tarboat's photos

The Chinese say that where there is a public statue of Chairman Mao it always points the way to the railway station! This example points the way from outside the Sichuan Science and Technology Museum in Chengdu.

Whilst the old steam winder is still in good order at the National Mining Museum at Caphouse Colliery, it was deemed unsuitable for winding visitors going underground. This hydraulic winder was erected to handle the work having been built by engineering company Needham Brothers & Brown Ltd of Barnsley, a firm with a long history of working for the coal industry. It has now been taken over by Qualter Hall & Co Ltd.

When working in a noisy environment or at a distance from others without radio communication then hand signals take on great importance. This painted board on the wall of the railway workshops in Baiyin makes clear what are the recognised signals there.

Fixed processing plant at Wredon limestone quarry.

Michelin House at 81 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, was constructed as the first permanent UK headquarters and tyre depot for the Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. It opened for business on 20 January 1911. The architect behind Michelin House was François Espinasse (1880-1925), who was employed as an engineer in the construction department at Michelin's headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand. The walls inside are decorated with tile panels featuring various motor sport events of the early 1900s.

Swing bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal at Moore. It now provides access to a large nature reserve.

SY 1369 fights the gradient as it brings the coal empties up from Zhengyang to the Xinghua Mine on the Jixi Coal Railway.

This is one of two kilns on the site of the Side Lime Works in Midlothian. In use in the mid nineteenth century they were both disused by 1893.

Imposing terracotta ornamentation on these houses in Draycottt Place, Chelsea. The terracotta work has a feel of having been supplied by Doulton. This street was built in the early 1890s.

A fine block of five kilns stands adjacent to a large working quarry. The stone here was worked in the first half of the nineteenth century by John Lloyd and by 1862 it was operating as Lloyd Jones & Co. There is a large bank of lime waste in front of the kilns. Lime from here was used in the building of docks in Liverpool, Birkenhead and Belfast between 1860 and 1890. It appears that the bank of kilns was extended twice. Production ended in 1914 and the face of one kiln has now collapsed whilst its neighbour shows signs of having been robbed of stone. Since this photo was taken the kilns have seen significant restoration and stabilisation works.

The Empire Cinema was the first purpose built cinema in Carnarfon, opened in 1915. The cinema held one show nightly with three on Saturdays, no shows on Sunday, at prices ranging from 3d to 1/3d. It made the transition to the sound era in 1930 with a British Acoustic sound system. In the early-1930’s it changed ownership to Capt. W.E. Pritchard who went on to develop a small chain of cinemas in Pwllheli, Porthmadog, Pen y Groes, Criccieth and Blaenau Festiniog, and his partner in Caernarfon E.H. Jonathan. In 1945, following the death of Capt. Pritchard Guy Baker’s Paramount Picture Theatres purchased the Empire Cinema from the Pritchard family and in 1956 installed Cinemascope when the seating capacity was reduced to 478 to cope with the new lines of sight. A bingo licence was acquired in the early-1970’s and film shows were reduced to 4 nights per week. Eventually bingo took over completely and in 1986, following the death of Guy Baker, Apollo Leisure took over the hall, refurbished it and today film shows are but a distant memory. Information from the cinema treasures website: cinematreasures.org/theaters/31696

Escape shaft at the Kuangsan copper mine, Shenbutong, Baiyin. The cage seems to have been lowered just below surface level.

The dry weather for the past weeks has caused the local archaeology to become more obvious. A trip out with a drone today yielded evidence of coal pit shafts dating from the late 18th or early 19th century. This previously unrecorded shaft could have been anything up to 250 ft deep and worked with a horse gin. It was certainly already disused by 1826.

The original Clarence Mills alongside the River Hull were built in 1888. Badly damaged by bombing in WWII they were rebuilt and continued to mill flour until 2005. In 2015 the mills were demolished to make way for a 23 floor hotel and casino.

Former toll office adjacent to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Leeds. I prefer the old signage to the modern stuff.

Winding drum remains at the top of the lower Nant Gadwen Incline which carried ore from the various Rhiw Manganese Mines down to a pier at Porth Ysgo. The pier was completed in 1902-3 and the incline operated until the closure of the mines in 1925, although a certain amount was shipped from the tips for a few years afterwards. The building on the left served the weighbridge.

The Caernant granite quarry had very poor road access and shipped all its product out by sea from a pier at the bottom of a long incline. It was developed from 1875 and the processing plant (seen here) was fed using a series of narrow gauge railways and inclines The main incline was abandoned in 1963 and for a while afterwards an aerial ropeway was used to carry stone to the pier.

The country railway at its best. An afternoon passenger service seen across the rice paddies as it sets off from the stop at the little village of Caiziba on the Jiayang coal railway. As was usual at that time, the carriages look to be well filled with local people.