An Incline Quarry Railway

An Incline Quarry Railway.

The Sheldon No. 4 quarry, at West Rutland, Vt., is probably the deepest and biggest hole in the ground from which marble is taken, to be seen in the country. If not the biggest it is certainly the deepest, penetrating at an acute angle of over 300 feet under the mountain. The costly means to elevate the stone from which such a depth may be readily appreciated.

Recently the company operating the quarry submitted the problem of overcoming the difficulty of elevating the material safely and expeditiously to the eminent engineers and machinists, F. R. Patch Mfg. Co., of Rutland, and the result is shown herewith in the incline railway and the power designed specially to operate it. The outline sketch shows the change of the incline of the veins of marble, and the location of the lower derrick as well as the present heading. The lower derrick, is stationed near the point where it became necessary (owing to the change of the incline of the layers of marble) to tunnel. It is intended to continue the track into the heading as soon as a derrick can be erected there, for loading the car, and for that purpose the long spool on the hoisting power is arranged to take on 525 feet of 1 ½" crucible steel rope.

The sketch will give the reader some idea of the incline of the railway, which arises at an angle of about 60º above the horizon. The rock both above and below the quarry is composed of layers of varying thickness of limestone and marble, and we have shown in the shading on the sketch where the company have quarried out variegated blue marble. On the sketch we have also attempted to give some idea of the location of the derrick on the bank of the quarry together with a pile of blocks and the car waiting to receive the block which the derrick has suspended.

At the upper right corner of the photograph will be noticed a platform at the side of the car landing, with men standing on the platform waiting for the car. These men also operate the bank derrick which is used in unloading the car. The railway is standard gauge, that is 4' 8 ½" between the rails, which are the standard "T" pattern, 60 pounds per yard. The present length of the railway is 330 feet, extending from a derrick on the bank of the quarry, to a derrick well down in the quarry toward the heading. The angle of the incline is 45º.

The power (see illustration) which is located about seventy-five feet from the quarry, is designed specially for rapid quarry work and is capable of drawing the car up the incline with a load of eighteen tons at a speed of one hundred feet per minute. The long drum shown to the right of the photograph is used for this purpose, while the short drum is used in operating the derrick on the quarry bank, for unloading the blocks from the incline railway and loading them on the pile or on the cars. The manner of operating is this: For rapid work the block is taken off the car at the top of the incline, and while the drum which operates the derrick is going ahead and hoisting its load off the car the long, or car drum, is running backward, governed by a powerful brake, and lowering the car back into the quarry for another load.

By means of this power, together with the incline track above described, the marble company are able to take an eighteen-ton block out of the quarry and load it on the car ready for shipment to the mill in from three to six minutes, which formerly required 30 minutes, also one extra derrick and three extra men, to operate same. This apparatus has been in operation now for about two months, and although it is an entirely new departure, it is giving excellent satisfaction.

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