![Mining railway in Honduras](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Mining_railway_in_Honduras.jpg)
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
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
. Materials transported typically include
ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...
,
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
and
overburden
In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...
(also called variously spoils, waste, slack, 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
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
, at first made of wooden rails, but eventually adding protective iron,
steam locomotion by fixed engines and the earliest commercial
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s, all in and around the works around mines.
History
Mine rails
![Mining cart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Mining_cart.jpg)
Wagonways (or tramways) were developed in Germany in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, using primitive wooden rails. Such an operation was illustrated in 1556 by
Georgius Agricola
Georgius Agricola (; born Georg Pawer or Georg Bauer; 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555) was a German Humanist scholar, mineralogist and metallurgist. Born in the small town of Glauchau, in the Electorate of Saxony of the Holy Roman Empir ...
of Germany (Image right). This used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks, to keep it going the right way. Such a transport system was used by German miners at
Caldbeck
Caldbeck is a village in Cumbria, England, historically within Cumberland, it is situated within the Lake District National Park. The village had 714 inhabitants according to the census of 2001.
Caldbeck is closely associated with neighbouring ...
,
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
, England, perhaps from the 1560s. An alternative explanation derives it from the Magyar ''hintó'' – a carriage. There are possible references to their use in central Europe in the 15th century.
A
funicular railway
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...
was made at
Broseley
Broseley is a market town in Shropshire, England, with a population of 4,929 at the 2011 Census and an estimate of 5,022 in 2019. The River Severn flows to its north and east. The first The Iron Bridge, iron bridge in the world was built in 17 ...
in
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, England at some time before 1605. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the
river Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. Though the first documentary record of this is later, its construction probably preceded the
Wollaton Wagonway
The Wollaton Wagonway (or Waggonway), built between October 1603 and 1604 in the East Midlands of England by Huntingdon Beaumont in partnership with Sir Percival Willoughby, has sometimes been credited as the world's first ''overground'' wagonwa ...
, completed in 1604, hitherto regarded as the earliest British installation. This ran from
Strelley
Strelley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Broxtowe and City of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It is to the west of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 653. It is also the name of t ...
to
Wollaton
Wollaton is a suburb and former parish in the western part of Nottingham, England. Wollaton has two Wards in the City of Nottingham (''Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey'' and ''Wollaton West'') with a total population as at the 2011 census of 24,69 ...
near
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
. Another early
wagonway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...
is noted onwards.
Huntingdon Beaumont
Huntingdon Beaumont (c.1560–1624) was an English coal mining entrepreneur who built two of the earliest wagonways in England for trans-shipment of coal. He was less successful as a businessman and died having been imprisoned for debt.
Beaumon ...
, who was concerned with mining at
Strelley
Strelley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Broxtowe and City of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It is to the west of Nottingham. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 653. It is also the name of t ...
, also laid down broad wooden rails near
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, on which a single horse could haul fifty to sixty
bushel
A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agricult ...
s (130–150 kg) of coal.
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
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
. The
Battle of Prestonpans
The Battle of Prestonpans, also known as the Battle of Gladsmuir, was fought on 21 September 1745, near Prestonpans, in East Lothian, the first significant engagement of the Jacobite rising of 1745.
Jacobite forces, led by the Stuart exile C ...
, in the
Jacobite rising of 1745
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Franci ...
, was fought astride the 1722 Tranent – Cockenzie Waggonway. This type of transport spread rapidly through the whole
Tyneside
Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt.
The population of Tyneside as published i ...
coalfield, and the greatest number of lines were to be found in the coalfield near
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
. They were mostly used to transport coal in
chaldron
A chaldron (also chauldron or chalder) was an English measure of dry volume, mostly used for coal; the word itself is an obsolete spelling of cauldron. It was used from the 13th century onwards, nominally until 1963, when it was abolished by th ...
wagons from the coalpits to a
staithe
A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring locatio ...
(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
The dandy waggon is a type of railroad car, railway carriage used to carry horses on Gravity railroad, gravity trains. They are particularly associated with the narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway, Festiniog Railway (FR) in W ...
was introduced, in which the horse could rest on downhill stretches.
Coal, iron, rail symbiosis
A tendency to concentrate employees started when
Benjamin Huntsman
Benjamin Huntsman (4 June 170420 June 1776) was an English inventor and manufacturer of cast or crucible steel.
