Pithead wheel
Mi...@notigg.not.no
Someone wanted to know if pit head wheels were single spoke or dual
spoke.
This is a wheel from a salt mine pit head
http://www.igg.org.uk/rail/wheel.htm
Its a 'bicycle wheel' type, couldn't you use two wagon wheels, these
were often 'dished' so put back to back would give you something close
enough to pass muster.
HTH
Mike
kim
news:99jgs1h66lcm9j6l3...@4ax.com...
I'm sure MREx Mag reviewed an entire pithead kit some time ago? It used to
come up by accident when I was searching the history of various brand names
on Google.
(kim)
Chris Wilson
> <Mi...@notigg.not.no> wrote in message
...
>>
>> HTH
>
> I'm sure MREx Mag reviewed an entire pithead kit some time ago? It
> used to come up by accident when I was searching the history of
> various brand names on Google.
I ca't remember who makes it but many years ago when I was nought but a
child I made a card model from a kit of pit head. What's more I'm sure I've
seen the same model available nowadays, not to sure that the wheel's detail
would satisfy an adult modeler though ... now if I can only remember who
made it.
--
All the best,
Chris Wilson
That's cwilson at britwar with a dot uk and dot co on the end. (Reply
address is blackholed)
http://www.the-dormouse.org - The Dormouse Line Model Railway
Kevin Martin
There was a fair bit of info on pit heads in Railway Modeller April 1994
& follow ups in June & November the same year. Also Feb 1995.
Modelling 4mm coal mines Railway Modeller 1993 May, August & September.
Kevin Martin
Mi...@notigg.not.no
Damn - Missed those - Ah well another hour at the old mags stand at
the Manchester show
Mike
Mi...@notigg.not.no
<kevinr...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
The actual design varied a lot, timber was still in use until recently
(possibly the 1960s), H and I section steel was used quite a lot and
for really big mines they had lattice stuctures.
Essentially its a rectangular tower with a post at each corner, on one
side is the axle for the wheel, so the rim is over the centre of the
frame (sometimes two wheels serving two cages down a single shaft)
On the side with the wheel there are two angled supports at around 60
degrees.
This could be a free standing structure, in which case you would see
the narrow tracks for the coal trucks emerging and heading off to the
picking shed (where the rocks were removed). Alternatively it might
have the picking shed built round it (the arrangement at Beamish),
which makes life a lot easier. Beyond the angled supports would be a
winding house containing the engine (often steam even in the quite
recent past) with a hole in the wall through which the cable passed en
route to the pit head wheel.
At the railway loading end of the system you have screens for
separating the coal into grades by size, typically a large building
built over the tracks, often with a roofline sloping down toward the
outer end. There should be at least two tracks under this (other than
for very small mines, where the coal might be tipped directly into the
wagons from a raised bank (Forest of Dean, Wales etc had a number of
these small maines).
Between the pit head and the loading bay there were a number of
possible processes, these vary by time and also by size of mine. You
might see a large conical water tank type structure, in which the coal
was tipped to separate the coal (which floats) from the other stuff
(which does not). Some mines had a tower with a giant silk bag, air
was blown up into this over the coal to recover the coal dust. Some
mines had a pulveriser to make coal dust. The dust was worth less than
lump coal but was used for cement making (blown into the kiln), power
stations (latterly with fluidised bed furnaces) and compressing into
briquettes (mixed with coal tar, as used by Antactic expiditions, they
used them to make huts and burnt them as required).
A large mine complex might include a coke plant (which has some
splending possibilities as an exhibition layout feature with a
substantial smoke generator for the periodic emptying of the retorts).
Some mines had extensive railway networks and on some of these coal in
tubs was transported on railway wagons from the pit head to a remote
grading and/or wagon loading plant.
All of this creates more questions than answers, and information was
surprisingly hard to find when I last looked at this (around the time
of privatisation). What I have on this (and other industries) will
appear on the website when I get the time to do or re-do the drawings.
If you can get to Beamish take some photos of the mine there, it is a
neat and very self contained structure.
HTH
Mike
Jane Sullivan
Mi...@notigg.not.no writes
Isn't that several months away?
>
>Mike
--
Jane
OO in the garden http://www.yddraiggoch.demon.co.uk/railway/railway.html
Mi...@notigg.not.no
Sadly yes, but the last local shop that carried old mags closed a year
or so back (very few do much second hand stuff these days). Given the
amount of work yet required on lineside industries I think I will
still be working on this by then.
Unless someone wants to sell their copies of course?
Regards
Mike
Keith J Patrick
was under the impression that the wheels had interlaced spokes as per
bicycle, but was interested to see the excellent photo of the one at the
salt mine, where they just appear to come from either side of the hub.. I
wonder if they are the same in Siberia? I have now purchased a kit for the
Dennis Fire Engine, and await to see what the wheels for the escape ladder
are like, and if they are useable.
Somenone mentioned about wooden pit head gear. Following some disasterous
fire, in 1911 wooden pithead gear was outlawed by Parliament, and as far as
I am aware, no new wooden pithead gear was constructed after that date. What
I am not aware of is how long the existing mines had to change theirs. I
would love to model some wooden gear in the 1960's, as they seem smaller
from photo's I have, but I don't think there were any left by then in South
Wales, and I hear you say ...there wern't many coal mines left by then
anyway!!!
<Mi...@notigg.not.no> wrote in message
news:99jgs1h66lcm9j6l3...@4ax.com...
>
Chris Wilson
news:dqda8l$ahn$1...@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com:
....
> Somenone mentioned about wooden pit head gear. Following some
> disasterous fire, in 1911 wooden pithead gear was outlawed by
> Parliament, and as far as I am aware, no new wooden pithead gear was
> constructed after that date. What I am not aware of is how long the
> existing mines had to change theirs. I would love to model some wooden
> gear in the 1960's, as they seem smaller from photo's I have, but I
> don't think there were any left by then in South Wales, and I hear you
> say ...there wern't many coal mines left by then anyway!!!
