Endless Rope Haulage

A system of underground haulage in which tubs are clipped to a single wire rope that runs continuously in a loop, driven by an engine at one end and tensioned round a return wheel at the other, so that full tubs travel out on one track while empties come in on the other. The North Staffordshire glossary defines it as 'a system of haulage, normally double track, employing a moving endless rope to which the tubs are clipped either individually or in sets'.

Historical usage

Barrowman's 1886 Scottish glossary already has the endless rope as a system 'similar to' the older endless chain, 'there being a rope of iron or steel instead of a chain', and Gresley's 1883 glossary describes both, noting the rope system as especially suited to seams of moderate inclination. It became the standard main-road haulage of British collieries from the late nineteenth century until conveyors and locomotives displaced it, and it was still being taught to trainees with a compressed-air engine at Wigan in the 1940s. A South Wales haulier's account of fifteen-dram journeys on an electric endless at Rose Heyworth in 1978–79 shows the system, and its clips, in use to the end of deep mining.

How it worked

An engine, steam, compressed-air or later electric, drove a rope in a loop along the main road, over rollers on the floor or hung from the roof, and back again; the return wheel at the inbye end could be moved to take up slack, so rope could be spliced in as the workings advanced without filling a drum, which is what made it 'endless'. Tubs were attached to the moving rope with a clip, of which there were many patterns: the Healey Hero glossary lists the Star, the short- and long-handled Smallman, the Screw and the Swan, and the Gresley and North Staffordshire glossaries the Bradley and Craven, Elswick and Bulldog. Where no clip was used a lashing chain was thrown over the rope and twisted tight. The man who put the clips on was the clipper, hanger-on or hooker-on; the lad who took them off at the landing was the knocker. James W. Smallman of Nuneaton, the best-known clip maker, was still patenting improvements to endless-rope haulage in 1913.

Why it was used

A single engine could keep a whole road moving in both directions at once, with no winding drum to fill and no need to stop and reverse as a main-and-tail system did. It suited long, fairly level or gently rising roads carrying a steady stream of tubs, and it could take men in clip-cars as well as coal.

Risks & limitations

The rope never stopped, so everything about it was a moving-machinery hazard. Clipping on had to be done by hand beside the rope; a clip that was not properly closed let a set of full tubs run back down the grade on to whoever was behind, which is how Richard Jackson, nineteen, died at Greenrigg Colliery in 1912 on his first day as a clipper, the inspector recording that he had not been properly instructed in the Smallman clip. A journey that left the rails could pull the rope through the front clip and concertina the drams together. On steep roads the rope could not hold a heavy journey, and the system gave way there to main-and-tail or to self-acting inclines.

Regional variation

General British usage. In Scotland the rope ran between hutches rather than tubs and the man on the rope was the hooker-on; in the North East the clip was a pig tail, in the Midlands a fork or hambone. Trimdon's Durham glossary gives the plain 'endless rope' as the name of the system.

Related terminology

Incline, Onsetter, Tub

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Greenrigg Colliery — West Lothian (notable incident)
  Richard Jackson, 19, killed in 1912 on his first day as a clipper when a rake of four hutches he had attached with a Smallman clip ran back (Durham Mining Museum, inspector's report).
• Habergham Colliery — Lancashire (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…and Holden Holden, were killed together by a fall of roof on an endless-chain road on 25 March 1884; a ginney tenter was crushed between tubs in…”
• Rosehall Colliery — North Lanarkshire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s workings: “…with coal-cutting machines by the 1930s, self-acting inclines and endless-chain haulage on the dooks, electric power underground by 1903. The 1934…”
• Ubberley Colliery — Staffordshire (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s workings: “…from the Lists of Mines: 491 in 1894, 311 in 1896, 364 in 1900. Endless-rope haulage dips and an engine dip are named in the 1890s and 1901 accident…”

Sources

1. (observational) Endless Haulage Rope Clip — Out of the Blue Artifacts — Out of the Blue Artifacts
2. (observational) Park Collieries, 1948 to 1959, by Fred Foster — Wiganworld — Wiganworld
3. (primary) A Glossary of Terms Used in Coal Mining, by William S. Gresley, 1883 — Internet Archive
4. (primary) Glossary of Scotch Mining Terms — James Barrowman (1886), via Scottish Mining Website
5. (primary) US1059777A Endless-rope haulage (J. W. Smallman, 1913) — Google Patents
6. (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (B) — North Staffordshire Miners' Group — Apedale Heritage Centre
7. (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (E) — North Staffordshire Miners' Group — Apedale Heritage Centre
8. (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (H) — North Staffordshire Miners’ Group, Apedale
9. (secondary) Local Mining Terms — Trimdon Snippets
10. (secondary) Pit Terminology — Healey Hero

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026