Biography
Huntsman was born the fourth child of William and Mary (née Nainby) Huntsman, a Quaker farming couple, in Epworth, Linc ...
, looking for higher quality clock springs, found in 1740
that he could produce high quality steel in unprecedented quantities (
crucible steel
Crucible steel is steel made by melting pig iron (cast iron), iron, and sometimes steel, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other flux (metallurgy), fluxes, in a crucible. In ancient times steel and iron were impossible to melt using char ...
to replace
blister steel
The cementation process is an obsolete technology for making steel by carburization of iron. Unlike modern steelmaking, it increased the amount of carbon in the iron. It was apparently developed before the 17th century. Derwentcote Steel Fur ...
) in using ceramic crucibles in the same fuel shortage/glass industry inspired
reverbatory furnace
A reverberatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace that isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with combustion gases. The term ''reverberation'' is used here in a generic sense of ''re ...
s that were spurring the coal mining,
coking
Coking is the heating of coal in the absence of oxygen to a temperature above 600 °C to drive off the volatile components of the raw coal, leaving a hard, strong, porous material of high carbon content called coke. Coke consists almost ent ...
, cast-iron cannon foundries, and the much in demand gateway or stimulus products
of the glass making industries. These technologies, for several decades, had already begun gradually quickening industrial growth and causing early concentrations of workers so that there were occasional early small factories that came into being.
James Burke (science historian)
James Burke (born 22 December 1936) is a British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer. He was one of the main presenters of the BBC1 science series ''Tomorrow's World'' from 1965 to 1971 and created and presented th ...
, Connections (1985), pages: 136-137, pbk: 304 pages, Little Brown & Co., New York, ISBN
This trend concentrating effort into bigger central located but larger enterprises
turned into a trend spurred by
Henry Cort
Henry Cort (c. 1740 – 23 May 1800) was an English ironware producer although formerly a Navy pay agent. During the Industrial Revolution in England, Cort began refining iron from pig iron to wrought iron (or bar iron) using innovative producti ...
's
iron processing patent 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 decades
to protective iron strips nailed to protect the rails, to steam drawn trains (1804), and to cast-iron rails. Later,
George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians a great example of diligent application and thirst for ...
, 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
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...
. 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.
Rails
![Holzbahn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Holzbahn.JPG)
There is usually no direct connection from a mine railway to the mine's
industrial siding or the public railway network, because of the
narrow-gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
track that is normally employed. In the United States,
the standard gauge for mine haulage is , although gauges from to are used.
Original mine railways used wax-impregnated wooden rails attached to wooden
sleepers
''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Ho ...
, 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.
Wood to cast iron
These early mine railways used wooden rails, which in the early
industrial revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
about
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge.
This is where iron ore was first s ...
, were soon capped with iron strapping, those were replaced by wrought iron, then with the first steam traction engines, cast-iron rails,
and eventually steel rails as each was in succession found to last much longer than the previous cheaper rail type.
By the time of the first steam locomotive-drawn trains, most rails laid were of wrought iron
which was outlasting cast-iron rails by 8:1. About three decades later, after
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
had made steel competitively cheap, steel rails were supplanting iron for the same longevity reasons.
Motive power
The tram (or ''dram'') cars used for mine haulage are generally called ''tubs''. The term ''mine car'' is commonly used in the United States
Humans
Mine workers have often been used to push mine carts. In the very cramped conditions of hand-hewn mining tunnels, children were also often used before the advent of child labour legislation, either pushing the carts themselves or tending to animals that did (see below).
Pit ponies
![Dandywaggon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Dandywaggon.jpg)
The Romans were the first to realise the benefits of using animals in their industrial workings, using specially bred
pit ponies
A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.English ...
to power supplementary work such as mine pumps.
![Mine-charbon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Mine-charbon.JPG)
Ponies began to be used underground, often replacing
child
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...
or female labour, as distances from
pit head
A headframe (also known as a gallows frame, winding tower, hoist frame,Ernst, Dr.-Ing. Richard (1989). ''Wörterbuch der Industriellen Technik'' (5th ed.). Wiesbaden: Oscar Brandstetter, 1989. pit frame, shafthead frame, headgear, headstock o ...
to
coal face
''Coal Face'' is a 1935 British documentary film short directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. With a film score by Benjamin Britten and a poem written and narrated by W.H. Auden, the film gives a glimpse into the lives of a Yorkshire mining community a ...
became greater. The first known recorded use in Britain was in the
County Durham
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly About North East E ...
coalfield in 1750; in the United States,
mule
The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...
s were the dominant source of animal power in the mine industry, with horses and ponies used to a lesser extent. 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
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...
as "putting", in the United States as "tramming" or "gathering") which were more difficult to mechanise. As of 1984, 55 ponies were still at use with the
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...
in Britain, chiefly at the modern pit in
Ellington, Northumberland
Ellington is a small village in the civil parish of Ellington and Linton, on the coast of Northumberland, England. Ellington is from Ashington, from Morpeth and north of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Ellington was the site of the last remaining op ...
