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A mine railway (or mine railroad, U.S.), sometimes pit railway, is a railway constructed to carry materials and workers in and out of a mining. Materials transported typically include ore, coal, and overburden (also called variously spoils, waste, slack, culm,culture noted and terms listed: culm. and tilings; all meaning waste rock). It is little remembered, but the mix of heavy and bulky materials which had to be hauled into and out of mines gave rise to the first several generations of railways, at first made of wooden rails, but eventually adding protective iron, steam power by fixed engines and the earliest commercial , all in and around the works around mines.
A Funicular was made at Broseley in Shropshire, England at some time before 1605. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns.Peter King, 'The First Shropshire Railways' in G. Boyes (ed.), Early Railways 4: Papers from the 4th International Early Railways Conference 2008 (Six Martlets, Sudbury, 2010), 70–84. Though the first documentary record of this is later, its construction probably preceded the Wollaton Wagonway, completed in 1604, hitherto regarded as the earliest British installation. This ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham. Another early wagonway is noted onwards. Huntingdon Beaumont, who was concerned with mining at Strelley, also laid down broad wooden rails near Newcastle upon Tyne, on which a single horse could haul fifty to sixty (130–150 kg) of coal.M. J. T. Lewis, Early Wooden railways.
By the 18th century, such wagonways and tramways existed in a number of areas. Ralph Allen, for example, constructed a tramway to transport stone from a local quarry to supply the needs of the builders of the Georgian terraces of Bath. The Battle of Prestonpans, in the Jacobite rising of 1745, was fought astride the 1722 Tranent – Cockenzie Waggonway. This type of transport spread rapidly through the whole Tyneside coalfield, and the greatest number of lines were to be found in the coalfield near Newcastle upon Tyne. They were mostly used to transport coal in chaldron wagons from the coalpits to a staithe (a wooden pier) on the river bank, whence coal could be shipped to London by collier brigs. The wagonways were engineered so that trains of coal wagons could descend to the staithe by gravity, being braked by a brakesman who would "sprag" the wheels by jamming them. Wagonways on less steep gradients could be retarded by allowing the wheels to bind on curves. As the work became more wearing on the horses, a vehicle known as a dandy wagon was introduced, in which the horse could rest on downhill stretches.
This trend concentrating effort into bigger central located but larger enterprises turned into a trend spurred by Henry Cort's puddling furnace of 1784 leading in short order to foundries collocating near coal mines and accelerating the practice of supplanting the nations cottage industries. With that concentration of employees and separation from dwellings, horsedrawn trams became commonly available as a commuter resource for the daily commute to work. Mine railways were used from 1804 around Coalbrookdale in such industrial concentrations of mines and iron works, all demanding traction-drawing of bulky or heavy loads. These gave rise to extensive early wooden rail ways and initial animal-powered trains of vehicles, then successively in just two decadesto protective iron strips nailed to protect the rails, to steam drawn trains (1804), and to cast-iron rails. Later, George Stephenson, inventor of the world-famous Rocket and a board member of a mine, convinced his board to use steam for traction.George Stephenson#Locomotives Next, he petitioned Parliament to license a public passenger railway, founding the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Soon after the intense public publicity, in part generated by the contest to find the best locomotive won by Stephenson's Rocket, railways underwent explosive growth worldwide, and the industrial revolution gradually went global.
Original mine railways used wax-impregnated wooden rails attached to wooden Railroad tie, on which drams were dragged by men, children or animals. This was later replaced by L-shaped iron rails, which were attached to the mine floor, meaning that no sleepers were required and hence leaving easy access for the feet of children or animals to propel more drams.
Ponies began to be used underground, often replacing Child labor or female labour, as distances from pit head to coal face became greater. The first known recorded use in Britain was in the County Durham coalfield in 1750; in the United States, were the dominant source of animal power in the mine industry, with horses and ponies used to a lesser extent.H.H. Stoek, J.R. Fleming, A.J. Hoskin, A Study of Coal Mine Haulage in Illinois, Bulletin 132, University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station, July 1922; pages 15-16. At the peak in 1913, there were 70,000 ponies underground in Britain. In later years, mechanical haulage was quickly introduced on the main underground roads replacing the pony hauls and ponies tended to be confined to the shorter runs from coal face to main road (known in North East England as "putting", in the United States as "tramming" or "gathering"H.H. Stoek, J.R. Fleming, A.J. Hoskin, A Study of Coal Mine Haulage in Illinois, Bulletin 132, University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station, July 1922; page 70 and page 12.) which were more difficult to mechanise. As of 1984, 55 ponies were still at use with the National Coal Board in Britain, chiefly at the modern pit in Ellington, Northumberland.
