60019 coasts downhill through Leamore (between Bloxwich and Walsall) with a coal train from Mid Cannock. This shot was taken at 11:43
on Saturday 15th February 1997. It's the train rather than the loco which is really of interest here. The sidings at Mid Cannock
were being used as an opencast disposal site at this time, and I recorded this train as being destined for Daw Mill (where the load
would doubtless be blended with better quality deep-mined coal). In 1996 similar wagon-sets had been used to deliver coal from places
like Maltby to Mid Cannock, again for blending. The empties off that service also ran through Bloxwich as 6P60 Mid Cannock - Toton,
but this loaded train makes for a better picture. Coal trains no longer rumble around the Black Country as all the local sources have
now gone. The last pit in Staffordshire was Littleton, which closed in 1993. Daw Mill, the last pit in Warwickshire, closed in 2013.
Ironbridge and Rugeley power stations closed in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
