This order is made under the Mines and Quarries Act, 1954, s. 190, which empowers the Minister of Fuel and Power to re-enact (to the extent to which they could be enacted in regulations made under the Act and subject to modifications of the kind specified in that section) the provisions of regulations which will cease to have effect at the commencement of the Act.
The provisions set out as regulations in the first schedule to this order apply below ground in mines of coal, stratified ironstone, shale and fireclay. These regulations make provision with regard to the design, construction, equipment, working, maintenance and examination of locomotives and the construction of the tracks of rails on which they run; the minimum clearances in, and the maximum gradient on, any road in which a locomotive runs; inspections of rails and track; ventilation in any road in which a locomotive runs and in which the use of lamps or lights, other than locked safety-lamps and any other means of lighting authorised by regulations, is unlawful; and the appointment, qualifications and duties of locomotive drivers. Parts VI and VII of the regulations contain miscellaneous additional provisions relating to diesel locomotives and storage battery locomotives respectively. The regulations comprise, and will at the commencement of the Act replace, provisions of the regulations specified in the second schedule to the order.