1990s : Coal with 37/56/60s in South Wales. Part 1.

Part 1 of the story of the Welsh Coalfields and the trains that ran during the 1990s featuring classes 37/56/60. Edited from the collection of my friend, the late Rowland Pittard, who provided me with so much information of the railways here in South Wales. If like me you're stuck inside under Tier 4, this will be a break from Christmas TV. Enjoy and have a good 2021

[@alexhiggins7307]

My father was Pit Overman of Blaenant colliery when it finally shut. I remember he had a shed load of Canaries when it finished.

[@milowales7899]

Excellent film brought back some happy memories of Taff Merthyr and D/N after working in both for nearly 25 years

[@DallamTMD]

Far far better than any Christmas TV! Thank you very much for posting ! Looking forward to part 2!!

[@Shelfandtabletoplayouts00gauge]

Great sound and picture quality. Fascinating. Thanks Mike, it's always good to learn and remember even such recent history.😃

[@perthdave100]

i guess part of the yard at onllwyn is on a incline, nice of the 08 to help slow the approaching run away wagons, never seen that, enjoy your new sir.

[@SMILEVIDEOTRAINS]

honestly I really enjoyed this. Men really worked then and I loved it when the wagons came down and the shunter moved so as to collect them.. excellent viewing while I enjoyed my Christmas dinner delivered to me by my son. PJ. cheers to everyone

[@JasonBurtonTRAINS]

Fantastic and a very interesting video on how coal was transported and how they operated back all them.years ago I LOOK FORWARD TO PART MIKE kind regards from jason 🖒🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃

[@TheMichaelWilcock2016Railways]

More to come from my archives; just takes time re editing these old VHS tapes

[@stuartpittard3153]

Hi Mike, Nice to see my relative Rowland mentioned my father spoke off his cousin several times but I don't think I ever meet him. Dad worked at Tondu and Bridgend during his early career on the railways but latter worked in Yorkshire I can remember the railways around Tondu in the 50s and 60s always busy,

[@TheMichaelWilcock2016Railways]

He's on quite a few of my videos. I knew him for 20+ years, always gave me good information ref. movements before we had the internet.. I miss him as a friend and colleague

[@LutonDom]

Excellent video! Merry Christmas Mike.

[@MSmifffy]

Awesome video.

[@0145jjd]

Great informative video

[@stuew6]

I love this video. I wait for Part 2

[@owenevans83]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing

[@HaydnMillerUK]

It’s so great to see old footage of the mines that people never saw, I live near the old site of Deep Navigation Colliery which is now the Taf Bargoed Park and Trelewis Drift Mine (Taf Merthyr Colliery) which is now the Reed Beds and the Trelewis Climbing Centre (Rock Summit UK) both on the B4255, my father is an health and safety officer for the Caerphilly County Council and helped the construction of a large housing estate and a primary school near the Penalta Colliery on the Penalta Rd. I am very interested in videos and footage that come from place nearby me, this has really helped.

[@TheMichaelWilcock2016Railways]

I've just downloaded clip 1000 yesterday. The majority are recorded in S/Wales so type in an area/valley and you might find more to your liking

[@robbywatsongmailcom1]

Does anyone know why trains were headed up by 3 class 37s at the Cym Bargoed site. Shown around 12 minutes into the film. I would thought a rake of hoppers like that would water off a ducks back for one of those locos. Great video by the way 👏

[@TheMichaelWilcock2016Railways]

Brake HP 37 = 1250 60 = 2415 66 = 2480, also possibility of and old 37 failing on that steep incline was possible, as well as brake power going down the incline

[@aaronharris6902]

How things have changed

[@TheElDoctoro24]

21:15 Clarkson: Powerrrrrrrrr May: Cocking Moron……

[@beeble2003]

60,000 tons of coal a year for Aberthaw B can't be right. That's only 165 tons a day, which means a standard 1000-ton MGR train would feed the station for almost a week. Wikipedia says they were burning 5-6,000 tons of fuel a day, which they describe as being about two-thirds Welsh coal, with the rest being a mix of imported low-sulphur coal and biomass. So they were probably burning about 5-6,000 tons of Welsh coal at the time of the film (ball-park -- the differing calorific content of different coals and biomass will mean this isn't 100% accurate). Anyway, long story short -- that would be about 1.8-2.2 million tons of coal a year, which is about 30 times what you claim.

[@TheMichaelWilcock2016Railways]

He says " 60,000 tons per week...

[@beeble2003]

@@TheMichaelWilcock2016Railways So he does. Apparently I'm going deaf! Though, conversely, 60,000 tons a week seems to be rather over-stating the number, as that's 8,600 tons a day.