Dainton Bank
Clive Smith
Regards Clive Smith Many thanks Clive
Carn Brea Yard
Paddy Bradley Collection
A bit of background: New Cook's Kitchen shaft at South Crofty opened in the 1920s with, as was common, a secondhand beam pumping engine. These engines worked continuously, of course. At 5-45 am on December 28th 1950 (a singularly cold night, it seems) the beam cracked and broke (the engine being in motion, of course) and a 7 -ton piece of it crashed downwards, fortunately not crashing down the shaft and smashing all the pitwork, but landing at the lip of the shaft. Electric pumps were quickly installed, but there was a lot of heavy lifting to do, so the company hired a traction engine for the job. These pictures show it being unloaded at Carn Brea station.
Carn Brea station box (closed in 1953) can be seen. The handwriting is, of course, Jack Trounson's.