really thankful someone had the foresight to record these videos of the UK's industrial death throws, when I was a kid blokes went to work wearing overalls a donkey jacket and steel-capped boots and carried sarnies & thermos in a gasmask bag, they did heavy manual work in coal mines and shipbuilding yards, now they go to work wearing designer clothes 2 sizes too small, carry a salad and yoghurt in a Gucci man-bag along with mobile phone and personal grooming accessories, they work in call centres and out of town retail shopping centres, they are videoed all day every day by CCTV.
Photographed this system in the late 1960's if memory serves me right. The locos were white with bumblebee striped ends. It was a very busy line with trains up and down every few minutes. I believe that the voltage was 550v dc and supply was via their own rectifier system. The gradient through the tunnel was extremely steep and it was almost impossible to stop once under way in the tunnel due to slippery rails. It all seemed very chaotic but everyone seemed to know what was happening! With lots of locos running around and almost no signalling and gravity shunting from the unloading bank I think today's Health and Safety guys would be in a permanent state of apoplexy. The guys working on the system certainly managed to get the job done with few mishaps despite the tight clearances and rough trackwork. A tribute to the men of the North East who helped to make Britain prosper in the days when King Coal reigned supreme!
When the pit closed this line should have been kept as an addition to the metro line - couple of extra stations for the town including one nearer the beach, with possible extension further down the coast.
Once the line up from Dean Road had been upgraded, coal was taken out by main line locos, usually a class 56. The electric locos were retained to take stone trains down to the staithes on the Tyne for some time, but then a conveyor belt was installed from the pit down through Hilda sidings and the tunnel directly to the loading point. This system only lasted a short time - 18 months, perhaps - before the pit closed. So much has been lost.
What an interesting video, a line I never knew existed. Always had a fascination for DC overhead electrics with there large diamond pantographs. I had a Triang steeple cab as a kid and you could almost use them as a,prototype for an industrial railway like this one. I believe some of the locos have been preserved.
What a revelation, I never knew about this one, I knew about Westoe colliery having an electric network, but not this one, or is it the same one? So how many electric colliery lines did we used to have?
really thankful someone had the foresight to record these videos of the UK's industrial death throws, when I was a kid blokes went to work wearing overalls a donkey jacket and steel-capped boots and carried sarnies & thermos in a gasmask bag, they did heavy manual work in coal mines and shipbuilding yards, now they go to work wearing designer clothes 2 sizes too small, carry a salad and yoghurt in a Gucci man-bag along with mobile phone and personal grooming accessories, they work in call centres and out of town retail shopping centres, they are videoed all day every day by CCTV.
Photographed this system in the late 1960's if memory serves me right. The locos were white with bumblebee striped ends. It was a very busy line with trains up and down every few minutes. I believe that the voltage was 550v dc and supply was via their own rectifier system. The gradient through the tunnel was extremely steep and it was almost impossible to stop once under way in the tunnel due to slippery rails. It all seemed very chaotic but everyone seemed to know what was happening! With lots of locos running around and almost no signalling and gravity shunting from the unloading bank I think today's Health and Safety guys would be in a permanent state of apoplexy.
The guys working on the system certainly managed to get the job done with few mishaps despite the tight clearances and rough trackwork. A tribute to the men of the North East who helped to make Britain prosper in the days when King Coal reigned supreme!
When the pit closed this line should have been kept as an addition to the metro line - couple of extra stations for the town including one nearer the beach, with possible extension further down the coast.
Thanks for filming it. Far more interesting than the conveyor belt that superceded the rail system.
Tell me about the conveyor belt?
I thought the railway stayed open until Westoe (the last colliery on the Harton system) closed.
Once the line up from Dean Road had been upgraded, coal was taken out by main line locos, usually a class 56. The electric locos were retained to take stone trains down to the staithes on the Tyne for some time, but then a conveyor belt was installed from the pit down through Hilda sidings and the tunnel directly to the loading point. This system only lasted a short time - 18 months, perhaps - before the pit closed. So much has been lost.
What an interesting video, a line I never knew existed.
Always had a fascination for DC overhead electrics with there large diamond pantographs.
I had a Triang steeple cab as a kid and you could almost use them as a,prototype for an industrial railway like this one.
I believe some of the locos have been preserved.
@Saint Skyler your a complete TOOL
You MUST watch "Harton Electric Rwy. 1986 & 1989" !!
I really shows ALL the odd trackage and odd devices in use...
Westa Pit----Wonderful video !!
What a revelation, I never knew about this one, I knew about Westoe colliery having an electric network, but not this one, or is it the same one? So how many electric colliery lines did we used to have?
It is the same line ☺️ and it was the only electric colliery system in the uk
This should've been filmed when the wires were covered in ice, then they would arc like fury!
Wasn't that loco a wee bit dangerous, with that LIVE pantograph within such easy reach?!
Not Harton, it's Westoe. Harton was closed long before 1988.
It is Westoe Colliery but the railway system was known as the Harton Electric Railway, because it was built by the Harton Coal Company
What voltage did they run..??
From the looks of it it's 1500V DC, but I don't have any real information on it
@@dubsy1026 If I may recommend a book - 'The Harton Electric Railway' by William Hatcher. One of my most-read railway books!
@@dubsy1026 itt ran on 550v DC according to other videos on TH-cam.