Report - Zeche DB - Germany, Nov 2013

[Ric]

Zeche DB - Visited Solo

Back to the Ruhr, I've had a bit of time over a working weekend in Germany so decided to hit up one of the great collieries which should really get more attention for it's amount of awesome features.

I've seen a few pictures of DB before and I was hoping it had not changed too much, some of the reports I'd seen where over 2 years ago, luck would have it that it's hardly changed, all the features i was hoping to find where still there and I really enjoyed the afternoon.

It's a massive site, you could easily spend a full day here, and see most things, I was slowed down a little bit because of 7 hi-vis RAG workers bumbling around the place doing some form of survey which made for some interesting hide and seek throughout the day.

Some history:

Zeche DB was created around the turn of the last century (1902) after a consortium called AGR purchased various mining fields in the Ruhr, by the end of 1910 the mine was operational, during its opening years the mine was over exceeding its production outlook with over 1million tonnes per year by 1920.

By the end of world war 2, 3 separate mines in the nearby area had linked their seams with Zeche DB creating one of the largest producers of coal in the county.

In 1998 the mine was purchased by another company DSK which modernised a lot of the equipment at Zeche DB.

Eventually in Dec 2008 the mine was closed with no plans what to do with the site regarding development, one of the modern winding machines was sold to a company on Turkey where it is still been used.

On with the pictures, theres quite a few but there is loads to see here:

A broken window frame offered me a lovely view of the workers while they had their dinner.

The Shaft, where the carriages would rise and descend.

Then i headed upwards, to check out the winding machines at the top of the headstock, the view up here was amazing.

Then back on the way out, some more of the tippers.

Thanks for looking​