.
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
Pontypool ( cy, Pont-y-pŵl ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. It has a population of 28,970.
Location
It is situated on the Afon Lwyd ri ...
, in May 1999.
Cable haulage
In the 19th century after the mid-1840s, when the German invention of
wire rope
Steel wire rope (right hand lang lay)
Wire rope is several strands of metal wire twisted into a helix forming a composite
''rope'', in a pattern known as ''laid rope''. Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of such laid rope in a ...
became available from manufactories in both Europe and North America, large
stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars ...
s on the surface with
cables
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
reaching underground were commonly used for mine haulage. Unsurprisingly, the innovation-minded managers of the
Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company
The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a mining and transportation company headquartered in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, now known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. The company operated from 1818 until its dissolution in 1964 and played an early and i ...
pioneered the technology in America using it to allow the dead-lift of loaded coal consists up the
Ashley Planes
Ashley Planes was a historic freight cable railroad situated along three separately powered inclined plane sections located between Ashley, Pennsylvania at the foot, and via the Solomon cutting the yard in Mountain Top over above and initially bu ...
, and the augmentation of their works in and above the
Panther Creek Valley
In Eastern Pennsylvania, the valley of the Panther Creek tributary of the Little Schuylkill River, a very small and relatively short mountain creek, was historically important due to its stranglehold on energy production, a key region central to ...
[
] with new gravity switchback sections and return cable inclines, but most notably by installing two cable lift sections and expanding the already famous
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway
The Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that operated between 1828 and 1932. It was the first operational railway, in the United States, of any substantial length to carry paying passenger ...
with a 'back track' dropping car return time from 3–4 hours to about 20 minutes, which the new inclines then fed from new mine shafts and
coal breaker
A coal breaker is a coal processing plant which breaks coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also remove impurities from the coal (typically slate) and deposit them into a culm dump. The coal breaker is a forerunner of the modern coal pr ...
s farther down into the valley.
[
] Sometimes, stationary engines were even located underground, with the boiler on the surface, though that was a minority situation. All of the cable haulage methods were primarily used on the main haulage ways of the mine. Typically, manual labor,
mule
The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...
s or
pit ponies
A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.English ...
were used in gathering filled cars from the working areas (galleries were driven across seams as much as possible) to main haulage ways.
[Francis M. Fultz, An Iowa Coal Mine, Chapter V o]
Out of Door Studies in Geography, I, The Making of the Surface and Soils of the Upper Mississippi Region
1908; pages 97-105, see page 101.
In the first decade of the 20th century, electric locomotives were displacing animal power for this secondary haulage role in mines
[Sydney F. Walker, Electrical Mining Notes]
Electrical Review
Vol. 48, No. 1, January, 1906.
where sparking triggered explosive methane buildup was a lesser danger. Several cable haulage systems were used:
In
slope mines, where there was a continuous downgrade from the entrance to the working face, the rope from the
hoisting engine could be used to lower empty cars into the mine and then raise full cars. In
shaft mine
Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from ...
s, secondary hoisting engines could be used to pull cars on grades within the mine. For
grades
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also r ...
of a few percent, trains of 25 cars each carrying roughly half a ton were typical in the 1880s.
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. This was the dominant system in the 1880s 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 Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems:
* Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable
** Aerial tramway
** Chairlift
** Gondola lift
*** Bi ...
system. Some mines used endless chains before wire-rope became widely available. The endless chain system originated in the mines near
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...
(England) around 1845. An endless rope system was developed in
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
around 1864, and another independently developed near
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...
somewhat later (also in England). 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. 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. At the dawn of the 20th century, endless rope haulage was the dominant haulage technology for the main haulage ways of underground mines.
