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| Posted: Mon Nov 30th, 2015 09:13 pm |
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21st Post |
| Posted: Sat Dec 12th, 2015 08:33 pm |
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23rd Post |
oztrainz
Super Moderator
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Hi all again,
As promised - It's time to talk about the standard gauge tracks at the bottom of the "hill"
The equipment and layout of Corrimal screens and standard were documented in a book published in 1912 by a mining engineer who visited all Australian Colliery sites. Comparing information in the book with newspapers and other published references it looks like the date of the visit was about 1904 which pre-dated the steam tramway that fed the Incline from 1906 onwards. The Screens were and standard gauge tracks were built in 1880 to improve output from the mine. So what did the track layout look like?
The best information we have is that it looked something like this
with the track to Corrimal cokeworks and the NSWGR exchange sidings going off to the right. But what about to the left? That's a double-slip in there... Why is it there?
This recent photo is taken from almost the base of the Incline near where the screens were:
The rapidly rising terrain meant that the storage sidings to hold the empty wagons had to be compressed as much as possible because a gully to fit these empty wagon storage sidings had to be dug into the side of the Illawarra escarpment. This rising terrain did have one benefit. Gravity could be used to run empty wagons down to under the screens for loading and away from the screens after loading, so no locomotive was required to be kept at the screens for shunting. The two standard gauge tank locomotives owned by the mine could be used in hauling loaded coal to the exchange sidings and shuttling empty wagons back to the screens.
But how did using the double-slip help compress things? Going back to the trackplan
and working form the top down we have -
Arrival road - for empty wagons
Lump Coal road - for large sized coal
Middlings road - for nut-sized coal sold for domestic household use
Dust or Dirt road - for small coal and dust that could not be sold, but that was suitable for coking, and Corrimal had its own captive cokeworks 
Prior to World War 2, most money could be made by the colliery in selling large size coal to industry. Coal mining and blasting techniques had been developed over time to give the largest amount of the largest-sized coal that could be loaded by hand. Customers wouldn't pay for coaldust. So the coal had to be sized at the mine before it could be sold and transported to the customers. But big sized coal fills empty wagons quicker than small sized coal. Given the limited real estate available for the empty storage sidings the double-slip provided the most flexible way of feeding empty coal wagons to the Lump Coal Road (which is from where the colliery made the most money  )
Looking at the 3 empty wagon storage roads:
From the top road, empty wagons could be gravitated through the crossover straight through the double-slip to under the lump coal chute
From the middle road, empty wagons could be gravitated to straight through the double-slip to under the lump coal chute
From the bottom road, empty wagons could be gravitated through the crossover, then diverted at the double-slip to under the lump coal chute.
Also the double-slip provided a way of feeding all 3 empty wagon storage roads from the Arrival Road at top of the diagram. All in all, it was a very smart piece of railway design.
Remember that German military analyst? He's still lurking out there. He will return in the next post when we try and make "what was' fit into "what gets modelled"Last edited on Wed Feb 24th, 2016 12:44 pm by oztrainz
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Regards,
John Garaty
Unanderra in oz
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| Posted: Tue Dec 15th, 2015 05:12 am |
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24th Post |
Ray Dunakin
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| Joined: | Wed Jul 25th, 2012 |
| Location: | San Diego |
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Very interesting!
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Visit http://www.raydunakin.com to see photos of the rugged and rocky In-ko-pah Railroad!
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| Posted: Tue Dec 15th, 2015 10:46 pm |
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25th Post |
Tramcar Trev
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Post WWII there was still a strong demand for "sized coal". Even the dust had a use, P&O converted several of their ship to use the dust and it was blown in like an oil fired arrangement and the ash was precipitated out by use of electrostatics but it had to be kept damp as coal dust can spontaneously combust and aparently did so on quite a few occasions. Sydney Power Stations, Bunnerong and Balmain where I worked for 5 years also used very fine coal about 10mm that was fed onto the chain grate stokers. The NSWGR used several different sized coals, it was ok to use whatever was around if you were stoking by hand with a shovel but the Garrets had mechanical stokers and needed sized coal or they would just jam up... Interstingly the Baldwin Steam tram motors burnt Coke as supplied to a lot of Sydney from the Mortlake AGL Gasworks, as a kid we had a coke fire in the lounge room of our Como home for winter... My steam launch used to burn whatever I could get, even BBQ fuel at times....
Illawarra Coal was best for coking and hence steel production, Hunter coal was best for steaming coal and Western coal was just so full of shales it was pretty much a specialised product, railway crews used to hate having to fire a "stoney" on the return trip across the mountains to Sydney....
Yes I'm a staunch fan of Coal and I say stuff the environment lets burn more of it!!!
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There once was a man who said Damn!!
I perceive with regret that I am
A creature that moves
in predestinate groves
I'm not a Bus, I'm a tram
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| Posted: Wed Dec 16th, 2015 12:08 am |
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26th Post |
Salada
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An excellent job so far John, colliery railway cable haulage systems (with wagon attached main & tail cable, not the underground haulage continuous cable & clips or chain lashes) have always been a fascination of mine. There is a lone preserved example in County Durham (UK), the Bowes Railway at the former Springwell Colliery, but they have perennial problems with the Health&Safety clowns and money (lack of) etc.
I like your trial & experiment approach; I always intended modelling a main & tail standard gauge incline but like you I couldn't find any 43.5:1 cable handlers so I sort of gave up. I guess you may be the 1st !!.
Regards, Michael
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| Posted: Wed Dec 16th, 2015 02:14 pm |
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27th Post |
| Posted: Thu Dec 17th, 2015 11:24 pm |
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28th Post |
| Posted: Thu Dec 31st, 2015 12:34 am |
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29th Post |
oztrainz
Super Moderator
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Salada wrote:
An excellent job so far John, colliery railway cable haulage systems (with wagon attached main & tail cable, not the underground haulage continuous cable & clips or chain lashes) have always been a fascination of mine. There is a lone preserved example in County Durham (UK), the Bowes Railway at the former Springwell Colliery, but they have perennial problems with the Health&Safety clowns and money (lack of) etc.
I like your trial & experiment approach; I always intended modelling a main & tail standard gauge incline but like you I couldn't find any 43.5:1 cable handlers so I sort of gave up. I guess you may be the 1st !!.
Regards,
Michael
Hi Michael,
Corrimal originally had a narrow-gauge main and tail haulage from the mine for about 2 miles to where the junction was with the standard-gauge Government main lines.
This caused problems because they were unable to move enough coal skips quickly enough over the main and tail haulage to keep the empty skips up to the miners underground. In about 1880 the Southern Coal Company was floated on the UK market and the funds provided for the construction of the standard-gauge line to the foot of the steep part of the hill, construction of the tipple and screens and the purchase of 2 new Locomotives from Yorkshire Engineering Company, and the re-jigging of the incline on the steep part of the hill to a continuous rope system.
My understanding was that the main and tail system looks something like this:
This type of haulage can handle undulations in the grade because the tail rope takes over the haulage task when the grade is unfavourable.
The drum not hauling is in free-wheel with the brakes dragging slightly to prevent the cable paying out from that drum from over-running.
Have I got this correct?
____________________
Regards,
John Garaty
Unanderra in oz
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| Posted: Tue Jan 12th, 2016 08:02 pm |
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30th Post |
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Oops!!!
or is that a 
