tarboat's photos

Oil tanks heading west towards Lindong on the Jitong Railway in the days when QJs were in charge.

The Unstone Coal & Coke Co Ltd sank two collieries in the village of that name during the late 1860s. Both had short lives and were closed in 1884. An exploration of the mineral line that served these collieries, and others, yielded plenty of remains on the ground even after 125 years of abandonment. On the site of Unstone Main Colliery this is the building that housed the ventilating fan. The curving brickwork on the right side is typical of the installation for a Guibal fan and the one located here was 20ft in diameter and 6½ ft wide. Air would have been drawn from the workings via a tunnel conected to the opening in the far wall with the evasee chimney rising up on the left side of the building. Photos of a surviving Guibal fan can be seen here . Drawing of a Guibal Fan here .

China Rail had a shortage of empty wagons on this morning as SY 0362 of the Yaojie Coal Railway heads for Yaojie from the exchange sidings at Haishiwan on a murky, foggy morning. The limekiln in front of the bridge was not in operation during the winter period.

Ellistown is situated close to Coalville in Leicestershire and takes its name from Colonel Joseph Joel Ellis who sank the Ellistown Colliery there in 1873 and soon after a brickworks was opened by the colliery. Joseph Ellis died in 1897 and the colliery, brickworks and estate being carried on by trustees under Orders of the Court of Chancery until 1936. The colliery and brickworks were then separated into two separate companies and bricks production was then under the auspices of the Ellistown Brick and Pipe Company until closure shortly before the Second War.

Demand from the Sheffield steel industry led to the development of a significant coking industry in north Derbyshire in the later nineteenth century. The use of beehive coke ovens persisted even after the development of more efficient bye-product recovery ovens due to the steelmakers believing that the product of the beehive non-recovery system was superior. Summerley Colliery at Unstone was sunk in 1871 and operated only until 1884. Coal was coked in two back-to-back banks each of 24 beehive ovens and these continued in use until 1921. Today the ovens survive and are listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, but this has not resulted in much care and maintenance of the structure which is in poor condition and has been damaged by trees. This view shows the roof of one of the ovens and the fused firebrick due to the high temperatures achieved during the coking process.

No longer loved and now shedding roofing sheets is this Wiltshire barn. The plate on the end reads 'F. H. Dale builder Leominster'.

Sadly the exploration of this tramroad tunnel ended where the land beyond the portal had been infilled. Clearly others had been here before and had left behind their milk crate and plastic drum. The paved area for the horses walking between the plate rails can still be clearly seen.

George Hargreaves & Co sank the shaft of Grimebridge Colliery in 1851 and soon after a 'ginny road' was built across the moors to transport the coal tubs to the road up the valley from Waterfoot. At the site of the Fox Hill colliery the chain hauled line became a steep incline which crossed a wooden viaduct and then passed through along tunnel to reach the staith. The line operated for at least 90 years before the coal was routed through the hill to a wharf near Old Meadows on the Bacup to Burnley road. This is the point where the ginney line changed angle and started down the incline at Fox Hill. It is now in a ruinous condition and the land around had been changed through tipping and reclamation such that the surface arrangements here are no longer clear.

Even though the temperature is below freezing there is heat distortion across the desert as two JS class locomotives take a train of empty coal wagons to the deep mines at Sandaoling.

SY class locomotive leaving Xiamiaozi on the Nanpiao Coal Railway with an afternoon passenger service.

Heagears at UK Coal's Thoresby Colliery. On of the few collieries still operating in Britain.

Afternoon sunshine on a train loading spoil in the Jalainur opencast coal mine.

Typical wayside crossing on the Jitong Railway. This example is just east of Lindong and seen with typical traffic for the district.

Back in 2007 I posted a single shot of the demolition of the boilers and powerhouse at the Winnington works of Brunner Mond, but thought it might be fun to make a composite image showing the whole blowdown. Best viewed large.

In the days before digital photography I doubt that this shot would have been possible. It was almost dark as the last uphill train of the day is east of Mifengyan and heading for Bagou on the Shibanxi Coal Railway.

Ingersol air compressor and receiver on the Australia level at Dinorwic slate quarry.

Afternoon service crosses the Caldon Canal at Consall Forge on the Churnet Valley Railway.

The trans-mongolian highway was almost ready for opening in the area between Lindong and Daban when I last visited the Jitong Railway in spring 2005. Of course traffic was already using the road unofficially and this made it much easier to reach some of the formerly rather remote photospots. Here a pair of QJs plods westwards towards Chaganhada with a long freight over one of the many viaducts on this line.