Steam locomotives
![Dampflokomotive H 1-2 Nr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Dampflokomotive_H_1-2_Nr._1_%22Gnom%22.jpg)
For as long as it was economical to operate
steam locomotives
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
on the general railway system, steam locomotives were also used on the surface trackage of mines. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, some large mines routinely used steam locomotives underground. Locomotives for this purpose were typically very squat
tank engine
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomot ...
s with an
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
wheel arrangement. Use of steam power underground was only practical in areas with very high exhaust airflow, with engine speed limits of 1/2 the air velocity to assure adequate clean air for the crew on outbound trips. Such engines could not be used in mines with
firedamp
Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...
problems.
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
Consolidation may refer to:
In science and technology
* Consolidation (computing), the act of linkage editing in computing
* Memory consolidation, the process in the brain by which recent memories are crystallised into long-term memory
* Pulmonar ...
and
Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company
The Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company is a defunct coal mining, iron producer and railroad company that operated in Maryland from 1835 to 1863.
Iron furnace
The company was formed in 1835, and chartered in the state of Maryland on March 29, 18 ...
were using several Porter locomotives in their underground mines in the
Georges Creek Valley
Georges Creek Valley is located in Allegany County, Maryland along the Georges Creek. The valley is rich in wide veins of coal, known historically as "The Big Vein." Coal was once extracted by deep mines but is only mined today through surfac ...
of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Other users included several coal mines near
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company
The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LCAN) (1988–2010) was a modern-day anthracite coal mining company headquartered in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. It acquired many properties and relaunched the Lehigh Coal Companies brand in 1988. The LCAN r ...
and an iron mine in the
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
Iron Range
The term Iron Range refers collectively or individually to a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by ...
s. 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. The
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...
built similar locomotives, starting in 1870. By the early 20th century, very small British-made oil-fired steam locomotives were in use in some South African mines. Porter and
Vulcan (Wilkes-Barre) advertised steam mine locomotives in 1909 and 1911. By the early 1920s, only a few small mines in the
Pocahontas Coalfield
Pocahontas Coalfield, which is also known as the Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield, is located in Mercer County/ McDowell County, West Virginia and Tazewell County, Virginia. The earliest mining of coal in the coalfield was in Pocahontas, Virginia ...
in
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
were using steam locomotives underground. Nonetheless, both
Baldwin and
Vulcan
Vulcan may refer to:
Mythology
* Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
continued to advertise steam locomotives for underground use outside the coal industry as late as 1921.
Compressed air locomotives
![Pressluftlokomotive](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Pressluftlokomotive.jpg)
Compressed-air locomotives were powered by
compressed air
Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, and o ...
carried on the locomotive in compressed-air containers. This method of propulsion had the advantage of being safe but the disadvantage of high operating costs due to very limited range before it was necessary to recharge the air tanks. Generally, compressors on the surface were connected by plumbing to recharge stations located throughout the mine. Recharging was generally very fast. Narrow gauge compressed air locomotives were manufactured for mines in Germany as early as 1875, with tanks pressurized to 4 or 5
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
. The
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...
delivered their first compressed air locomotive in 1877, and by 1904, they offered a variety of models, most with an
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
wheel arrangement.
[Compressed Air Locomotives]
Record of Recent Construction
No. 46, Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1904; page 14, mentions the first delivery; page 9 shows storage and working pressures; pages 13-14 discuss operation at 2000 psi. Compressed air locomotives were introduced in the
Newbottle Collieries in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
in 1878, operating at 200
psi
Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to:
Alphabetic letters
* Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet
* Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek
Arts and entertainment
* "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...
(14
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
).
Ordinary mine compressed-air systems operating at 100 psi (7 bar) only allowed a few hundred feet of travel. By the late 1880s,
Porter
Porter may refer to:
Companies
* Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto
* Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets
* Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer
* H.K. Porter, Inc., ...
was building locomotives designed for 500 to 600
psi
Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to:
Alphabetic letters
* Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet
* Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek
Arts and entertainment
* "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...
(34-41
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
). 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. 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.
Overhead-electric locomotives
![AEG U28 rotheerde 1894](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/AEG_U28_rotheerde_1894.jpg)
The
electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
technology used pre-1900 to
DC with a few hundred volts and a direct supply of power to the motor from the overhead wire enabled the use of efficient, small and sturdy tractors of simple construction. Initially, there was no voltage standard, but by 1914, 250 volts was the standard voltage for underground work in the United States. This relatively low voltage was adopted for safety's sake.
The first electric mine railway in the world was developed by
Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens.
It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...
for
bituminous coal
Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...
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.
