Nixie Boran  & The Castlecomer mine & quarry Union  

The Freeman’s Journal

Monday, May 7^th 1917

IRISH COAL.

A Visit to the Castlecomer Colliery.

PROPOSED RAILWAY.

Lack of Proper Transit Facilities Affects Development.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

Only those who have the privilege of visiting the Castlecomer Coalfields and have had an opportunity at the same time of making a thorough inspection of the actual conditions obtaining at the different collieries now working can have any conception of the importance that the development of this great industry means to this country.

     It is true that work has been carried on in the coalfields for the past couple of centuries or so, but the struggle has been an uphill one, and the greatest obstacle that has told, and is even at present telling, against their development is the matter of transit.  The want of railway facilities, in fact, is very keenly. felt, and without their provision the industry cannot prosper and extend itself as it deserves to do,  nor can the coal be placed in the proper markets at an acceptable figure in face of the excessive charges for cartage and the keen competition that prevails on the other side.  It is  a  time indeed that public attention was focussed on this important matter.

 The collieries are now being worked by Captain R. H. Prior Wandesford, D.L., the proprietor.  Before he took them over some years ago they had been leased out to private persons, but the business carried on was not very extensive.  Captain Wandesford has now thrown his whole heart and soul into the concern, and the improvement manifested since is a striking illustration of his untiring zeal and attention to the development of the industry.  He is very ably assisted by Mr. J. B. Sample, mining engineer, whose practical experience of the work in English colleries is proving invaluable.

EXTENT OF THE COALFIELDS.

Having paid a visit to the coalfields the other day, I should like, before going minutely into the necessity for railway communication to give some particulars as to how affairs are carried on at the collieries at present,.

The Castlecomer Coalfields lie within the district embraced by a triangle, of which the towns of Abbeyleix, Carlow and Kilkenny form the angles.  They constitute the most valuable portion of the Leinster Coalfield, which spreads over portions of the counties of Kilkenny, Carlow, Tipperary and Queen's County.  Although some of the upper seams of coal have been exhausted in the course of working, the greater part of the two principal seams, the Jarrow seam and the Skehana seam, still remain to be worked.  The supply of anthracite coal is estimated at 180,000,000 tons. The Jarrow seam is found at a depth of  80 yards and the Skehana seam, which, by the way, is not being worked at present, at a depth of about 300 yards.

Captain Wandesford's royalties extend over an area of 22,000 acres-from a point 1½ miles west of Castlecomer village due east for about six miles, and from a point about two miles south of Castlecomer due north about six and a half miles.

The annual output of the collieries varies from 60,000 to 80,000 tons, but this quantity could be trebled or quadrupled if there were proper transit facilities.  Four pits on the Jarrow seam are at present being worked, and the number of hands employed there at totals 457, involving in expenditure in wages of £1,200 fortnightly. The following particulars as to the four pits referred to will be interesting :- 

100 TONS A DAY.

Another pit named Rock Ridge is ready to be worked.  It only needs the erection of head gear and machinery. It is stated that there will be a daily output of 100 tons from this pit, which contains no water, being naturally drained. Both the question of transit and that of labour militate against the opening of this pit for work.

At the four working collieries only an eight-hour shift per day is observed.  It would be useless to work for a longer period than this daily.  As it is, difficulty is found with the present means of transit-lorries and carts-to get away the coal from the pit mouths. It there were railway facilities the material could be sent away more speedily.  There is pit-room for 200 or 300 more coal hewers, and with such additional labour, or, as an alternative, the introduction of, say, three mechanical coal cutters, the output could be trebled or quadrupled. I paid a visit to each of the four pits and was impressed with the way in which the work was being carried on in difficult circumstances-I mean as regard transit arrangements.  I also spent some time in the Vera pit, which is turning out at present the largest daily output.

“ DOWN UNDER ”

It is not to the novice a pleasant trip through the subterranean passages which abound in this pit; but the novel experience was a compensating circumstance and one is enabled to see what the daily routine of the miner's life is "down under."

