tarboat's photos

The original Lambton Colliery was opened in 1862 by the Scottish Australian Mining Company at a site nine miles south of Newcastle. After mixed fortunes over the years the Lambton B pit was acquired in 1932 by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) in order to supply increasing amounts of coking coal to its Newcastle Steelworks. There were two seams of coal — the virgin Victoria Tunnel or Burwood seam at a depth of 200 ft. in the main shaft, and the Borehole seam, found at a depth of 430 ft. from the surface. Electric power was supplied by John Darling Colliery, situated three miles south of Lambton. The colliery was finally closed in 1991.

On the new extension to the In the Yangchangwan coal mine QJ 7036 works hard through the desert dunes with empty coal wagons.

Morning train blasting across Apesford level crossing on a wet run up to Caldon Low.

Not mushrooms; rather these are vertical rollers to take the haulage cable around a bend on the tubway below the incline to the processing works at Birkhill Fireclay Mine.

Disused field kiln in the Parish of Tissington, north of Ashbourne. The stone for this kiln was quarried from the field alongside.

Fuli is one of the smaller deep mines in the Hegang area of north-east China. The washery here deals with coal from the shaft on the right and a number of adits.

JS 6305 departs Yangjiazhangzi with a heavy load of stone on the Huludao Limestone Railway. The line climbs steeply fo a few kilometres before a long descent to Huludao. The locomotive was slipping almost to a standstill before it topped the hill with this train.

The decoration on this commercial block is a bit above the ordinary. I wonder if this came from the Bispham Hall Brick & Terracotta Co at Billinge near Wigan.

As darkness approaches SY 1299 heads back from from Linghai towards Xiamiaozi on the Nanpiao Coal Railway. At least the icy conditions made it easy to cross the river to get to the right photo positions here.

Eighteenth century earthen limekiln at Hoften's Cross, Cauldon Lowe. The mounds in the foreground are the ashes and waste raked from the kiln.

This state owned Loznica viscose factory in Serbia was the largest employer of the city until the civil war reduced the output dramatically. Viscose was made from wood pulp and used in making synthetics including rayon. In 1992 the factory employed 12,000 people but production has been stopped for several years. There were hopes of a buyer who would restart production and initially employ around 2,000 people, but I don't know if that happened.

There are several disused adits at Birkhill where high silica fireclay was extracted until 1981. One mine has been used as a museum until recently whilst the processing works stands derelict close to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway. Seen here is the top of the incline from the works with the tensioning system for the continuous rope haulage underneath the staging.

BHP took over Burwood Colliery from the Scottish Australian Mining Co. on September 21st 1932. At that time the main shaft was 600ft deep to the Borehole seam which was 5ft 6ins to 7ft thick. Eight shortwall cutting machines were in use and the output was 1,450 tons per day.

We had been out to the Lishu system at Jixi and heading back towards town we decided to call in it Lijing Mine on the Hengshan system. Most of the work at Hengshan had been dieselised, but spoil tipping at this mine was still handled by steam. SY 0804 was loading at the bunkers as we arrived in rapidly failing light and soon headed off into the gloom pushing the tippers to the waste dump. Every time I visited this mine it was icy and windy and this day was no exception. It was a blessed relief to retreat to the relative warmth of our vehicle.

Local terracotta and stone combined at the Penuel Chapel, High St, Rhosllanerchrugog.

A reminder of happy days spent watching the trains on the Sandaoling Coal Railway. Two JS class locomotives bring the empty coal wagons across the icy desert shortly after leaving the China Rail exchange sidings.

Thaungthaman Lake on the outskirts of Mandalay is a popular tourist spot and there are plenty of boatmen willing to take you for a trip across the waters. At dusk a lone boatman heads for his home mooring after a lucrative day.

Dalong Mine is one of the older sites operated by the Tiefa Coal Mining Administration in Liaoning Provice, North-East China.