Category: Club Members Travels

I mentioned in my previous post about Lofthouse Colliery. Well, here is the history of it, as I know there will be interest in this sort of thing.

Lofthouse Colliery

The first Sods were ceremoniously cut on the 20th November 1873 and work on sinking 2 pit shafts commenced immediately after, initially to a rough depth of around 1050 feet then deepened further to 1370 feet during coal production.

Lofthouse Colliery started producing coal on 31st December 1877 then multitude of rail sidings were built initially by the Great Northern Railway to access the Colliery to aid the speedy export of coal and distribute it round the country. A private line was then built in 1883 which incorporated part of the Lake Lock railway and part of the 1840 navigation tramway to Lofthouse Gate, the line linked the Colliery to Stanley Ferry to export coal to the port of Goole via the Aire and Calder canal navigation.

On March 21st 1973 at around 2am disaster struck, in the mine workings known as district South 9B, miners were taking a standard longwall cut and a massive inrush of water, sludge and debris enterered and engulfed the whole workings.

Miners ran for their lives as the inrush continued to enter with immense force. At a position of safety it was found that 7 miners were unaccounted for. Immediately a mass rescue operation was launched by a team of the NCB local and Stafford frogmen. Water pumps were sent down the mine shaft and a local drilling rig was set up on the surface roughly under the point of where the intombed men were to try generate an air pocket in the workings of South 9B, 700 feet below the surface. In the meantime over 3,600.000 gallons of water and debris filled South 9B.

On the surface close to the drilling rig 3 large holes appeared in farm land which was ploughed a few days before the incident. These holes were part of older abandoned mine workings known as the Old Low Laithes Colliery which were sank around 1835 in that area.

These old abandoned workings over time had accumulated vast water retention until part of it was accidentally breached by the cutting of coal in South 9B.

After a 24 hour 7 day week operation of rescue was launched one out of the seven bodies was found very close to where the water had roofed the coal seam. 6 men are still entombed down in South 9B where after the rescue became totally impossible to get beyond two roadways which was filled with debris, slurry and sludge.

Direct above South 9B workings on the surface now stands an obelisk in memory of all 7 who lost their lives and the 6 that remain entombed as a memorial. Its just outside the village of Kirkhamgate near Wrenthorpe on Batley road close to Wrenthorpe Lane. Situated roughly 3 and half miles from former Lofthouse Colliery pit shafts near the now Outwood Station.

On 2nd October 2019 myself and John Dodds decided on a day out visiting model shops. This time, all over Yorkshire. To be exact, Going Loco in Outwood, Leeds Model Shop in Cross Gates, Olivia’s trains and Rails of Sheffield in, well, Sheffield!

First stop was Going Loco, which since our last visit has been extended. Overall a reasonable model shop with plenty of variety, if a little clumsily laid out. Reasonably priced too! However came away with nothing. Just around the corner from the model shop was the site of the former Lofthouse Colliery. (See separate post for that).

Back to Leeds for dinner then across to Cross Gates to Leeds Model Shop. Silly me only went and left my hat on the train there. Doh! Found the model shop and disaster – it was closed! Unfortunately the only day it was closed (other than sundays) was the day we tried to pay a visit. So trundle off back to the station to head off to Sheffield.

Arrive in Sheffield early afternoon and straight onto one of the ‘Supertrams’ up the big hill to Olivias Trains. The shop itself was nice – plenty of variety of stock – but way out of our price range unfortunately. Turns out that Olivias Trains specialise in sound fitted stock, hence the seemingly costly price. Back to the tram and back to the station.

We arrived back at the station and headed the mile and half from there to Rails of Sheffield, a first for both of us. The shop itself was fantastic, almost like a dream! Cabinets along all of the walls filled with various different stock at reasonable price and many accessories in the other part of the shop. Again no bargains to be had unfortunately but a shop we will certainly be visiting again! Anyway, back to the station, off to Nottingham with a guard that I knew before heading back to Leeds and to spoons.

Overall, a good day out!

On the 30th August myself and John Dodds made the trip over to the seaside resort of Scarborough for the day. Not fun getting over there as the Transpennine service was full and standing on leaving Leeds.

We arrived in Scarborough at 11:40. The weather was overcast, but warm. Scarborough itself is a very nice and rather popular destination! We headed off down to the seaside to find somewhere to sit in and have something to eat, a chip shop on the sea front, before spending a bit of time at the local arcades and having a walk along the sea front.

As we returned to the station we stopped off in the local model rail shop which offered a good range of stuff at a decent price, however unfortunately they didn’t have anything that took my fancy this time.

We then headed off back to the station, before catching a train to Bridlington, another seaside resort, and had a walk down the sea front. Not as busy as Scarborough was, but was a lovely little harbour with many families playing in the sea.

We then headed off back home via Hull and York, mainly to sample the brand new Transpennine Express Class 68 and Mk5 set. That was a great little experience, travelling in first class. Unfortunately the day was somewhat marred by our train being involved in a fatality

Here’s some photos from an enjoyable day.