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
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
,
Saarland
The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
and Belgian
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
. There were large scale deliveries of electric locomotives for these railways from
AEG
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
,
Siemens & Halske
Siemens & Halske AG (or Siemens-Halske) was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens.
It was founded on 12 October 1847 as ''Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske'' by Werner von Siemens and Johann Geo ...
,
Siemens-Schuckert
Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966.
Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & Ha ...
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
Lykens is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. Anthracite coal mining sustained a population of 2,762 in 1900 and 2,943 in 1910. The population was 1,865 at the 2020 census.
Lykens is part of the Harrisburg– Carlisle M ...
. The 35 hp motor for this locomotive was built by the Union Electric Company of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. The 15000 pound (6800 kg) locomotive was named the Pioneer, and by mid 1888, a second electric locomotive was in service at that mine. 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.
Initially, electric locomotives were used only where it was economical to string
overhead line
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as:
* Overhead catenary
* Overhead contact system (OCS)
* Overhead equipmen ...
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
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...
. To run on tracks away from overhead lines, the
power cable
A power cable is an electrical cable, an assembly of one or more electrical conductors, usually held together with an overall sheath. The assembly is used for transmission of electrical power. Power cables may be installed as permanent wiring wi ...
was clipped to the overhead line and then automatically unreeled as the locomotive advanced and reeled up as the locomotive returned.
Crab locomotives were equipped with a
winch
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable").
In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attache ...
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
pulley
A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, or transfer of power between the shaft and cable or belt. In the case of a pulley supported by a frame or shell that ...
s at any sharp turns.
Explosion-proof mining locomotives from ''
Schalker Eisenhütte'' are used in all the mines owned by ''
Ruhrkohle
RAG AG, formerly Ruhrkohle AG, is the largest German coal mining corporation. The company headquarters are in Essen in the Ruhr area. The company was founded on 27 November 1968, consolidating several coalmining corporations into the Ruhrkohle ...
'' (today ''Deutsche Steinkohle'').
Internal-combustion locomotives
![Grubenlok Deutz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Grubenlok_Deutz.jpg)
The ''Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz'' (Deutz Gas Engine Company), now
Deutz AG
Deutz AG is a German internal combustion engine manufacturer, based in Porz, Cologne, Germany.
History
The company was founded by Nicolaus Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, and his partner Eugen Langen on 31 ...
, introduced a single-cylinder benzine locomotive for use in mines in 1897. Their first mining locomotives were rated at and weighed . The original engine was long, wide and high and weighed . Typical Deutz mine engines in 1906 were rated at . By this time, double-cylinder . engines built by
Wolseley Motors
Wolseley Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in early 1901 by the Vickers Armaments in conjunction with Herbert Austin. It initially made a full range, topped by large luxury cars, and dominated the market in the Ed ...
were being used in South African mines. By 1914,
Whitcomb Locomotive Works
The Geo D. Whitcomb Company was founded by George Dexter Whitcomb (1834–1914), of Chicago, Illinois, who started a modest machine shop in 1878, and began the manufacture of coal mining machinery, laying the foundation for the concern that beca ...
,
Vulcan Iron Works
Vulcan Iron Works was the name of several iron foundries in both England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and, in one case, lasting until the mid-20th century. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and smithery, was a popular na ...
, and Milwaukee Locomotive Manufacturing Co. (later merged with Whitcomb) were making gasoline mining locomotives in the United States with 4 and 6
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
engines
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
.
[Joseph A. Anglada, Gasoline Locomotives for Mines]
The Gas Engine
Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Feb. 1914); pages 100-103. Includes photos.
Late 19th and early 20th century mine railway locomotives were operated with
petrol
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms, ...
and
alcohol
Alcohol most commonly refers to:
* Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom
* Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks
Alcohol may also refer to:
Chemicals
* Ethanol, one of sev ...
/ benzene mixtures. Although such engines were initially used in metal mines, they were in routine use in coal mines by 1910.
Firedamp
Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...
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.
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.
Battery-electric locomotives
Battery powered locomotives and systems solved many of the potential problems that combustion engines present, especially regarding fumes, ventilation and heat generation. Compared to simple electric locomotives, battery locomotives do not need trolley wire strung over each track. However, batteries are heavy items which used to require long periods of charge to produce relatively short periods of full-power operation, resulting in either restricted operations or the need for the doubling-up of equipment purchasing.
