Class 58s And The Miners Strike

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

I'm curious to know whether the devastating miners strike ever made BR consider whether to reduce the number of class 58s ordered. As far as I know production continued during the strike but someone in BR must have surely felt that they were taking a considerable risk.

Looking back through my collection of photos taken in 1984 class 58's appear on very lightly loaded Ashburys - Toton speed link services. I can only assume that they appeared on these services because there was very little work for them to do during the strike.

Your thoughts would be very welcome.

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm not sure anyone at the time would have expected the strike to last so long; presumably by the time it became obvious that it was going to drag on it was too late to change anything?

However... I do vaguely recall reading many years ago that there were intended to be more that the 50 that were built*, so possibly an option was never taken up but whether or not that was a result of the strike or not, I have no idea.




*I think the intended ultimate total was either 85 or 135 of the class?

 

[Ash Bridge]

Do I recall correctly that BR at the time were hoping for orders to materialise from other operators either here within Europe or from further afield?

 

[DarloRich]

Perhaps BR ( and others) did not expect the Tories to completely destroy the mining industry in revenge for the strike.....................

( cuts must have been expected but there were enough profitable pits to support the belief that mining & hence MGR trains would continue)

Do I recall correctly that BR at the time were hoping for orders to materialise from other operators either here within Europe or from further afield?

correct

 

[Jonny]

Perhaps BR ( and others) did not expect the Tories to completely destroy the mining industry in revenge for the strike.....................

( cuts must have been expected but there were enough profitable pits to support the belief that mining & hence MGR trains would continue)



correct

Ironically, coal production in the mid/late 1980s came almost back up to pre-strike levels (which is near enough given a demand-driven declining trend since the 1960s anyway), albeit with fewer productive mines.

 

[edwin_m]

Ironically, coal production in the mid/late 1980s came almost back up to pre-strike levels (which is near enough given a demand-driven declining trend since the 1960s anyway), albeit with fewer productive mines.

Yes, the closure of almost all of the remaining pits was 1990s not 1980s. And the result was a similar amount of imported coal being transported a much longer distance by rail from ports to inland power stations. The transport statistics linked below only go back to 1997 but from then the coal tonne-km broadly increased until 2012/13 before plummeting in the last couple of years.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/rai04-rail-freight

 

[Jonny]

Yes, the closure of almost all of the remaining pits was 1990s not 1980s. And the result was a similar amount of imported coal being transported a much longer distance by rail from ports to inland power stations. The transport statistics linked below only go back to 1997 but from then the coal tonne-km broadly increased until 2012/13 before plummeting in the last couple of years.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/rai04-rail-freight

Also see https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...ion-availability-and-consumption-1853-to-2011 for production; the main step change (from other non-transport government statistics) was when combined-cycle gas turbines became available, which cover both the chimney/output and the heat produced (usually via steam). That was the 1990s.