During my recent North West ramblings I was made aware of the existence of a forgotten piece of Coalfield archaeology in the form of "ROBERT" which is an Avonside 0-6-0ST (No 1600 of 1912). It was purchased by the current owners from the NCB in Nov 1965 by the current owners and resided in their scrapyard at Chequerbent until removal to their Westhoughton site.
There is a little bit of mythology locally behind the locomotives survival as on more than one occasion I have been told that the loco was involved in the recovery of the dead from the Pretoria Pit disaster which occurred in 1910, however this loco was sadly not built until 1912.
It appears the loco did work coal trains from Pretoria to Westhoughton but it finished its life at NCB Garswood Hall & Cronton, nevertheless a fabulous and unexpected survivor! :thumbsup: If anyone has more info on her history I would love to hear please.

🔗Hulton-Coal-Colliery-User-Album-Image-87612[linkphoto]Hulton-Coal-Colliery-User-Album-Image-87612[/linkphoto][/link]

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Such a shame they have let the poor old thing deteriorate so badly.
Great photo's by the way :thumbsup:
Thinks.....there was a similar ST at an old abandoned pit in Pemberton, I think it was an 040ST. I cant for the life of me remember the name of the pit, but it was between Pemberton and Goose Green. Anyway, they used to run this thing up and down the lines and if you asked for a ride the guys would sling you a bucket and say 'Fill this off't tips an cum back when tha's dun'
There was plenty of coal left on the tips and you could fill a bucket in about 30 minutes.
The engine was kept in an old wooden shed on the mine and whatever happened to it I don't know. I moved away and more or less forgot all about it, that would have been about 1967/8 ish.

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Roy cheers for that, the whole area up in the
North West is superb and I am surprised by what remains generally. Got lots and lots more to go at! Lol

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Roy cheers for that, the whole area up in the
North West is superb and I am surprised by what remains generally. Got lots and lots more to go at! Lol

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When I visited Holts scrapyard at Chequerbent in 1970, I was told that they had bought it from Lea Green Colliery. I have a picture from the visit but can't seem to get it up!

[photo]Personal-Album-11442-Image-87617[/photo]

Fantastic Shot!!! :thumbup:

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Such a shame they have let the poor old thing deteriorate so badly.
Great photo's by the way :thumbsup:
Thinks.....there was a similar ST at an old abandoned pit in Pemberton, I think it was an 040ST. I cant for the life of me remember the name of the pit, but it was between Pemberton and Goose Green. Anyway, they used to run this thing up and down the lines and if you asked for a ride the guys would sling you a bucket and say 'Fill this off't tips an cum back when tha's dun'
There was plenty of coal left on the tips and you could fill a bucket in about 30 minutes.
The engine was kept in an old wooden shed on the mine and whatever happened to it I don't know. I moved away and more or less forgot all about it, that would have been about 1967/8 ish.

That colliery would be Blundells - some great photos here
http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showalbum.php?offset=0&opt=5&gallery=Pemberton 

With regards to the loco when i was speaking to the scarp yard owners they wasn't sure if the loco was Robert or John.

IRS and my friend Ian who saw it in 60's at Cronton are pretty sure its Robert... Many parts of the motion were stamped 1600 (Wks No) as was the Avonside way.

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Such a shame they have let the poor old thing deteriorate so badly.
Great photo's by the way :thumbsup:
Thinks.....there was a similar ST at an old abandoned pit in Pemberton, I think it was an 040ST. I cant for the life of me remember the name of the pit, but it was between Pemberton and Goose Green. Anyway, they used to run this thing up and down the lines and if you asked for a ride the guys would sling you a bucket and say 'Fill this off't tips an cum back when tha's dun'
There was plenty of coal left on the tips and you could fill a bucket in about 30 minutes.
The engine was kept in an old wooden shed on the mine and whatever happened to it I don't know. I moved away and more or less forgot all about it, that would have been about 1967/8 ish.

That colliery would be Blundells - some great photos here
http://www.wiganworld.co.uk/album/showalbum.php?offset=0&opt=5&gallery=Pemberton 

With regards to the loco when i was speaking to the scarp yard owners they wasn't sure if the loco was Robert or John.

Thanks for the link to the photos, :thumbup: there is also a copy of the pit layout showing all the rails and the branch to the main line. It even shows the shed the tank engine was housed in. Curiously enough, I've had an account on that site for a couple of years and never come across those pics 😞
Websites can be pretty large places.

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Roy I'm forever on there and finding new stuff!!! Its a cracking site! :thumbup:

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Fantastic photos, well done both of you :flowers:

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[photo]Personal-Album-11442-Image-87617[/photo]

Unbelievable - I remember walking down the A6 from Hulton Lane ends (where I used to live) to see it just like this! That brings back some memories - like biking down to Astley Colliery via Walkden Yard watching for the coal trains.

Many thanks.

Grahami

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I used to bike it over from Wigan to see the engines working at those pits. Long ago but still fresh in the memory.

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I do not think it was at Cronton, the steam locos that we had there where named Cronton, Monty and Robin Hill. The three locos at Cronton all where sent to Kirkless works in the early 1970s for major overhauls. They where all fitted with steam brakes, following the re-build they where all steamed back to Cronton by BR drivers. They where then parked up between No3 pit and the fan drift and not used.About 1972 they where given to a railway society who promptly had them cut up and sold for scrap. :devil: :devil: :devil:

It's rather sad that given the extent of people I have met with such vivid and still fresh memories of the NW coal industry, that it seems so little recognised in the area by the powers that be. Thanks to the likes of authors such as Alan Davies, IRS we do have a fabulous archive and historical record of the NW coal industry but there seems little recognition that there is some great industrial archaeology to be seen still. Thanks to being based in at Preston 2 days a week I have been very fortunate to have time to explore and suss what's there. There are some fabulous lengths of the old colliery railways and I get the feeling I have only really scratched the surface but can find few written or online sources pointing to extant IA apart from the NWEX forums (which may sadly soon no longer be active). Interestingly the AIA handbook on the area has virtually nothing on iron making or coal... Which is very disappointing.

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I do not think it was at Cronton, the steam locos that we had there where named Cronton, Monty and Robin Hill. The three locos at Cronton all where sent to Kirkless works in the early 1970s for major overhauls. They where all fitted with steam brakes, following the re-build they where all steamed back to Cronton by BR drivers. They where then parked up between No3 pit and the fan drift and not used.About 1972 they where given to a railway society who promptly had them cut up and sold for scrap. :devil: :devil: :devil:

According to IRS these had gone from Cronton by 1965 and where out of use prior to that

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