In the 19th century, there was considerable speculation about the potential use of battery locomotives in mines. By 1899,
Baldwin-Westinghouse had delivered an experimental battery locomotive to a Virginia mine; battery recharging occurred whenever the locomotive was running under
trolley wire
The Sydney Tramway Museum (operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway) is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney.
History
Construction of th ...
, while it could run from battery when working on temporary trackage near the
face
The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may aff ...
. This locomotive was eventually successful, but only after the voltage on the trolley system was stabilized. A
Siemens and Haske
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
pure storage battery locomotive was in use in a coal mine in
Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen (, , ; wep, Gelsenkiärken) is the 25th most populous city of Germany and the 11th most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies ...
(Germany) by 1904.
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. 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.
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.
In operation
![Personenwagen Grubenbahn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Personenwagen_Grubenbahn.jpg)
Until 1995 the largest single, narrow gauge, above-ground, mine and coal railway network in Europe was in the Leipzig-Altenburg lignite field in Germany. It had of – the largest network in existence. Of this, about 215 kilometres was removable track inside the actual pits and 511 kilometres was fixed track for the transportation of coal to the main rail network.
The last gauge mine railway in the German state of
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, a major mining area in central Europe, was closed in 1999 at the
Zwenkau Mine 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
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
, 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
Lusatia (german: Lausitz, pl, Łużyce, hsb, Łužica, dsb, Łužyca, cs, Lužice, la, Lusatia, rarely also referred to as Sorbia) is a historical region in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr ...
was closed.
In the United States,
Consol Energy
Consol Energy Inc. is an American energy company with interests in coal headquartered in the suburb of Cecil Township, in the Southpointe complex, just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2017, Consol formed two separate entities: CNX Resour ...
's Shoemaker Mine, covering a large area east of
Benwood, West Virginia
Benwood is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,269 at the 2020 census.
Benwood was chartered in 1853 and i ...
was the last
underground coal mine to use rail haulage. Starting in 2006, 12 miles of underground
conveyor belt
A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to ...
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.
Museum and heritage railways
A remnant of the coal railways in the Leipzig-Altenburg Lignite Field may be visited and operated as a museum railway.
Regular museum trains also run on the
line
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Arts ...
from
Meuselwitz
Meuselwitz () is a town in the Altenburger Land district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 12 km northwest of Altenburg and 11 km east of Zeitz.
History
During World War II, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp operated ...
via
Haselbach to
Regis-Breitingen
Regis-Breitingen () is a town in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Pleiße
The Pleiße is a river of Saxony and Thuringia, Germany.
The Pleiße has its source southwest of Zwickau at Ebersbrunn, then flows ...
.
Mine railways in visitor mines
Austria
#
Pradeisstollen, Radmer in the
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
#
Schwaz Silver Mine
Schwaz () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol. It is the administrative center of the Schwaz (district), Schwaz district. Schwaz is located in the lower Inn river, Inn valley.
Location
Schwaz lies in the middle of the Lower ...
Germany
; Hesse
#
Grube Fortuna, Solms, visitor mine with working shaft, field and pit railway museum with circular track, , long
; Lower Saxony
#
Barsinghausen
Barsinghausen is a town in the district of Hanover, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the Deister chain of hills approx. 20 km west of Hanover. Barsinghausen belongs to the historic landscape Calenberg Land and was first mentioned i ...
,
Klosterstollen, , long
#
Clausthal-Zellerfeld
Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort ...
–
Clausthal
Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort ...
,
Ottiliae Shaft, open pit railway to the old station in Clausthal, ,
#
Goslar
Goslar (; Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines ...
,
Rammelsberg
The Rammelsberg is a mountain, high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony. The mountain is the location of an important silver, copper, and lead mine, the only mine ...
#
Langelsheim
Langelsheim is a town in the district of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Geography
The municipality is situated between the river Innerste and its tributary Grane, on the northern edge of the Harz mountain range and the Harz National Park, loc ...
–
Lautenthal
The formerly free mining town ('' Bergstadt'') of Lautenthal in Germany is a state-recognised, climatic spa with around 1,570 inhabitants and has been part of the borough of Langelsheim since 1972.
Geography
Lautenthal lies in the Innerst ...
,
Lautenthals Glück Pit
; North Rhine-Westphalia
#
Bestwig
Bestwig is a municipality in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Bestwig is situated on the river Ruhr, approx. 10 km east of Meschede. It lies on the German Autobahn A 46. Bestwig has a railway station ...