Dandy wagons were often attached to trains of full drams, to contain a horse or pony. Mining and later railway engineers designed their tramways so that full (heavy) trains would use gravity down the slope, while horses would be used to pull the empty drams back to the workings. The Dandy wagon allowed for easy transportation of the required horse each time.
Probably the last colliery horse to work underground in a British coal mine, Robbie, was retired from Pant y Gasseg, near Pontypool, in May 1999.
In Slope mining, where there was a continuous downgrade from the entrance to the working face, the rope from the mine hoist could be used to lower empty cars into the mine and then raise full cars. In , secondary hoisting engines could be used to pull cars on grades within the mine. For grades of a few percent, trains of 25 cars each carrying roughly half a ton were typical in the 1880s.Wilhelm Hildenbrand, Section II, The Simple Engine Plane, The Underground Haulage of Coal by Wire Ropes, John A. Roebling's Sons Co., 1884; page 16.
In mines where grades were not uniform or where the grades were not steep enough for gravity to pull a train into the mine, the main hoisting rope could be augmented with a tail rope connected to the opposite end of the train of mine cars. The tail-rope system had its origins on cable-hauled surface inclines prior to the 1830s.Nicholas Wood, Chapter IV – Motive power, Section III – Steam-engine fixed upon ascending planes, A Practical Treatise on Railr-Roads, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1832; page 114. This was the dominant system in the 1880sWilhelm Hildenbrand, Section III, The Tail Rope System, The Underground Haulage of Coal by Wire Ropes, John A. Roebling's Sons Co., 1884; page 22. Frequently, one engine was used to work both ropes, with the tail rope reaching into the mine, around a pulley at the far end, and then out again.
Finally, the most advanced systems involved continuous loops of rope operated like a cable car system. Some mines used endless chains before wire-rope became widely available.Thomas J. Waters, Rope Haulage at the Westport Coal Company's Coalbrookdale Colliery, Westport, Papers read at the Mining Conference held at Dunedin, March 1890, George Didsbury, Government Printer, Wellington, NZ, 1890; page 12 The endless chain system originated in the mines near Burnley (England) around 1845. An endless rope system was developed in Nottinghamshire around 1864, and another independently developed near Wigan somewhat later (also in England).Report of the Tail-Rope Committee, Transactions of the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. XVII, Appendix I (1867-8), Newcastle upon Tyne, 1868. In these systems, individual cars or trains within the mine could be connected to the cable by a grip comparable to the grips used on surface cable car systems.Carl Volk, Haulage and Winding Appliances used in Mines, Scott, Greenwood & Co. London, 1903; page 113. In some mines, the haulage chain or cable went over the top of the cars, and cars were released automatically when the chain or cable was lifted away by an overhead pulley. Where the cable ran under the cars, a handheld grip could be used, where the grip operator would ride on the front car of the train working the grip chained to the front of the car. In some cases, a separate grip car was coupled to the head of the train.Wilhelm Hildenbrand, Section IV, The Endless Rope System, The Underground Haulage of Coal by Wire Ropes, John A. Roebling's Sons Co., 1884; page 37. At the dawn of the 20th century, endless rope haulage was the dominant haulage technology for the main haulage ways of underground mines.
Porter, Bell & Co. appears to have built the first underground mining locomotives used in the United States around 1870. By 1874, the Consolidation Coal Company and Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company were using several Porter locomotives in their underground mines in the Georges Creek Valley of Maryland. Other users included several coal mines near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and an iron mine in the Lake Superior . Porter's mine locomotives required a minimum 5-foot clearance and 4-foot width when operating on 3-foot gauge track, where they could handle a 20-foot radius curve.Light Locomotives, Saward's Coal Trade Journal, July 29, 1874; pages 39-40.Porter Bell & Co. 1873 advertisement. The Baldwin Locomotive Works built similar locomotives, starting in 1870.Baldwin Locomotive Works, Illustrated Catalog of Locomotives, second ed., Burnham, Parry, Williams & Co., Philadelphia, 1881; page 47.Mine Locomotives for Gold Mines, Railroad Gazette, October 12, 1877; page 453. Has good scale drawings. By the early 20th century, very small British-made oil-fired steam locomotives were in use in some South African mines.A Novel Mining Locomotive, The Locomotive Magazine, Vol. IX, No. 125 (Oct. 10, 1903); pages 214-215. Includes photo. Porter and Vulcan (Wilkes-Barre) advertised steam mine locomotives in 1909 and 1911.H.K. Porter Co., Advertisement, Engineering Magazine, Vol. XXVII, No. 6 (September 1909); advertising page 111. Vulcan Locomotives, Vulcan Iron Works, Wilkes-Barre, 1911; pages 70, 72, 86 and 105. By the early 1920s, only a few small mines in the Pocahontas Coalfield in West Virginia were using steam locomotives underground.H.H. Stoek, J.R. Fleming, A.J. Hoskin, A Study of Coal Mine Haulage in Illinois, Bulletin 132, University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station, July 1922; page 17. Nonetheless, both Baldwin and Vulcan continued to advertise steam locomotives for underground use outside the coal industry as late as 1921. The Mining Catalog (Metal and Quarry Ed.), Keystone, Pittsburgh, 1921; pages 273 (Baldwin) and 275 (Vulcan).
