The Last Train from Tower to Aberthaw
Introduction
Coal has been mined in Wales since the 15th century and was often called "Black Gold". Tower Colliery was the last operational deep coal mine in the South Wales Valleys, located near the town of Hirwaun. It was on the Northern edge of the South Wales coalfield. The coal was close to the surface and drift mining was practised between 1805 and 1941 when a 160 metre deep shaft was sunk. In 1951 a branch railway line was extended from Aberdare to the colliery to enable mined coal and freight to be transported.
The mine was in constant use up to 1984/5 when the Conservative government authorised the closure of the majority of the deep mines in the UK, prompting the National Miners strike. The Tower mine was still economically viable, but despite protests by the miners against its closure, British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22nd April 1994.
The Tower story didn’t finished there as 239 miners, led by Tyrone O’Sullivan formalised a scheme to buy back Tower and re-open the mine. Each miner paid £8,000 of their redundancy pay-out and the colliery opened again on 3rd January 1995 with the new name “Goitre Tower Anthracite". The colliery continued to operate until the coal was mined out in January 2008 and it was officially closed on 19th January.
Tower Regeneration
Although deep coal mining was not viable at Tower, there was still an estimated six million tons of anthracite available near the surface. Tower management, led by Tyrone O'Sullivan proposed extraction by open cast mining on the 200 acres site next to the Tower railway line.
The regeneration scheme was a joint venture started in 2012 between Tower Colliery Ltd and Hargreaves Services PLC to extract coal over a period of seven years. After coal extraction the plan was to restore the land for future development by the County Council.
The company expected to remove a million tons of coal each year to be burned at Aberthaw Power Station. The coal price at that time was £50 per ton and the company turnover at that price would be double that of the Tower deep mine. With coal reserves planned to last for at least six years, the predicted last mining date was mid-2018. In 2016 concern over the high nitrogen oxide emissions at the power station brought this date forward to March 2017.
Coal has been mined in Wales since the 15th century and was often called "Black Gold". Tower Colliery was the last operational deep coal mine in the South Wales Valleys, located near the town of Hirwaun. It was on the Northern edge of the South Wales coalfield. The coal was close to the surface and drift mining was practised between 1805 and 1941 when a 160 metre deep shaft was sunk. In 1951 a branch railway line was extended from Aberdare to the colliery to enable mined coal and freight to be transported.
The mine was in constant use up to 1984/5 when the Conservative government authorised the closure of the majority of the deep mines in the UK, prompting the National Miners strike. The Tower mine was still economically viable, but despite protests by the miners against its closure, British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22nd April 1994.
The Tower story didn’t finished there as 239 miners, led by Tyrone O’Sullivan formalised a scheme to buy back Tower and re-open the mine. Each miner paid £8,000 of their redundancy pay-out and the colliery opened again on 3rd January 1995 with the new name “Goitre Tower Anthracite". The colliery continued to operate until the coal was mined out in January 2008 and it was officially closed on 19th January.
Tower Regeneration
Although deep coal mining was not viable at Tower, there was still an estimated six million tons of anthracite available near the surface. Tower management, led by Tyrone O'Sullivan proposed extraction by open cast mining on the 200 acres site next to the Tower railway line.
The regeneration scheme was a joint venture started in 2012 between Tower Colliery Ltd and Hargreaves Services PLC to extract coal over a period of seven years. After coal extraction the plan was to restore the land for future development by the County Council.
The company expected to remove a million tons of coal each year to be burned at Aberthaw Power Station. The coal price at that time was £50 per ton and the company turnover at that price would be double that of the Tower deep mine. With coal reserves planned to last for at least six years, the predicted last mining date was mid-2018. In 2016 concern over the high nitrogen oxide emissions at the power station brought this date forward to March 2017.
The Last Train from Tower to Aberthaw
This project tells the story of the last Welsh coal to be delivered from the surface mine at Hirwaun to the power station at Aberthaw in South Wales. On Friday 24th February 2017, the last two Tower coal trains were due to arrive at Aberthaw, sixteen miles West of Cardiff. Each train would carry 1,400 tons of coal in twenty wagons, one arriving at 13.58 and the last at 21.20.
This project tells the story of the last Welsh coal to be delivered from the surface mine at Hirwaun to the power station at Aberthaw in South Wales. On Friday 24th February 2017, the last two Tower coal trains were due to arrive at Aberthaw, sixteen miles West of Cardiff. Each train would carry 1,400 tons of coal in twenty wagons, one arriving at 13.58 and the last at 21.20.