Pit to Power Station: A Personal Recollection of Coal Trains in the 1990s

Description

Focusing on the 1990s as a decade of change, all of the collieries and most of the coal fired power stations of that era have now gone. During that decade I made a point of photographing the collieries and power stations, and the trains that moved the coal, and so amassed a large collection of photographs. Being Worksop-based through my railway career, I am able to describe a potted history of Worksop Depot which opened in 1991, commencing with a brief look at the area in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. The run-up to the privatisation of the railways is followed by the new freight companies which brought changes in coal operations, before the wholesale decline in coal production. There are images taken in the Nott's, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire coalfields. Brief descriptions of each colliery and power station illustrated are given, with maps to show their location, along with power station track diagrams, tables, and coal plans to show where power station coal originated. The book concludes with a few instances of locations that Worksop-based drivers served.

Chris Booth is a retired railwayman of 43 years standing, has had an interest in railways since an early age, and continues to do so to this day. A prolific author of articles for the railway press, he has seen many of his photographs published. By the 1990s he had become a regular photographer of coal trains, collieries, and power stations. He has co-written a book 40 Years of Sheffield PSB, three books about the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway, and co-authored one entitled 'Tinsley and the Modernisation of Sheffield's Railways'.