–
Ramsbeck
Bestwig is a municipality in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Bestwig is situated on the river Ruhr, approx. 10 km east of Meschede. It lies on the German Autobahn A 46. Bestwig has a railway station, ...
,
Ramsbeck Ore Mine
#
Kleinenbremen
Porta Westfalica () is a town in the district of Minden-Lübbecke, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The name "''Porta Westfalica''" is Latin and means "gate to Westphalia". Coming from the north, the gorge is the entry to the region of West ...
,
Kleinenbremen Visitor Mine
Porta Westfalica () is a town in the district of Minden-Lübbecke, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
The name "''Porta Westfalica''" is Latin and means "gate to Westphalia". Coming from the north, the gorge is the entry to the region of West ...
; Rhineland-Palatinate
#
Steinebach/Sieg,
Bindweide Pit
; Saxony
#
Annaberg-Buchholz
Annaberg-Buchholz () is a town in Saxony, Germany. Lying in the Ore Mountains, it is the capital of the district of Erzgebirgskreis.
Geography
The town is located in the Ore Mountains, at the side of the ''Pöhlberg'' ( above sea level).
Hi ...
, Markus Röhling Stolln,
#
Ehrenfriedersdorf
Ehrenfriedersdorf () is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 8 km northwest of Annaberg-Buchholz, and 21 km south of Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-la ...
, Sauberg (underground section only),
; Saxony-Anhalt
#
Elbingerode (Harz)
Elbingerode is an ''Ortsteil'' of Oberharz am Brocken in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The former town was incorporated into the newly established municipality on 1 January 2010.
Geography
It is situated in the eastern ...
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Drei Kronen & Ehrt
Drei Kronen & Ehrt is a former mine in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It is located in the parish of Elbingerode in the county of Harz (Saxony-Anhalt). The mine extracted pyrite. Since 1992 it has been used, albeit not continuously, as ...
visitor mine,
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Sangerhausen
Sangerhausen () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, capital of the district of Mansfeld-Südharz. It is situated southeast of the Harz, approx. east of Nordhausen, and west of Halle (Saale). About 26,000 people live in Sangerhausen (2 ...
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Wettelrode,
Röhrigschacht show mine
; Thuringia
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Ilfeld
Ilfeld is a village and a former municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, north from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode. Since 1 Ja ...
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Netzkater,
Rabensteiner Stollen,
; Luxembourg
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Minièresbunn,
Fond-de-Gras, , long
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National Museum of Luxembourg Iron Ore Mines, circular track
See also
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Industrial railway
An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British ra ...
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Granite Railway
The Granite Railway was one of the first railroads in the United States, built to carry granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, to a dock on the Neponset River in Milton. From there boats carried the heavy stone to Charlestown for construction of ...
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Mantrip
An underground personnel carrier is any heavy duty vehicle designed specifically for the safe transport of personnel and their supplies into underground work areas. The most common underground applications is for the mining of either precious me ...
(shuttle for transporting miners)
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Mine car
In US railroad terminology, a gondola is an open-topped rail vehicle used for transporting loose bulk materials. Because of their low side walls, gondolas are also suitable for the carriage of such high-density cargos as steel plates or coils, ...
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Minecart
A minecart or mine cart (also known as a mine trolley or mine hutch) is a type of rolling stock found on a mine railway, used for moving ore and materials procured in the process of traditional mining. Minecarts are seldom used in modern operat ...
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Plateway
A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later.
Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange o ...
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Quarry tub
A tub or quarry tub is a type of railway or tramway wagon used in quarries and other industrial locations for the transport of minerals (such as coal, sand, ore, clay and stone) from a quarry or mine face to processing plants or between variou ...
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Rail profile
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Rail tracks
A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...
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Wagonway
Wagonways (also spelt Waggonways), also known as horse-drawn railways and horse-drawn railroad consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded Steam locomotive, steam-powered rail transport, railways. The t ...
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Granite Railway
The Granite Railway was one of the first railroads in the United States, built to carry granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, to a dock on the Neponset River in Milton. From there boats carried the heavy stone to Charlestown for construction of ...
References
External links
Grubenbahn.de - mine railway siteSchmalspurige Grubenbahn.de - narrow gauge mine railway siteKohlebahn - coal railway site Fond-de-Gras industrial and railway park in the Luxembourg mining regionMine railway locomotives
{{Authority control
Industrial railways
Articles containing video clips
Railways
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...