A few years after it went into production the Radbod colliery made a regrettable reputation for itself with one of the worst pit desasters in the history of German coal mining, when a fire-damp explosion on November 12th 1909 killed 349 miners. Production did not resume for almost a year, when Radbod became the first colliery in the Ruhr area to use electric hand lamps underground.
Radbod was constructed as a symmetrical twin shaft site. In 1905/6 two „German strut frames“ of the Klönne type were built above shafts 1 and 2. Their three-hinge construction meant that these head frames, which had been standard since 1903, were able to adapt to surface subsidence.
The winding-engine houses, which still exist, were built in 1905/6 in an historicist style. Round arch friezes, pilaster strips and alternating brickwork and plaster areas structure the facades. The steam-powered twin tandem hoisting engines dating back to 1907 (from the Friedrich-Wilhelm mill in Mülheim) and 1908 (the Prince Rudolph iron mill in Dülmen) are among few to have been preserved in North-Rhine-Westphalia.
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