Here is the Gedling Colliery under BAC, just left of centre in the foreground is the borehole pump of the day which was located about one hundred feet below ground and was a Weir Type. Access to this was by a stone staircase out of view alongside the railroad bottom right. Just to the left of the borehole shaft is the steam exhaust and to the left of that is the reservoir. Up from the borehole is the Waddle Fan with its exhaust venting above it. To the left of that is the No2 Winding Engine (Bever Dorling 1900), this was the larger of the two raising three double decks. At the rear of that enginehouse is a steam reservoir to harness exhaust steam to assist the compound turbo-alternator in the power house. A similar reservoir was also behind the No1 winder (next building up from No2). Between the enginehouses were eleven twin pass lancashire boilers. Two more were added alongside the No2 winder in the foreground not long after. At full bore 37 tons of steam per hour could be produced at 125 psi. The stack is about 170 feet tall and 2 inches of WG gave draught to the furnaces. The power house is situated to the left centre of the winders and the steam feeds are clearly visible. The larger being the low back pressure main and the upper being the live main at 125. There were three sets in there , a small parsons parallel rotor turbine about 500kva ,a larger BTH compound unit around 1.5 MVA and an old reciprocating double expansion driven alternator of 500KVa. The cooling pond for the turbine condensers is behind the No1 winding house. In the picture above the No1 winder are the blacksmiths,fitters and joiners workshops, and the furthest is the pagoda style lamp cabin. The Headgears were lattice and were replaced by plowrights in 1953. The Baum washery is to the right of No1 Headgear and was replaced by a larger one closer to the No1 shaft in 1948. In its heyday this was where real winding took place, at No2 shaft winding from Top Hard rope speeds of 80 Feet per second were easily attained hoisting six cars. The brake blocks often had to be hosed down to prevent fire and occasionally headger bearings would catch fire. Reverse steam braking was always used and one could hear the boiler safety valves lift as air was pumped back into the system as this took place. A valve stopped back pressure from being compromised. When the power house went to grid supply back pressure was no longer used and silencers had to be fitted because of the roar of the engines. The No1 shaft was Kinged three times. Once at christmas 1912 by an official showing off to family and twice in a day in 1946 by a trainee winder who was sacked after on the second attempt at launching the conveyance into space the headgear wheel shattered.(A piece of the rim landed in a field half a mile away). That must have been one hell of a bang. There was also an instance of the No1 Drum shaft shearing where the piston knocked the end out of the cylinder nearest the driver filling the enginehouse with scalding steam. The driver survived going through a window. The engine was used with one cylinder for light duties until repaired where the front of the enginehouse had to be taken down for the drum to be removed. It was a very jerky ride as I spoke to a man who rode that shaft at the time. Even in steams last year 1970 I have seen the No2 cage rocket out of the shaft in a shower of sparks during overspeed release where the brakes would have been fully applied before it emerged.
This photograph is by Yelhsa Ballard and was uploaded September 22nd 2012. © Yelhsa Ballard please do not copy or distribute without prior express permission.
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