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'Corrimal Colliery Incline'

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Posted: Wed Nov 18th, 2020 05:34 pm

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201^st Post

Ken C
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John

Always worth seeing more photos of the Corrimal Colliery incline.

Slowly working on a 3 rail incline for a model.
Will only be 2 feet in length, top end will be in a snow shed as per the prototype.

Looking at adding a sector plate to allow operation.
The prototype had a run of 5500 feet, with a drop of 2300 feet.

Lower terminal building 95% done,
need to extend framing on current layout frame to support it on pilings.

Ken

____________________
Ken Clark
GWN

Kaslo & Slocan Railway
International Navigation & Trading Co
Kootenay Railway & Navigation Co.

Posted: Sun Nov 22nd, 2020 10:56 am

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202^nd Post

oztrainz
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Joined:	Wed Apr 10th, 2013
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Hi Ken, all,

I'm glad someone else is "taking a different slant on things" when it comes to modelling.

:2t:

OK now where was we??
Lets' have a look at the module map to refresh ourselves -

Previously most of the focus was on the Bottom End, Incline and Top end modules. Landscaping and vegetating the Dead End Module was covered in Post 189.

http://www.freerails.com/view_post.php?post_id=110135

Now the focus moves to the Water Tank module. This module has 3 main structures on it. The water tank itself, an ash pit and the sand drying shed (for locomotive sand). A single-holer outhouse might also magically appear later(It has been made just not "planted" in its final position yet. The crew has been "watering" enough bush.

So what makes a water tank so interesting? It is perhaps the signature scene of the whole layout. Where else could you find this -

This module has only 3 operational tracks:

1 - the track from the Trestle module and then on to the mine from the left
2 - the empty skip track with water tank and ash heap, where the steam loco waits for enough empty skips to come back up the Empties incline to make a load for the run back to the mine
3 - the full skip track, the battery electric locomotive waits for the next load of skips from the mine to arrive, and the steam loco to go in clear at the water tank.

That ought to do to get us started on the Water Tank module.

____________________
Regards,
John Garaty
Unanderra in oz

Posted: Sun Nov 22nd, 2020 03:33 pm

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203^rd Post

Ken C
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John

From plans the water tank started life as a "Manning" vertical fire tube boiler,
certainly a different water tank.

Interesting pile of material behind the tank, wheels,
and what appears to be trommels or some kind of sizing equipment for coal.
Hard to say.

Ken

____________________
Ken Clark
GWN

Kaslo & Slocan Railway
International Navigation & Trading Co
Kootenay Railway & Navigation Co.

Posted: Sun Nov 22nd, 2020 09:53 pm

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204^th Post

oztrainz
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Hi Ken, all

you are seeing far more in that photo than I can.
I can see drums, an ash-heap and some tools lying on the ash heap.

So far the evidence points to "Burra" and the rest of the Corrimal locos being "hand coaled" from coal skips. We have a photo of one coal skip being left parked near the locoshed. It would be very easy to grab "a lump or 2" from the loaded skips parked on the adjacent Fulls line near the water tank.

We have also been unable to find any fixed watering points near the mine or loco shed in any of the photos we have looked at over the years while researching/building the layout. So it looks like all watering and fire-cleaning was done at or near the water tank.

The former vertical boiler opens another can of worms. The boiler is not listed as being part of the Powerhouse boilers at the main "Daylight" portals. However there are photos of a vertical boiler at the foot of the incline. The boiler looks operational in those photos over a protracted period.

But there is no apparent reason for the vertical boiler at the foot of the incline, given that the incline rope was driving the elevating conveyor from the tipple and the screens themselves. Also in every known photo of the tipple and screens there is no sign of an exhaust steam plume.

Here's a photo of the model vertical boiler at the foot of the incline.

