tarboat's photos with the keyword: winder

Hidden away at Clipstone Colliery is ths winder that was used for rope changes on the upcast shaft.

Whilst the old steam winder is still in good order at the National Mining Museum at Caphouse Colliery, it was deemed unsuitable for winding visitors going underground. This hydraulic winder was erected to handle the work having been built by engineering company Needham Brothers & Brown Ltd of Barnsley, a firm with a long history of working for the coal industry. It has now been taken over by Qualter Hall & Co Ltd.

No.2 winder for the Marmion Shaft at the Bawdwin mine in north-east Myanmar. This was manufactured at the Siemens Works of English Electric at Stafford in the UK in 1925 and has been continuously in use since. The motor drive is rated at 295hp using 550 volts and drawing up to 436 amps. The No.1 winder is situated below and in front within the same building. Both units wind from a single shaft that is 1700ft deep and serves 14 levels. Currently the workings are flooded up to the sixth (adit) level at c700ft due to the pumps being switched off. The mine produces high grade ore containing silver, lead, zinc, and a little copper and gold.

Shaft indicator and governor remains on one of the winding engines at Hemingfield Colliery.

This winding engine was installed on the upcast shaft at Pleasley Colliery in 1922 after it was decided to deepen the upcast shaft to 904 yards and develop faces in the Deep Hard coal seam. To wind from the increased depth would require a more powerful winder working at 150 lbs per square inch and new Lancashire boilers capable of supplying steam at the increased pressure. Markhams of Chesterfield won the contract to supply a twin cylinder winder of 36 inches by 84 inches stroke, with a winding drum of 21 feet diameter. It is currently undergoing restoration by the volunteers at this excellent preservation site.

Right up to closure in June 1912 this winding engine by Dinglersche Maschinenfabrik A.G. in 1918 was used to wind materials in one of the shafts. Coal production by this time was brought up a drift.

The ”blondins” at Pen-yr-Orsedd slate quarry are “Henderson Aerial Cableways,” being manufactured by John M. Henderson & Company, of the King’s Engineering Works, Aberdeen. Originally steam wound the operation was changed when the quarry operations were electrified apparently as a demonstration and publicity exercise, by the North Wales Power & Traction Company in 1905-06. The cableways have a three-wheeled load carriage and were operated by duplex winders of identical basic design. These have a narrow drum on which is wound the continuous travelling rope and a wider one on which is wound the hoisting rope. To traverse the carriage both ropes are wound in or paid out simultaneously, while to raise or lower the load the travelling rope drum is declutched and held by its brake. The Bruce Peebles three-phase asynchronous motors with brine bath resistances were generally contemporary with the electrification of the quarry. On abandonment of the blondins in 1974, after the last one failed a safety inspection, the equipment has laid increasingly derelict and now there are signs of extensive scrapping in some of the enginehouses. It is a great pity that it has not been possible to preserve something of this fascinating operation, even though some of the structures have listed status.