A mine of industrial rust

[sandeha]

There's now only one deep pit for coal mining in South Wales, but there are a few heritage sites where the mechanical paraphernalia  is tended for posterity.  This one is in a village called Crynant, two valleys across from me.  The pit had a long history until it finally became uneconomical.  Cefn Coed Colliery is now an educational resource and a tourist museum.

           

       

           

       

Bessaflex with 100mm and 135mm 2.8 Orestors; Kalimar 500mm.  Kodak High Definition 400.  Hasselblad with 80mm and 150mm.  Kodak VPS 160.

[connealy]

Neat stuff.  The guy in the bosun's chair is really a nice touch that is nearly always missing in such collections of photos of old mines and mining equipment.  
I always have very mixed feelings about these scenes.  The toll on the environment and the people who worked in it is hard to concieve.  On the other hand, the cumulative ingenuity that went into the development of the technology over centuries is astounding.