Wooden pit props

[tomparryharry]

Hello,

 

Just a question really...

 

Any ideas on what to use for 4mm pit props?

 

I'm assuming a rough length of 5'-6' (20-24mm). I know I can use coctail sticks, but they appear too regular in shape.

 

Any ideas, please?

 

Kind regards,

Ian

[Fat Controller]

'Bring me a shrubbery..'- seriously, the best source of round, bark-on, timber for such jobs are prunings from decidious shrubs. I've got a couple of large, hardy, fuschias which get pruned back during the winter- these have provided numerous loads for OTA timber carriers and similar. Whilst still having bark, it's very thin, so doesn't look out-of-scale.

As a child, I remember going by train past sidings of wagons loaded with pit-props, more-or-less at the point where Wentloog Freightliner depot was later built.This would have been in the early 1960s. Most props for South Wales pits came from Norway, hence the strong Scandinavian presence around Swansea and Cardiff, both of which have/had churches and Seamen's Missons for the Scandinavian community.

[tomparryharry]

Thanks for the tip. I too can remember that pit prop dump. There was a fire there (1976-ish) that managed to buckle the SWML. Made the news.

 

Now, Mrs Smith's Bonsai tree.....

 

Ian

[Barry O]

I have used the cuttings from our black current bushed - and they smell nice too!

[Darwinian]

Hello,

 

Just a question really...

 

Any ideas on what to use for 4mm pit props?

 

I'm assuming a rough length of 5'-6' (20-24mm). I know I can use coctail sticks, but they appear too regular in shape.

 

Any ideas, please?

 

Kind regards,

Ian

What do you want the pit props for?

If for a wagon load then ten commandments www.cast-in-stone.co.uk (or catch them at a show as I did) do round timber loads to fit Hornby/Bachmann open wagons that look quite good and save a lot of time, cutting up enough sticks is very tedious  . Thier W99 or W103 look about right to me. One is widthways (about 6 foot) and the other represents two lots lengthways (about 7 foot each).

Usual disclaimer, just a satisfied customer.

 

Darwinian

[tomparryharry]

What do you want the pit props for?

If for a wagon load then ten commandments www.cast-in-stone.co.uk (or catch them at a show as I did) do round timber loads to fit Hornby/Bachmann open wagons that look quite good and save a lot of time, cutting up enough sticks is very tedious  . Thier W99 or W103 look about right to me. One is widthways (about 6 foot) and the other represents two lots lengthways (about 7 foot each).

Usual disclaimer, just a satisfied customer.

 

Darwinian

Hello,

 

Thanks for the tip. I had a look, and there is some stuff on there I want to use. Sadly though, the wood loads don't look quite 'right'. At least, not to me. The pit props are, as you say, a wagon load. The photos I have here show them stacked quite a lot higher. Also, it depends on the end user. Some pits specified different lengths, depending on the coal seams they were cutting. Miners used to complain heavily if they had to size down too many props, as did the coal owners. Usually, for totally different reasons! I'd like to get different sizes, for different seam locations.

 

One opencast site I visited (Garn Slopes, Blaenavon) had remnants of seams only 15" thick, with overburden between of 24-30". The original miners worked these as one, taking out both seams together. Seams lower down were somewhat thicker, about 36". Conversely, the thicker seam used smaller props, due to the miners taking the single seam.

 

Many thanks,

Ian.

[philwaglab]

The wagons of pitprops loaded near Wentloog were from Cardiff St Mellons and I think they were brought in by rail,stockpiled and then reloaded for South Wales Collieries.There was another storage depot at Wern Tarw run by J O Williams.

[The Johnster]

I remember the pit prop fire at Wentloog; I was travelling to London that day for a party and had to use the replacement bus from Cardiff to Newport.  Seen from the top deck from Newport Road near Llanrunmey High School about a mile away, it was very bright, almost sun-bright, and the temperatures, as you say, buckled all 4 roads of the SWML.  There was very little smoke, and very little left afterwards.

 

It was a vast site, now covered by the container depot and an industrial estate, but fairly easy to trace it's triangular shape on a modern OS map.  Two of the large industrial buildings remaining and marked on the map are reclad structures from the depot, and their angle shows the ghost of the fan of sidings.  They were worked by BR locos and crews, and presumably the GW previously, on contract, and I remember 94xx being used, from East Dock, with Canton 08s later.  Drivers who used to work it as firemen in their younger days told tales of getting lost in the maze of sidings which were, when empty, covered in props stacked across the rails higher than the loco, and were never the same layout twice, and you used to have to climb on top of the tanks to see where you were, or up the radiator ladders on 08s.  It was pretty easy to get completely lost in fog, or at night; the yard was lit, though not well, by the old fashioned type of yard lamps, and there were, except for the two big sheds still there, no real landmarks; everywhere looked the same.  The props were imported cut to length from Scandinavia and Russia to Cardiff docks and tripped out to the site by the loco booked to shunt the depot in 5-plank opens.  There was more to it than met the eye, as they had to be seasoned for a set period, but no longer, before being sent out to the pits.   South Wales miners preferred them to modern types as they would groan and creak if about to fail, giving you a few second's warning, or so the survivors said...  The on-site manager, I think the owner, was an ex-miltary type called the Major, or perhaps the Colonel, or something, and he was a railway enthusiast who would often come and spend lunch time on the loco, bringing bottles of beer, pies, and the odd rabbit or pheasant; he carried a shotgun everywhere with him.  He seems to have been a genial sort.

 

The trains were drawn out and propelled back without a guard's van or a guard under local instructions; I think they had a travelling shunter with them, so I never actually worked there myself.  It must have been a fascinating and confusing place!