MONSTERS (03/11/11)

Today is sunny in bits…….when it isn’t sunny it really rains. It rains rain it’s hard to breath in.

We have been back to the pit. It is only half done but awe inspiring. I’ve never seen such big steam engines.

Two HDR views of Pleasley Colliery.  These look almost the same. I couldn’t fit it in a stitched HDR panorama so moved on a bit. I didn’t like the first because it was boring and I like the second because it it is more dramatic.

The volunteers that are restoring this colliery work Thursday and Sunday mornings. They were drinking tea when I arrived but I got a cup of tea and a trip round. It’s a challenging place to capture.

The engines are twin cylinder steam engines Not cmpound and only utilized the pressure of steam from a mixture of Cornish and Lancashire boilers. Fuel was not a problem………they would burn unsalable screenings. Dirty? Not really, as the fire bars or grate would have hollow bars……I forget how they were made but air was forced through the hollow fire bars and injected under the fire bed ensuring complete combustion. We have only to look back to learn.

Steam locomotives don’t have the same problem. The opposite. Their fire bed is awful short and thin. The movement  shakes ash through. They have no, or little, natural draft so they expend used steam into their chimneys to create  the necessary draught and heat in the fire bed. If they have no used steam they have a steam injector to give the fire a jolly on.

Pleasley Colliery welcomed me with open arms and I had a good nosey round. For any who are interested then have a look at a very competent website. The words and music can be found here PLEASLEY COLLIERY. The web site like the restoration is far from complete. I have the feeling both will be wonderful soon.

It’s a wee bit cramped in the engine house………..a bad photographer always blames his environment, his assistant or the light. I’ll just blame me.

  This is what a winding engine should look like. This is a miniature replication and is superb. The image will enlarge with a click and I enhanced the writing so you can read it with a click. It has a perspex case. So not easy to convey the beauty it’s creator achieved.

Now to full size.

   Work in progress………..The thing to the left is the winding drum the stuff to the right is paint,,,,,,,,,,,Oh! And a seven foot stroke steam cylinder. It has a twin on the left but the light beat me and the camera.

Valve gear on the south engine which will now work. Or would if they could afford a boiler or three. Whoops, I almost forgot and to pay for the fuel to run it. Thatcher wasn’t just a milk snatcher…….she was a vandal…..north sea oil and gas arrived to save her, a bit. Then she sold the silver. There is still so much mineral wealth under our wee country.

Looking from the working end. In the foreground is the crank that drives the winding drum, a bit of which can be seen upper right.

I love these places. I could have had it to myself………….I did for an hour or more but still didn’t do it justice. One day I will learn how to shoot in difficult light. I am coming back here so will give it another mauling. There is a preserved winding engine not six miles away and it is a vertical engine, goes up to heaven it does.

Now I have a poser………….What is this?

It’s a wee shrub and has loads of yellow berries. They have planted lots. The leaves look blueish in a morning.

Help please!