The Nightingale viaduct over the Ruhr connects the Nightingale colliery to Witten-West railway station. The junction with the Bergisch-Märkisch Railway was opened in 1848. Coal transport was further facilitated by the opening of a railway track through the Ruhr valley in 1874. Soon the colliery’s own goods station ensured the smooth transport of coal to and from Nightingale.

By 1890 about 880 miners were working in the Nightingale colliery. In order to keep the price of cola steady and avoid overproduction, quotas were set for each of the pits in the Ruhrgebiet. The larger pits north of the Ruhr bought up the unprofitable pits in the Mutten valley in order to be able to mine greater amounts. A further disadvantage in the coal from the Witten district was the fact that it was – by contrast to the bituminous coal from areas further north – unsuitable for coking. Some of the seams were even exhausted by this time. All this spelt the end of coal production at the Nightingale mine as early as 1892. Most of the colliers moved to the pits further north or went into other industries.

After mining operations and water pumping closed down at nightingale, the pit soon flooded.; By contrast, a few shafts and galleries remained dry, and this would have consequences for a later use. An entrepreneur by the name of Dűnkelberg had a ring oven built for his steam-driven brick works above the pit shaft. Brick manufacture at Nightingale started in 1897. The brick press built by Dűnkelberg himself proved to be a big hit on the export market and even found markets as far afield as China.

The last remnants of coal from shafts and galleries in the Mutten valley were extracted during the First World War. But the resumption of mining did not last long. As early as the 1920s production ceased as a result of the world economic crisis. The final deep mining pit in the Witten district, the Herrmann colliery, was closed down in 1928. Between 1934 and 1955, and partly due to the Second World War, the Nightingale galleries continued to be used to dig up the last remnants of coal. This had nothing to do with profitability. At a time of severe economic deprivation every lump of coal meant a little warmth. The economic miracle years in the 1950s put the German economy back on its feet and this spelt the end of mining in the Mutten valley. Only the small "Egbert" pit remained in operation until 1973.