COAL STORAGE AREA - FACE CHOCK REPAIR SHED IN FOREGROUND

Dr. Drewboy :-

i have never heared of 6-legged roof-supports but in germany it was the same with the investments... the miners said "when your mine get's new showers/headgears/whatever it will be closed next year."!
germany's biggest headgear in "göttelborn" never really extracted coal. or "schlägel & eisen" shaft 4 got a modern, 70m high headstock which just was in use from 1986 to 1990 and the new coal blending bed was finished in 1987 and also worked until 1990...

high pit wilma :-

Hi Dr Drewboy!
Yeah,in the 1960's,when we first got mechanisation,we had Dowty 5-legged chocks,with 
adjacent,and full 6-batch control.[that was after using Dowty hydraulic props and face bars..!].
Then we got Gullick 6-legged chocks [4 legs at the back,and 2 at the front,supporting the canopy.Each leg could withstand 100 tons roof pressure,so each face chock was referred to as a "600-ton face chock".
Problem was,the goaf used to push the legs forward,and cause the roof to fall,flattening the chocks to the ground,like squashing a beetle,the roof pressure in the 3/4 seam was so great.
We got a new design of chock called the "Rev-lem",which had huge,thick armoured bracing
plates,at each side,like grasshopper legs,which allowed vertical movement of the chock canopy,but which also prevented lateral movement,so the canopy couldn't be pushed forward by the goaf falling in.
One coal face alone,installed with these chocks,made Bates Pit profitable,but when we asked for more,the area director refused us them,and sent us the old style Gullicks,which he,and everybody else, knew,was a risk of human life,to work under.
As a result,thatcher,our prime minister,made the excuse we were unprofitable,and closed the pit.
It was all contrived from the start,cos she knew,and she actually said it,that if she could break the Miners,she could break the T.U.C,our trade union movement....and she DID!

bewildebeeste :- Plenty of NCB internal user wagons on this photo. The ones in the foreground (do they have chocks in them?) look like standard 16t minerals but the red ones in the background look like older tapered 7 planks dating from well before ww2.

high pit wilma :- Hi bewildebeeste,the wagons have 12' and 15' long baulks,["baaks"],4' long rolleyway sleepers,and 2' long hardwood chocks[which were Beech,with a 6"x6" cross-section].
All these timbers are shown being crushed like cardboard,on the pic of R20's face,in this set.
All the wagons are the same,different ages,certainly not pre-war!!,and not tapered either,long time since i saw the old tapered wagons,mind a mean a long time!!