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The Louis Frost Notes 1685 to 1962
CUMBERLAND RAILWAY AND COAL COMPANY, LIMITED
NO. 1 MINE
No. 1 Mine was the first mine opened in Springhill. It was
opened by a slope on No. 1 Seam in 1872 and closed in 1896 due to a fire
on the pipe slope.
In 1891 an explosion occurred in this mine, resulting in
the loss of 125 lives, many of the victims being in No. 2 Mine, which
was connected to No. 1 by a tunnel.
The seam near the surface was 8'O" thick, but as the workings
advanced to the dip the seam was split into two leaves, each 4 ft. thick.
The intervening stone consisted of shale totalling 30 feet in thickness.
When the intervening stone became too thick to permit the working of the
seam as a whole, each layer was worked separately. The inclination of
the seam where worked was similar to No. 2 Seam. The coal gave off
considerable gas, but was of an excellent quality.
From 1896 to 1916 the lower leaf of the seam was worked on a
small scale by short cross measure tunnels from No. 2 Mine and from
the Aberdeen slope on No. 2 Seam. The workings during this period were
on a room and pillar system. Following 1930 and until 1935 both leaves
of this seam, which were separated by 30 feet of rock, were worked on a
longwall retreat system, the upper leaf being worked first.
Thirty-two hundred feet West of No. 2 main slope the two
leaves came together to form a single seam 10 ft. in height. The quality
of the seam following the forming of the leaves is very poor, with continued deterioration in a westerly direction.
As a result of this deterioration, the recovery of this
seam was discontinued in 1951 in the upper leaf and 1954 in the lower
leaf.
The last workings in this seam were through cross-measure tunnels off the 5700 foot level in No. 2 Mine and the output
averaged 600 tons per day. This seam was primarily worked to retard
the advance of No. 2 Mine to the dip where the cover prior to closure
was over 4,000 feet from the surface.
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