Each Saturday and Sunday, routine maintenance was carried out on the shaft signals. This was a most important part of the mine as all winding of the cages, up and down, whether it was for materials or man riding, a set of signals for various operations had to be memorised by the person giving them and the respective winder drivers. Mistakes were very rare.

We always say, “If you haven’t got a spanner, a burning torch will do”. The towing arrangement on this waggon has siezed up so it’s time for a bit of heat treatment.

The face at the window. The gentleman inside is responsible for issueing and receiving detonators. He keeps a check on all of these and supplies them to the miners who have their own box to keep them in and to take underground.

A character that was not only a worker at the mine but a fine fabricator. In private life he is still an active member of the various cage bird societies and is acknowledged in the world of cage birds as an International Judge of repute and have travelled extensively to judge various shows including the USA, Switzerland and Holland.

Next we have a view of the underground Dump Truck that went underground but was never used at South Crofty. The smiles on their faces was the hope that the truck would have been used extensively. The smile disappeared later when they discovered the hard work that they had put in was wasted.

The Fork lift and the driver were always in demand at the mine. This is a good photo of the regular driver, always helpful if you were able to cross the hand with silver!

New (second hand) air compressors were purchased after the failure of the original units. The photo shows an electrician wiring up the starting equipment for one of the compressors.

A man who was always treated with respect. Mr Les Oliver. A man with a tremendous amount of experience in the mining industry. He came to South Crofty from Wheal Jane. His brief was to look after the winders at the mine but no-one knows why he was kept away from the winders as he probably knew much more about them than all of us. However, one of the electricians showed him one Sunday morning and he was very appreciative of that man. The photo is of him in the foreman’s office while the foreman was on holiday. The foreman was not amused.

Machining is so important in engineering. The photo shows the fitting shop machinest working on one of the lathes. This is a scene of Geoff Riggs performing on the Fitting Shop lathe. He seems to be struggling by tightening the object in the jaws of the chuck- he was.

One of Crofty’s employees using an air gun to agitate slime which accumulated in the various bays in 340 level Pump Room. This was accomplished on a regular basis.

This is another topping up procedure but this is with oil. Bearings of the main pumps were of great importance to be kept lubricated. Just checking!

A Trammer tipping ore from his wagon.

A Wagon being tipped into an Ore Pass. This ore will drop to an area to be crushed before going to surface.

At the top of the 380 fathom Decline the driver controls a winch which raises or lowers wagons. These wagons would carry varius materials. The driver had to listen carefully for signals- that’s why he’s looking worried.