How sad to see... which breakers yard was this?

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the locos are most definitely 2 of the Greenbat Trolley electric machines from Irthlingborough, which were converted to battery/electric operation in the early sixties. On the closure of the mine, a number of the locos at Irthlingborough went to Reddens scrapyard just ouside Wellingborough, it was assumed at the time that they were cut-up on arrival. However, when the scrapyard was cleared - in the early nineties I think - a number of locos were "re-discovered". Some of the locos - the Rustons - were sold for preservation, but the Greenbats ended up going on to Kingsbury scrapyard were they were scrapped, a very sad end.

cheers

Alan

Hi, Rag,
I sent a PM to ICLOCK about these locos. You might be interested.
A friend of mine wanted to restore one of the locos. but the scrap mechant wanted £1000 & he had to get it to Cornwall so the negotiations fell through. You may be interested to know that the loco with its battery compartments were made in the Irthlingborough workshops with advice from D.P. batteries. So they were absolutely unique. The mines Inspector made us close down our tolley system about 3 0r 4 years before the mine closed. Nobody had ever been injured from them but if the loco happened to be standing on sand you made sure the pole was off the wire before coupling up a waggon. Some of the loco drivers would'nt be beyond trying it on with a sprog. I once got a thump when I went to talk to a driver & held my lamp on the loco. even though I had Wellingtons on. But it was nothing to write home about.
I'm about to post some more photos taken at Sheperds yard in May 1997. Showing among other things, the Rushton Hornsby Diesel locos.
Alan

These are the Rushton Hornsby Locos & another G&B at sheperds yard taklen May 1997
🔗Irthlingborough-Ebbw-Vale-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-50081[linkphoto]Irthlingborough-Ebbw-Vale-Iron-Mine-User-Album-Image-50081[/linkphoto][/link]

A useless bit of information that may interest you is that the D P Battery Company Works which you mentioned was based at Riverside Works, on the A6 just north of Bakewell, Derbyshire.

Nice to see some ironstone stuff... keep it up and thanks :thumbup:

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Iclok - nice to see you home and safe!

Since British Steel closed all the Northants stuff down and left, who is now responsible for the old workings there?

my best understanding is that the ironstone workings in Northants were open pit and have been put to the usual uses - landfill followed by building or agriculture

I don't believe there are any significant underground workings there?

I did visit the underground workings at Scunthorpe in the early 70s, which were huge pillar-and-stall workings akin to Boulby. I assume they are now abandoned and flooded or collapsed?

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A lot of the ironstone remains in Northants have been lost over the years due to restoration, development, etc. however, if you know where to look.......

Some of the large opencast gullets still remain, but getting more overgrown as time passes, the Wembley Pit at Irchester & the Buccleuch Pit at Finedon come to mind. Thankfully, these last two have been incorporated into Country Parks.

Of the mines, some of the underground workings in the Islip area are mostly complete & accessible, probably very similar to the mines in the Scunthorpe area. Also in this area, the Twywell Quarry has been designated an SSSI, but is getting very overgrown.

At Irthlingborough, restoration & development has removed practically all traces, but at the Finedon end of the underground system, the bricked up adit to the tunnel leading to Irthlingborough can be found at the bottom of the quarry. A fascinating area, that Mr Pack will hopefully expand upon in his proposed book on the system - I'm really looking forward to that!!

Cheers

Alan

Can anybody say what sort of tonnages were the Northants mines/quarries were producing annually and what was the Fe content?

Can anybody say what sort of tonnages were the Northants mines/quarries were producing annually and what was the Fe content?

Have a look in the data section of Alan's site Richard:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/apack1/data.html 

there is certainly some Fe content info. And of course read the rest of the site whilst you're there!

A useless bit of information that may interest you is that the D P Battery Company Works which you mentioned was based at Riverside Works, on the A6 just north of Bakewell, Derbyshire.

An even more useless bit of information is that the company used to charge the batteries they made from a generator run by a waterwheel until a maintenance engineer who didn't know what he was doing over-tightened the spokes and broke it....

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Thanks - I thought at first you were talking about Irthlingborough & I got very interested until I realsed it was D.P. batteries. I bet the engineer got his head in his hands.

An even more useless piece of information about the DP works is that the timbers that they sat the batteries on for charging are now used as the roof beams for the Magpie Mine Long Engine House boiler shed when it was re-roofed in 1976.
They still have acid stains on them!

Im new on this site, just saying hello.

I live in Finedon, I have had a mooch round most of the mine workings over the years but can't fine the bricked up adit at the finedon end, Anyone have any idea where it might be?

I talked to a chap a few years ago who mentioned in the 50's or 60's that a football match was going on and a man ran across the pitch and then a hole appeared where he had been standing, They reckoned that some underground workings had collapsed.

Thats weird been to the Finedon Park Mines today! 😮 Do you know the ore crusher remains? its at the end of the totally overgrown cutting below it at SP916722.... didnt make it there today so a report back would be good, it should be bricked up and the cutting flooded to about a foot depth!!! Good luck.

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IIRC the the major collapse area for the mine at Irthlingborough is here.

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.322378&lon=-0.63106&z=17.6&r=0&src=msl 

The tunnel being referred to here ran from below the Finedon Ironstone Quarries into the Irthlingborough Mine to the processing plant at Irthlingbro.

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Just found this which makes for a good read.... 🙂

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