The Hercules Haulage, also known as the Mount Read Haulage, the Hercules Tram[1] and the Williamsford Haulage Line,[2][3] was a self-acting 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge tramway on the side of Mount Read in Western Tasmania, that connected the Hercules Mine with Williamsford and then to the North East Dundas Tramway.
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The Mine
editThe Haulage was created to move ores from the Hercules Mine on Mount Read.[4] The mine was operational between the 1890s and the 1980s, and closed in 2000;[5] rehabilitation works commenced in 2005.[6]
The Haulage
editThe haulage was "self acting",[7] one mile (1.6 km) long and 1,642 feet (550m) high with a maximum gradient of 1 in 5.[8] It was claimed to be the largest and steepest self-acting tramway of its kind.[9][10]
Later haulage
editOn the closure of the NE Dundas Tramway, the Aerial Ropeway[11] from Hercules was built which took ore in a northerly direction to Rosebery, some literature confuses the two separate systems.
Notes
edit- ^ Harvey, John Henry 1855–1938 photographer (1880), Tram to Hercules Mine, Williamstown, Tas, retrieved 6 April 2012
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Williamsford haulage c1890s, State Library of Tasmania, retrieved 6 April 2012
- ^ Williamsford: collection of postcards, State Library of Tasmania, retrieved 6 April 2012
- ^ Some references note the Hercules Mine as being on Mount Hamilton, a separate named feature on the slopes of Mount Read
- ^ "Hercules Mine, Williamsford, Rosebery district, West Coast municipality, Tasmania, Australia".
- ^ Pollington, Michael; Lockley, Jim; Grun, Aniela; Pitt & Sherry (Firm) (2005), Hercules mine decommissioning and rehabilitation plan – public discussion draft, Pitt & Sherry, retrieved 6 April 2012
- ^ http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/self-acting – see item 2
- ^ Light Railways, number 35 Autumn 1971 p.22 has the gradient average as 1 in 3.2, and a maximum of 1.5 with operating speed of 14 mph – further details in Light Railways number 27, page 25 by Wayne Chynoweth
- ^ Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9. 3rd edition 1967 page 243
- ^ NOTES ON SELF – ACTING TRAMWAY, THE HERCULES MINE, TASMANIA.(A paper read before the Sydney University Engineering Society, November 12th,1902. By.B. SAWYER, B.E.) The Hercules Mine, situated on the western slope of Mount Hamilton, a spur of Mount Read, is connected with the terminus of the North-East Dundas Railway at Williamsford by means of an inclined self-acting tramway-on the endless rope system. The slope length of this line is eighty and a half chains, and the difference in elevation between the Government line and the "send-off" at the Mine is 1,642 feet. The average gradient is, therefore, 1 in 3'2, the maximum gradient being 1 in 1'5, and the minimum, i.e., the approach to Williamsford terminus, 1 in 8-8. source: http://escholarship.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/SUES/article/.../2239[permanent dead link]
- ^ "ZINC COMPANY'S WORKS AT ROSEBERY — PREMIER'S TOUR". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania. 13 September 1929. p. 10. Retrieved 6 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
References
edit- Pink, Kerry. The west coast story : a history of Western Tasmania and its mining fields Rev. ed. Zeehan, Tasmania : West Coast Pioneers Museum, 1984. ISBN 0-9598295-2-0
- Rae, Lou (2001). The Abt Railway and Railways of the Lyell region. Sandy Bay: Lou Rae. ISBN 0-9592098-7-5.
- Whitham, Charles. Western Tasmania – A land of riches and beauty (Reprint 2003 ed.). Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
- Whitham, Lindsay (2002). Railways, Mines, Pubs and People and other historical research. Sandy Bay: Tasmanian Historical Research Association. ISBN 0-909479-21-6.
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