One need not fear fire-damp or coal dust, and you can carry a naked light or smoke your pipe without thoughts of dangerous results.  Tramways run in all directions.  Boys push the trucks containing the newly-obtained coal from the side-galleries to the main tunnel, along which, where the height of the roof  permits ponies to do the haulage.  One pony I saw working was quite  adept at the work.  The animals are taken down and brought up each day.  In other sections of the pit a wire cable, operated from the pit-shaft, is used to draw the trucks to and fro.

There are five grades of coal obtainable from these pits which are included in the Jarrow seam.  There is first a good quality anthracite coal, largely used and suitable for household and ordinary heating purposes, such as milling concerns, malting, wool-drying, etc. The second quality can be applied for the same purposes, and the third quality, known as bottom coal, is extensively used for household purposes and -the heating of green-houses. The fourth quality is known as breakage, and lime-burners not alone in the south but in the west and parts of the north, used it extensively.  The fifth quality is what in described as culm, a slack produced in mining the coal, and it is used in steam-raising.

I saw these five grades being burned, and the  results were eminently satisfactory.  For a big radius round the collieries each house, without exception, uses this anthracite coal, and it is astonishing what heat-giving properties it possesses.  It is used both for ranges and open grates, and all whom I spoke to alluded to it in praiseworthy terms.  It is admitted that it takes a little time to get it going properly, but once lighted, a well-set fire will last almost the entire day.  The culm quality has been found exceptionally suitable for furnaces.

BRIQUETTE MAKING.

I was assured  by the men in charge of the furnaces at the various collieries that by its means no difficulty is found in raising 1001b pressure of steam.  The culm is also extensively used for making " culm balls " or briquettes, which, in the houses in the locality, are found a lasting, clean, and useful fuel.

Generally speaking the coal is an economical one.  It lasts long, it is especially clean and is free from the gassy smell which exudes from bituminous coal.  It may be mentioned that the management finds it difficult to cope with the orders now being received, owing to the unsuitable transit facilities, government departments  and firms engaged in munition work having been given a preference.  I understand that in one day orders amounting to 1,200 tons had to be refused.

The Board of Works is a large purchaser of the coal, and a contract with the National Shell Factory at Waterford is being carried out at present, while fully a dozen firms engaged in contracts for the Ministry of Munitions are being supplied.  Without railway communication to the collieries, however, it is impossible to do any more than can be accomplished under present conditions.

THE SKENANA SEAM.

I have referred to the Skehana seam, which is not at present being worked, and which covers a large tract of the coalfield.  This particular coal is a very fine anthracite coal, although it does not carry so well as the Jarrow coal, and being also very much softer it becomes badly smashed after two or three shiftings-from the pit mouth to the cart, thence to the rail head, and then further carting on arrival at its destination.  The pit in working on this seam was shut down in 1910, one reason being that the site was unsuitable, another, of course, being- the lack of railway facilities.

" We had inquiries," Capt. Wandesford told me, “for this particular coal from all over Ireland, but it was found it could not be got away in a satisfactory condition to the railway owing to the distance. It used to be sent to Dublin, Charleville, Limerick, Roscrea, Wexford, Waterford; in fact, all over the South, and as far as Drogheda and Belfast."

Captain Wandesford also informed me that from the coal a high quality of graphite can be manufactured. This was proved by the Acheson Graphite Company of Niagara, U.S.A., who purchased a consignment of 100 tons, and, after experimenting with it, pronounced it the best coal they had been able to obtain anywhere for the making of carbons for electrical purposes, and also for the manufacture of a high grade of pencils.  The heavy freights, however, were against the carrying on of further business, the rate being £5 per ton, but the instance illustrates the value of the coal from a commercial point of view.

The Skehana coal has also been found very suitable for gas suction plant.  It should be mentioned that in both the Skehana and Jarrow seam especially fine qualities of fire clay have been discovered, but the transit question again manifests itself so far as the development of this particular industry is concerned.  The management has been experimenting in this connection in a small way with satisfactory results.

SULPHURIC ACID PRODUCTION.

In this great coal-producing area also an almost unlimited quantity of a material known as pyrites is to be found.  This particular substance is running in extensive veins in both seams, and it has been proved conclusively that it yields an extremely high percentage of sulphur.

