I have expanded the article to include Seymour Stock site and Oxcroft now as well.

[Paragon]

Thanks for your input. Manton coal latterly went direct to Cottam but I don't recall it ever going to Coalite. Stewarts & Lloyds traffic also came out of there in the 1980s I recall.Yes Kiveton did send to coalite, I photographed several trains from there so you are correct with that. I have expanded the article to include Seymour Stock site and Oxcroft now as well.

Oxcroft it is worth noting was on the NCB/ Opencast mining network as it was a screening and crushing site

Forgive me here if I go over what you might already know, the nature of Disposal Points was to crush and screen ready for onward transportation by road and rail to feed, primarily, the Trent and Aire power stations albeit possibly less so of the latter due to the development of Gascoigne Wood... Household coal was washed and screened but I'm not sure if this was done on a more localised basis at the collieries themselves or indeed a CDP as was Oxcroft.

Part of the reason the Coalite works and the Doe Lea was so profusely contaminated was due to the washing and prep operations to process the coal into smokeless fuel, essentially removing the dust and sulphurs/ ammonia byproducts which were then processed into chemical byproducts in themselves. As you might imagine this was an immensely 'dirty' task with some very nasty products used in the treatment and it was largely these which led to the contamination of the wider environs.

To clarify, Oxcroft was another operation in itself which I don't think was related to the Coalite works.

This all takenfrom a good few reputable primary sources and publicly accessible reports into both the Coalite business and products as well as the operations of the 'end users' of the Derby and South Yorkshire coalfields compiled for a friend who had asked me sometime previously about the area, and I am a stickler for research!

Thanks,

Paragon

*AMENDMENT: to include Opencast mining alongside NCB operations*

[Fat Controller]

My understanding of Disposal Points, having some familiarity with Banwen (usually referred to as Onllwyn) and Cwm Mawr, is that they were operated by, or on behalf of, the Opencast Executive, and not the Area board of the NCB. Their remit was to process coal from opencast sites, and to a much lesser extent, 'small mines', washing and grading it before sale to merchants or final users. Most were on the site of former mines, and often used the screens and other equipment of these mines.

[enginelane]

I worked 2 summer holidays whilst at university at the Grimethorpe Coalite plant in the mid 1970s. If Bolsover was anything like Grimethorpe there would have been a number of collieries involved as coal was blended and held in the silos before it went to the battery tops. There was quite a sophiscated lab that did loads of tests