Ordinary mine compressed-air systems operating at 100 psi (7 bar) only allowed a few hundred feet of travel. By the late 1880s, Porter was building locomotives designed for 500 to 600 psi (34-41 bar).Compressed Air Mine Locomotive, The Colliery Engineer, vol. XII, no. 8 (March, 1892); page 183. By the early 1900s, locomotive air tank pressures had increased to from 600 to 800 psi (41-55 bar), although pressures up to 2000 psi (140 bar) were already envisioned. In 1911, Vulcan (Wilkes-Barre) was selling single-tank compressed-air locomotives operating at 800 psi (55 bar), double-tank models up to 1000 psi (69 bar) and one 6-tank model that may have operated at a much higher pressure. Vulcan Locomotives, Vulcan Iron Works, Wilkes-Barre, 1911; pages 74-78 and 97. The Homestake in South Dakota, USA used such high pressures, with special compressors and distribution piping. Except for very small prospects and remote small mines, battery or diesel locomotives have replaced compressed air.
The first electric mine railway in the world was developed by Siemens & Halske for bituminous coal mining in Saxon Zauckerode near Dresden (now Freital) and was being worked as early as 1882 on the 5th main cross-passage of the Oppel Shaft run by the Royal Saxon Coal Works.F.M.F. Cazin, How can Mining and Metallurgical Industry be Benefited by Electric Contrivances? Part II, , Vol III, No. 35, (Nov. 1891); pages 405-409 (see pages 408-409 for a discussion of early German and U.S. electric mine haulage).
In 1894, the mine railway of the Aachen smelting company, Rothe Erde, was electrically driven, as were subsequently numerous other mine railways in the Rhineland, Saarland Lorraine, Luxembourg and Belgian Wallonia. There were large scale deliveries of electric locomotives for these railways from AEG, Siemens & Halske, Siemens-Schuckert Works (SSW) and the Union Electricitäts-Gesellschaft (UEG) in these countries.
The first electric mine locomotive in the United States went into service in mid 1887 in the Lykens Valley Coal Company mine in Lykens, Pennsylvania. The 35 hp motor for this locomotive was built by the Union Electric Company of Philadelphia.Schlesinger Electric Locomotive Motor, The Electrical World, Vol. XI, No. 8 (Feb. 25, 1888); page 88. Includes pictures of the traction motor. The 15000 pound (6800 kg) locomotive was named the Pioneer, and by mid 1888, a second electric locomotive was in service at that mine.The Electric Railway in the Lykens Valley Coal Mine, The Electrical World, Vol. XI, No. 24 (June 16, 1888); page 303. Includes a picture of the locomotive.The Union Electric Company, Philadelphia (Advertisement), The Electrical World, Vol. XI, No. 26 (June 30, 1888); page xv. Includes locomotive weights.T. C, Martin and Joseph Wetzler, Chapter XIII: Latest American Motors and Motor Systems, The; W. J. Johnston, New York, 1891; pages 218-224. Includes good illustrations of the Pioneer. Use in the Appalachian coal fields spread rapidly. By 1903, there were over 600 electric mine locomotives in use in America with new ones being produced at a rate of 100 per year.George Gibbs, The Electric Locomotive for Mine Haulage, Cassier's Magazine, vol. 22, no. 3 (July 1902); pages 323-343. Well illustrated.
Initially, electric locomotives were used only where it was economical to string overhead line for power. This limited their usage for gathering loads at the mine face, where trackage was temporary and frequently relocated. This motivated the development of battery locomotives, but in the first decade of the 20th century the first successful electric gathering locomotives used cable reels. To run on tracks away from overhead lines, the power cable was clipped to the overhead line and then automatically unreeled as the locomotive advanced and reeled up as the locomotive returned.Seward Mighell, Locomotive, , granted July 7, 1903.Kenneth Rushton, Reel Attachment for Mine Locomotives, , granted Aug. 25. 1903.Cable-Reel Locomotives, The Coal Miners' Pocketbook, 11th Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1916; page 826-827.