The suspicion is that the "water tank" was an earlier operational vertical boiler at the foot of the incline that has been "repurposed" after its internal condition deteriorate to the extent that it couldn't safely hold enough pressure to do its "mystery" job. Just where it came from, When it arrived on site and when it was "repurposed" are all lost in the mists of time,

____________________
Regards,
John Garaty
Unanderra in oz

Posted: Mon Nov 23rd, 2020 02:49 am

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205^th Post

Ken C
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John

I enlarged the photo, you are correct, a collection of oil drums, with a few odds and ends.

Wonder if the boiler at the base of the incline could have been installed to operate a capstan's,
for movement of the standard gauge cars, rather then tying up an engine.

____________________
Ken Clark
GWN

Kaslo & Slocan Railway
International Navigation & Trading Co
Kootenay Railway & Navigation Co.

Posted: Mon Nov 23rd, 2020 04:50 am

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206^th Post

oztrainz
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Hi Ken, all,

Capstan use is most unlikely given that the screens were known to have been gravity shunted since they were built in 1890. This is as close as we have been able to get to a prototype track arrangement, based on descriptions in newspapers and books.

The route of the 3' gauge stone disposal track is a "best guess". No photos of it are known to exist.

Standard gauge tracks from top:
Arrival Road - bypasses the screens and allows the loco to feed empty wagons to the 3 empty standage tracks to the west of the screens at left.
Lump Coal Road - this was most of the business pre-WW2 and could be fed from any of the 3 empty standage tracks via the double-slip.
Small Coal and Dirt Roads under the screens - could only be fed from the lower empty standage road, but wagons under the Small Coal and Dirt chutes filled at a much slower rate than wagons under the lump coal chute.

The last photo at https://www.illawarra-heritage-trail.com.au/wordpress/?page_id=925 shows the full standage sidings just east of the sceeens with Brokers Nose in the background at left centre.

The empty standage tracks continue around the curve beyond the screens. These empty standage tracks had to be hacked into the side of the mountain.

The earlier Brookers Nose Colliery may be in the haze at top right. This mine entrance had been replaced by the later Daylight Mine by the time of our model.

That later Daylight Mine entrance dating from 1895 is just out of shot to the left of Brokers Nose. The 2' gauge tramway between the Daylight Mine and the incline leading down from the Brookers Nose Mine the screens that form the basis of our model was still to be built.

The trigger for building the tramway was a combination of an underground fire and subsequent flooding events from a fault area that cut the powered underground haulage between the 2 mines and the blocking of a planned new incline with a 1000 ton bin from the Daylight Mine By local residents. This aborted proposal would have had a new standard gauge track to the NSWGR government lines further south, that then connected with their export wharf at Port Kembla.

Also notice the difference in the size of the coal in the wagons. The left-hand track has the smaller coal from the Nut and Dirt chutes. The right-hand track has the larger lump coal destined for the export market.

Trains of empty wagons were limited to 17 non-air-braked wagons after a train of 23 empty wagons overpowered the loco near the screens and shoved it back through the catchpoints at the start of the standage sidings in 1892. This dinged up a nice new shiny locomotive and wrote off 6 coal hoppers - :shocked:

I'll cover the Brookers Nose/Brokers Nose conundrum some time soon when we get to that part of the layout. But at present we're still at the Water Tank.

Last edited on Mon Nov 23rd, 2020 04:54 am by oztrainz

____________________
Regards,
John Garaty
Unanderra in oz

Posted: Thu Nov 26th, 2020 04:22 pm

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207^th Post

Ken C
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John

You are fortunate to find the number of photos / information on the operations of the Corrimal Colliery, not so easy here finding photos or information.

Have come across a source of plans for Rly structures "1895" for the Kaslo & Slocan Rly which I need to order copies of though!. Also a book on the Slocan Star mine, which has yet to be scanned.

____________________
Ken Clark
GWN

Kaslo & Slocan Railway
International Navigation & Trading Co
Kootenay Railway & Navigation Co.

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