Close to £5 million had been spent to develop the seams and a vast re-organisation of the whole mine. The coal preparation plant [ pictured left ] was improved to wash and grade the different types of coal. Walt Norburn was a one time foreman on the washer. The Barnsley seam produced steam-raising coal, and the Swallow Wood seam produced coking coal. The winders were electrified and skip winding was introduced. Further to this the coal board invested in a rapid-loading system for moving coking coal At  a cost of £ 1 m  the loading system would enable 1,000 tons to be loaded in on a train within 30 minutes. In effect coal extracted from the Swallow Wood seam faces which were approximately half a mile underground would reach the surface and be loaded and headed for the BSC coke ovens within four hours. This project was linked to the British Steel Corporation's Anchor project located at  Scunthorpe.
On top of the £6 m already invested a a further £2.5m was to be added in the development of an additional section of the of Swallow Wood seam.
As the equipment at the mines became more complicated with improved Technology, it became very important for men like John Lindley B.S.C. who was a Deputy Mechanical Engineer for many years at the mine to keep abreast of these advancements by constantly updating their own skills and knowledge, and also ensuring that the men who worked under them were also up to date in their knowledge.
In 1978 Alan Rothery was to become the Mech shift charge engineer until 1992.
Jeff Lovell was employed in this year as Safety Engineer and writes "During my 15 years at Silverwood we only had one fatality to a sub contactor who was transporting a powered support along a roadway, the powered support due to the limited clearance in the roadway fouled a roadway support.  Whilst he was freeing the support the haulage inadvertently started and his head was crushed between the powered support and the roadway support. The mans twin brother witnessed the accident and never went underground again.