Crab locomotives were equipped with a winch for pulling cars out of the un-powered tracks. This approach allowed use of temporary track that was too light to carry the weight of the a cable-reel or battery locomotive. The disadvantage of a crab locomotive was that someone had to pull the haulage cable from the winch to the working face, threading it over at any sharp turns.W. E. Hamilton, Locomotive Car Puller, , granted July 26, 1904.Crab Locomotives, The Coal Miners' Pocketbook, 11th Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1916; page 827.
Explosion-proof mining locomotives from Schalker Eisenhütte are used in all the mines owned by Ruhrkohle (today Deutsche Steinkohle).
Late 19th and early 20th century mine railway locomotives were operated with petrol benzene and ethanol / benzene mixtures.Heise-Herbst, Bergbaukunde, Springer-Verlag 1910, p. 345 ff. Although such engines were initially used in metal mines, they were in routine use in coal mines by 1910. Firedamp safety was achieved by wire gauze shields over intake and exhaust ports as well as cooling water injection in the exhaust system. Bubbling the exhaust through a water bath also greatly reduced noxious fumes.A Unique English Internal Combustion Mining Locomotive, Mining Science, Vol. LXI, No. 1573 (Mar. 24, 1910); page 272. Includes photo.
For safety (noxious fumes as well as flammability of the fuel) modern mine railway internal combustion locomotives are only operated using diesel fuel. Catalytic scrubbers reduce carbon monoxide. Other locomotives are electric, either battery or trolley.
In the 19th century, there was considerable speculation about the potential use of battery locomotives in mines.Electric Underground Haulage, The Coal Trade Journal, Oct. 3, 1894; page 726.J. S. Doe, The Iser vs. the Waser, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Ohio Institute of Mining Engineers, Jan 19-21, 1898, Columbus, published as The Ohio Mining Journal, No. 27, (1899); pages 60-66, see particularly page 62.Francis A. Pocock, Accumulators and Mining, presented at the New York Meeting, Sept. 1890, Trans. Amer. Inst. of Mining Engineers, Vol. XIX (1891); pages 278-282. By 1899, Baldwin-Westinghouse had delivered an experimental battery locomotive to a Virginia mine; battery recharging occurred whenever the locomotive was running under Overhead line, while it could run from battery when working on temporary trackage near the Mine face. This locomotive was eventually successful, but only after the voltage on the trolley system was stabilized.Harry K. Myers, A Combined Trolley and Storage Battery Locomotive for Mines, American Electrician, Vol. XI, No. 11 (Nov. 1899); page 512-513. A Siemens and Haske pure storage battery locomotive was in use in a coal mine in Gelsenkirchen (Germany) by 1904.J. F. Gairns, Industrial Locomotives for Mining, Factory and Allied Uses, part III, Cassier's Magazine, Vol. XXVI, No. 5 (Sept. 1904); pages 474-496; see photo on page page 474, text on page 489.
One problem with battery locomotives was battery replacement. This was simplified by use of removable battery boxes. Eventually, battery boxes were developed that included wheels so that they could be rolled off of the locomotive.Eugene W. Schellentrager and Bradley E. Clarkson, Storage-Battery Locomotive, , granted April 25, 1922. While the initial motivation had to do with battery maintenance, the primary use for this idea was at charging stations where a discharged battery box could be rolled off and replaced with a freshly charged box.William T. Petterson, Locomotive Battery Changing Mechanism, , granted Feb. 7, 1961.
While popular, battery systems were often practically restricted to mines where systems were short, and moving relatively low-density ore which could explode easily. Today, heavy-duty batteries provide full-shift (8 hours) operations with one or more spare batteries charging.
The last gauge mine railway in the German state of Saxony, a major mining area in central Europe, was closed in 1999 at the Zwenkau in Leipzig. Once a very extensive railway network, towards the end it only had of movable track and of fixed railway track within the Zwenkau open cast mine site itself, as well as a , standard gauge, link railway for the coal trains to the power stations (1995–1999). The closure of this mine marked the end of the history of mine railways in the lignite mines of Saxony. In December 1999, the last railway in the Central German coal mining field in Lusatia was closed.
In the United States, Consol Energy's Shoemaker Mine, covering a large area east of Benwood, West Virginia was the last underground coal mine to use rail haulage. Starting in 2006, 12 miles of underground conveyor belt and 2.5 miles of above ground conveyor belt were installed. The last load of coal was hauled by rail in January 2010.Shoemaker Mine banks on future, The Times Leader, Martin's Ferry Ohio, Jan 28, 2010.
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