Some time ago Messrs. Kynoch’s, Arklow, obtained a consignment of the ore, and an examination by the firm showed that it contained 50 per cent of sulphur.  They decided, however, to make fuller experiments and Messrs. Kynoch’s  now say " that the result of their tests show the ore very much more rich in sulphur than they expected it to be, and they are, generally speaking, highly satisfied with the results”. Messrs. Kynoch’s are now using pyrites for the manufacture of sulphuric acid for munition purposes.  The development of such an important  industry is terribly handicapped by transport difficulties. Owing to these a scheme for the manufacture of sulphuric acid at the collieries had to be abandoned. As matters stand at present, very little can be done to help the industry further, for the freight rates would be too heavy, and unless a railway line can be provided, a valuable ore possessing rich qualities will be left lying absolutely useless on the coalfield.

SOME FACTS.

I have dealt pretty fully in detail with the existing state of affairs in respect to the collieries themselves, and I now come to the vital matter which has hitherto handicapped very severely the development in its broadest sense of this extensive coalfield.  It can be inferred from what has already been written that the present proprietor has done remarkably well, considering the tremendous difficulties in the way of transit that have had to be encountered all along.  It is computed that if the requisite railway line was laid to the collieries the present output of coal would be increased four times in quantity, and with a resulting demand for anthracite coal this would mean the saving of about twenty vessels per fortnight carrying coal from England to Ireland. This is an important point to remember in these days when the question of shipping has reached such a critical stage.

The Jarrow seam is the centre of all the mining that is now going on.  When it is considered that the seam is situated 15 miles from Kilkenny, 12 from Carlow, 9 from Ballyragget and 12 from Abbeyleix, it will be recognised at once that the conveyance of the coal by road from the pit mouths to these places, which are the nearest rail heads, is anything but a cheap or modern way of doing so.  It is estimated that 20,000 tons of coal are imported through Waterford to Kilkenny every year.  Yet, here lies a field with an unlimited quantity of coal, and all through lack of railway accommodation it remains to a great extent unrecognised and undeveloped.

It is time indeed, that a bold effort on the part of public representatives was made to bring about a beneficial change in the present condition of affairs.

I was informed that it costs from 8s. to 10s. per ton to cart the coal from the pit mouth into Kilkenny, a distance of 15 miles, and yet the Welsh miners can send across their coal to the same town at the through rate of 8s. per ton.  It does not seem surprising, under such unfair conditions, that Irish industries cannot really prosper.  It costs 8s. per ton to cart the coal from the collieries to Carlow, a distance of 12 miles.

If there were railway communication with the collieries, anthracite of good quality could be delivered in Dublin for from about 30s. to 38s. per ton, and at corresponding rates to other towns according to railway charges.

PROPOSED RAILWAY.

The whole question of railway communication with the collieries does not seem impossible of solution.  In 1912, an unopposed scheme was promoted by Captain Wandesford for the building of a line of railway, and was approved by the Privy Council, the promoters undertaking to raise the necessary capital, and the Great Southern and Western Railway Co. to supply rolling stock. The proposed route  was surveyed and plans drawn, but the outbreak of the war necessitated the hanging up of the project.

This scheme, of which the Chief Secretary is in possession, was to be worked through the Co.Councils concerned. The line of railway, it was recommended, should run from Castlecomer to Clintstown, which lies half-way between Ballyragget and Kilkenny. The extreme length of the line, as designed, is a little over 12 ½ miles, but about 10 miles if immediately constructed would suffice to provide transit for the four pits now working. The whole scheme has been approved by experts and it is felt that its neglect is throttling the industry. The selection of Clintstown would avoid great engineering difficulties that would be encountered if the route were from Castlecomer to Athy, and similar considerations would affect the running of a line to Bagenalstown  and Carlow. As to the suggestion that the new Wolfhill line should be extended to Castlecomer, that seems to be out of the question, as the cost would be prohibitive on account of the distance being nine miles and the country very mountainous.

WHY NOT?

An argument urged against the construction of new railway line at present is the difficulty of obtaining the requisite materials.  If the Government have overcome this difficulty in the Wolfhill case, why not in the case of Castlecomer?

Captain Wandesford assured me that he was informed on the best authority that there were plenty of rails in Ireland at present that could be utilised.  Owing to the restricted railway traffic during the war there were many disused lines, and the rails from these could easily be handed over, the colliery owners being prepared to comply with every reasonable condition.