Module 3 - The Top-End (of the Incline)
Module 3 - The Top-End (of the Incline)
Hi all again,
Uphill of the Incline module is the Top End Module. Photos will be after "Key features", so that they make a bit more sense.
Key features of this module:
- The brakehouse - this is where the incline haulage cable changes direction from heading uphill to heading downhill. This is the only building on this module.
- A trestle bridge, where the empty skips arriving off the Empties Incline track at the top of the incline after they have been "unclipped" from the haulage cable, cross over the loaded skips waiting to go downhill on the Fulls Incline track,
- A divert siding at the top of the hill that leads to the standage siding on the adjacent Water Tank module.
- A customised pulley arrangement that is use to drop the level of the outgoing cable from the brakehouse to the below rail height of the lower level of the Fulls Incline
- A catchpoint down hill of where the skips join the incline haulage.
- A fixed ramp uncoupler positioned just before the Fulls Incline haulage cable crosses to in between the rails (more on how this works in a subsequent post).
- A customised pulley arrangement used to divert the haulage cable on the Empties Incline horizontally from between the rails so that it can be fed to the brakehouse
- A customised pulley arrangement used to divert the haulage cable on the Fulls Incline horizontally from the brakehouse so that it can be fed to between the rails.
- Timber retaining walls to support the higher level Empties Incline track. One section of this wall is removable to assist with threading the under-track chain paths.
So to the photos - looking uphill towards the brake house...
...with loaded skips awaiting their run down "the hill on the lower level, and the Empties Incline track climbing away on the right. The first catchpoint is between the second and third rollers that are used to support the haulage cable. The brakehouse rises on the skyline beyond the trestle. The haulage cables are not installed in this photo. Both incline tracks cross the module joint at the same level and same grade, just out of shot in the right foreground.
This photo shows the cable and uncoupler ramp at the start of the lower Fulls Incline track and some of the empty skips delivered after tipping on the upper level. The divert road is seen curving off to the left of the trestle bent
This photo as viewed from the next module shows the battery-electric loco shoving another load of loaded skips towards the incline top. The orange locomotive is just on the Top-End module. On the right is a short stretch of track that connects the Water Tank and Dead-End modules.
The divert road curves of the right of the trestle pier carrying the "No Way" sign.
This photo gives an idea of the how the divert road , the trestle and some of the retaining walls fit into the top-end scenery
What was -
In the brakehouse was a hardwood-clad drum with 3 1/2 turns of the haulage cable around the drum. Either side of this drum were two 7' diameter brake paths. The rope actually slid sideways on the drum as the drum turned. Water-cooled hardwood brake shoes mounted in calipers acted on these brake paths. The speed of the incline was controlled by a ball-type governor. As the speed increased, the brakes would apply more force to the brake paths. When at full capacity on the incline the brakes were absorbing 40 HP of energy. This energy was absorbed by evaporating off the water used to cool the brake shoes.
The brakehouse operator also had a lever that would drop the brakes on fully if anything went wrong on the incline. Beside the incline was a wire fence that had 2 wires. If there was a problem, then the wires could be twisted together to ring an alarm bell in the brakehouse cabin. The incline was not to be restarted while the bell was ringing.
The divert track - If the incline was going to be stopped for a protracted period, loaded skips could be diverted to a standage siding before the cable haulage commenced. This track was horse-worked. Once the incline was restarted, horses would haul a cut of loaded skips back to the incline track to continue their interrupted run downhill. The divert track could also be used to cut out any damaged skips before they got onto the incline.
Outgoing loaded skips - were man-handled beyond the start of the haulage cable. The Fisher clip was placed over the uphill drawhook of the coal skips and tightened onto the cable by hitting a collar on the clip. As soon as the clip tightened, the skip moved off at the speed of the haulage cable, and another ton of skip and coal were on their way downhill, provided they cleared the catchpoints.
Arriving empty skips - were automatically unclipped from the cable by a "knocker-off" (this was basically a sprung fork that pushed against the collar on the Fisher clip on an arriving skip ,releasing its tension in the clip and the clip's grip on the haulage rope. If this didn't work, some quick work with a hammer was required to release the clip before the skip got to where the rope was diverted from between the tracks to the brakehouse, as shown below.
After an empty skip was disconnected from the rope, it rolled by gravity over the trestle and onto a storage track, where the individual skips would be re-coupled into a train consist of about 30 empty skips for their mile-long run back to the mine behind a steam locomotive.
That ought to do for this post,