Vic Patterson

Hello Brian, nice to see you are back and and hopefully on the mend! like a few of us that 'age' thing is catching up, CL, HPW and myself are a few who are, and families are going through "the golden" years, life changing! We got another foot of snow last night and -10c I was wondering if you would like some to help cool off! We are not sure yet where we will be spending our Christmas but would like to wish you and our forum friends a very Merry Christmas and a healthy 2020 Vic & Dot

If that is Ian Lavery he's got a big gob! loudest wins! bad hairdo guy didn't have the answers , unprepared ! Boris is more entertaining. Interviewer was terrible, would that be a BBC guy?

Sorry for your loss, nice to see you back and in better health, I enjoy the Brexit banter but don't hear many of the issues, really all we are told is the Irish border is the main stumbling block, lots of rumours but very few facts.

Have a good one Andy. Happy birthday.

Nice to see your coping CL and things are improving, we are having similar problems here in GC, luckily my health is the better of the two of us and hopefully things will improve, like yourself living rather remotely adds another dimension to growing old. Wishing your hubby a full recovery and return to normal ageing! if there is such a thing! Regards, Vic

Tanner each way on Piggott! (whatever he was on)

Two posts up Bill, (I was always better with my hands than words!)

Bill, Flight conveyors are usually two parallel driven chains connected with "flights", steel plates that drag / scrape the coal along to a chute that the coal drops into, (this coal is the fine wet coal that has been recovered, (not lumps) if the chute gets blocked or “plugged” the operator would try and unplug it (with his shuul) while it was running rather than stopping the conveyor and bring the whole operation to a halt.(centrifuges ,belts, screens and filters). No not AFC belts or related to the Flygt pump company,( I hated those pumps!) Vic

Bill, those flat conveyors were called "Flight conveyors" yes very often unguarded and quite deadly, usually left unguarded for operator convenience to enable unplugging. =($ PRODUCTION!)

Bill, a very good explanation of the coal preparation, if it was similar to the plants i'm familiar with there was another two important processes, one to recover the expensive magnetite and one to recover the fine coal washed off the screens. The magnetite was recovered using a large drum that was an electromagnet on one side, as it turned the magnetite clung to the upward turning of the drum but dropped off the downward side which wasn't magnetic, and recycled. The fine coal washed off the screens was mixed with more water and an added flocculant, a chemical that created lots of bubbles when injected with compressed air, the bubbles were skimmed off and then flowed through a tank that had large wheels made up of metal mesh screen panels, large vacuum pumps sucked the fines onto the screens and then scraped off and diverted onto a conveyor then dropped into a centrifuge that spun out most of the water. All water used went to settling ponds. Not a lot of waste.

HPW I just received a MP.4 copy of our 9.5mm wedding cine, first time we have ever seen it, 57 years later.

Happy birthday Foxy, hope its a great day!

Sorry CL I thought it was a sarcastic dig at football players! I hope your normal bright outlook returns soon, I'm confident the banter here will certainly make a difference, hopefully for the good!

Names, dates and places would certainly help jog a few readers. 🙂

It's back already, now that's what I call service, thank's again Andy. Bedlington is looking good.