Gascoigne Wood Mine is part of the Selby Complex in North Yorkshire. The Selby Project was the largest deep coal mining project ever undertaken in the world when it was developed in the 1980's. Five producing mines delivered all their coal to one processing and distribution centre at Gascoigne Wood Mine. The project involved the sinking of 10 shafts and drivage of some 124 miles of underground roadways. The two drift mouths at Gascoigne Wood lead to two 12 km long tunnels driven diagonally beneath the Barnsley seam to a depth of 1,100 metres.
{Gascoigne Wood Mine - Covered Stockyard} At peak production, coal was delivered at 2,000 tonnes per hour, at over 11 million tonnes per annum of saleable coal. On the surface is the Covered Stockyard, which houses most of the coal washing/processing equipment; the coal is then delivered to trains via the Rapid Loading Station on the main Hull-Leeds railway line, and on to the coal fired power stations, mainly Drax. At its peak, there were up to 51 trains per day, each train carrying 1,200 tonnes of coal. (Back to Home)
The South drift houses the Anderson Strathclyde (ASL) steelcord conveyor belt, which is 12.2 km long, has a lift of 800 metres, a speed of 8.4m/sec, and can carry coal at 2,200 tonnes per hour. The total installed weight of the belt is approximately 2,500 tonnes. Coal is delivered onto the ASL via accelerator belts. The South tunnel was driven with the Robbins tunnelling machine, the actual machine was left underground once the tunnelling was completed. In order to complete the tunnelling, the heavily water bearing strata had to be frozen. The North drift has a Cable Belt and Tandem belt; the Cable Belt is 9,500 metres long, with a lift of 700 metres, and can carry approximately 2,000 tonnes per hour on its PVL (Preformed for Variable Load) belting. The actual rope length is 38.4 km. {Rapid Loading Station} Future items to include the spoil site;

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{Gascoigne Wood in the snow} {sunset over the Covered Stockyard}