Coal Mine Prosper Haniel XIII – Suspended Monorail Starting, Passing and Stopping

About the sound

In December 2018 Prosper Haniel, the last active coal mine of the Ruhr area, was closed down. Before the end “Sounds of Changes”-project worker Konrad Gutkowski had a last chance to document its disappearing sounds.

The coal mine in Bottrop was founded in 1856. Regular mining began in 1863 with about 60.000 tons of coal per year. Until 2016 it reached a depth of 1240 metres and mined 1.8 Million tons of coal per year. During the “Wirtschaftswunder” in the 1950s up to 12.000 coal miners worked at Prosper Haniel. Structural change and the decline of coal mining began in the late 1960s. Due to high production costs in Germany coal has been increasingly imported from China, India and the USA. One after the other the coal mines in the Ruhr area were closed down.

Not only are coal and stones transported within a coal mine, but also the miners and their working equipment are travelling to and from the various sites of work. The suspended monorail is one of the means of transportation available underground. The one in this recording is run by a chuffing diesel engine. The starting of its engine is announced by a beeping sound. With rattling wagons, it passes the microphone and stops soon afterwards.

Sound: Jens Meißburger

Photo: Jochen Balke (Sirius Images)