The South shaft was the upcast, and the mine-car circuit was, of necessity, considerably more complex than that of the North pit since it had to ensure synchronisation between the shaft-side and external air doors. In addition, the shaft-side air-doors had to be interlocked with the banksmans mine-car loading rams and with the shaft-side controls for men/materials loading. The entire operation was controlled by pneumatic logic based around interconnected shuttle valves. The main decking logic array was located above the full-side tracks adjacent to the shaft. Other, independent operations such as point switching, were controlled by circuits located nearby.

South shaft decking -  main pneumatic logic

During coaling, both the banksman and the onsetter performed the decking operations from cabins located above the tracks on the empty side of the shaft.  They had a twin set of controls - one for the RH cage and the other for the LH cage.  These are shown in the photo below. Long hand-levers operated the rams which pushed the mine-car onto the cage. During normal coaling there were always two empty mine cars ready for loading - one held by the stop catches in front of the shaft-side air-door and the other a little further back held by the arrestor catches. The round foot-pedals released the catches holding back the mine-cars and, if I remember correctly, the round buttons at waist height were pressed in to release the axle-catches in the cage whilst the mine-car was being rammed on).

South pit banksman cabin pneumatic controls..

A facility was also provided to transfer pneumatic control to the full-side for limited operations to be conducted at the shaft side for loading materials etc. Signalling was switched to the shaft-side for these operations and for man-winding, at which time an additional interlock in the cabin activated the man-riding indicator to the winder.

Full-side South pit top, Pleasley 1979

The full mine-cars were ejected from the cage by the empty ones being rammed on. Spring operated arms provided simple roll-back prevention gates, beyond which, at the side of the tracks,  were a pair of pneumatic interlock valves with projecting flexible arms. These were activated by the unloading mine-car and the locked the decking operations until the mine-car was clear of the shaft-side.

They then gravitated down towards the bottom external air-door, but were intercepted by a slowly moving Lofco twin-chain creeper. This was constructed so that the mine-car dummy-axles were just lower than the top of the chain, allowing the mine-car to over-ride it until the momentum had been absorbed. The chain then drew the mine-car to the air-door where it was held by wheel stops until the door opened.  It was then carried through the doorway and fed onto a turntable which turned it through about 130 deg. and propelled it towards the tippler.

South pit-top full side Lofco chain creeper - running-on end.  Only the first few links are in place.  To the L of them are the two raised guides along which the chain ran .

The mine-cars gravitated away from the turntable and were held by stop-catches in front of the tippler.  Once this had completed the emptying of the previous one, the full mine-car was automatically rammed onto the tippler, thus ejecting the empty one. The full mine-car was secured in the tippler which then rotated, emptying the contents into a small bunker. A vibrating feeder below the bunker loaded onto a short conveyor, which transferred the ROM coal onto the main conveyor to the washery. When the North screens were discontinued in the mid 1960s, a plant was built to blend the outputs from the two pits and the ROM coal from the tippler was routed to that before transfer to the washery  conveyor.

After tippling, the empty mine-car gravitated onto another Lofco chain creeper which carried it back up-slope to the top external air-door where it was held by stop-catches ready to be automatically rammed through once the air-door had opened.  Just inside the air-door they were fed onto a turntable which rotated them through about 130 deg. From there they gravitated towards the shaft-side via a set of automatic points which switched between R and L sides after every second mine-car. 

After gravitating down from the turntable, the mine-cars would have a fair momentum and they were brought to a halt by heavy-duty arrestor catches which intercepted their axles. They were then allowed to roll slowly the last few feet towards the shaft-side where they were held by stop-catches in front of their wheels.

RH side mine-car catches and loading ram.  The wheel stop-catches are open but when closed the far ends lie over the rails. The arrestor catches are located at this end of the loading ram cylinder.

The loading ram had solid head which slid along a steel channel. The head engaged with the rear dummy-axle of the mine-car by means of a hinged nose which allowed it to be retracted underneath the advancing second mine-car.

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05 May, 2009