You are correct, however I'm pretty darned sure that there were exemptions
for small mines (those with less than 60 workers or thereabouts). And again
I'm pretty sure of seeing pictures of mines with wooden head gear in the
60s. This is all from memory but FWIW when I started planning my new layout
one of the options I considered was building a mine and I did a fair bit of
research on the subject. It worked out that whilst I could model the mine
the rest of the layout couldn't handle the traffic ... I've gone for a
quarry instead with a narrow guage railway leading to an exchange instead.
Mi...@notigg.not.no
<bigb...@4rubbish.britwar.co.uk> wrote:
>"Keith J Patrick" <patrick...@btinternet.com> wrote in
>news:dqda8l$ahn$1...@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com:
>
>....
>> Somenone mentioned about wooden pit head gear. Following some
>> disasterous fire, in 1911 wooden pithead gear was outlawed by
>> Parliament, and as far as I am aware, no new wooden pithead gear was
>> constructed after that date. What I am not aware of is how long the
>> existing mines had to change theirs. I would love to model some wooden
>> gear in the 1960's, as they seem smaller from photo's I have, but I
>> don't think there were any left by then in South Wales, and I hear you
>> say ...there wern't many coal mines left by then anyway!!!
>
>You are correct, however I'm pretty darned sure that there were exemptions
>for small mines (those with less than 60 workers or thereabouts). And again
>I'm pretty sure of seeing pictures of mines with wooden head gear in the
>60s. This is all from memory but FWIW when I started planning my new layout
>one of the options I considered was building a mine and I did a fair bit of
>research on the subject. It worked out that whilst I could model the mine
>the rest of the layout couldn't handle the traffic ... I've gone for a
>quarry instead with a narrow guage railway leading to an exchange instead.
Very very rough but some notes on mines and mining (without the
illustrations) can be found (temporarily) at . . .
HTH
Mike
Mi...@notigg.not.no
<bigb...@4rubbish.britwar.co.uk> wrote:
>"Keith J Patrick" <patrick...@btinternet.com> wrote in
>news:dqda8l$ahn$1...@nwrdmz01.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com:
>
>....
>> Somenone mentioned about wooden pit head gear. Following some
>> disasterous fire, in 1911 wooden pithead gear was outlawed by
>> Parliament, and as far as I am aware, no new wooden pithead gear was
>> constructed after that date. What I am not aware of is how long the
>> existing mines had to change theirs. I would love to model some wooden
>> gear in the 1960's, as they seem smaller from photo's I have, but I
>> don't think there were any left by then in South Wales, and I hear you
>> say ...there wern't many coal mines left by then anyway!!!
>
>You are correct, however I'm pretty darned sure that there were exemptions
>for small mines (those with less than 60 workers or thereabouts). And again
>I'm pretty sure of seeing pictures of mines with wooden head gear in the
>60s. This is all from memory but FWIW when I started planning my new layout
>one of the options I considered was building a mine and I did a fair bit of
>research on the subject. It worked out that whilst I could model the mine
>the rest of the layout couldn't handle the traffic ... I've gone for a
>quarry instead with a narrow guage railway leading to an exchange instead.
Fred Dibnah Inventing Britain on UK TC History Sunday Night visited
the Black Country Living Museum where there is a timber frame pit
head, looked in pretty good condition. Worth a trip if you are out
that way.
IIRC they used pitch pine for this, the wood needed to be free from
splits and knots and the way to check was to place your pocket watch
on one end then put your ear to the other, if you could hear the
ticking all was well.
Regards
Mike
Chris Wilson
news:h9nls19r47n6lsg5b...@4ax.com:
> On 15 Jan 2006 17:05:30 GMT, Chris Wilson
> <bigb...@4rubbish.britwar.co.uk> wrote:
...
>
> Fred Dibnah Inventing Britain on UK TC History Sunday Night visited
> the Black Country Living Museum where there is a timber frame pit
> head, looked in pretty good condition. Worth a trip if you are out
> that way.
That's the one, UK History Channel has been showing all of Fred's programs
one after the other for the past few weeks. In fact I thin k that they may
still be doing so, Ch 100 on NTL (sorry don't know what it is on SKY etc).
Mi...@notigg.not.no
<bigb...@4rubbish.britwar.co.uk> wrote:
>Mi...@notigg.not.no wrote in
>news:h9nls19r47n6lsg5b...@4ax.com:
>
>> On 15 Jan 2006 17:05:30 GMT, Chris Wilson
>> <bigb...@4rubbish.britwar.co.uk> wrote:
>...
>>
>> Fred Dibnah Inventing Britain on UK TC History Sunday Night visited
>> the Black Country Living Museum where there is a timber frame pit
>> head, looked in pretty good condition. Worth a trip if you are out
>> that way.
>
>That's the one, UK History Channel has been showing all of Fred's programs
>one after the other for the past few weeks. In fact I thin k that they may
>still be doing so, Ch 100 on NTL (sorry don't know what it is on SKY etc).
12 on Freeview
Duncan
"kim" <ntsc...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:dqak3f$o25$1...@domitilla.aioe.org...
This photo might help someone. It's half a coal mine pithead wheel, at Bowes
Railway. I reckoned about 6ft radius, maybe a little more.
http://www.the.ravine.btinternet.co.uk/pitheadwheel.htm
HTH
Duncan
(BTW, the rope hauled method of shifting wagons as seen at Bowes would make
a very unusual subject for a layout - no locos to worry about, no live
rails, small radius points and there were prototype inclines up to about 1
in 14)