Hi Simon,
perhaps I did not explain myself fully - I meant say loading hopper that would discharge into the wagon, not a hopper wagon. The discharge accuracy when using a dragline is not very good, even with the best of drivers, a face shovel as in Chris's post #271 would be better for direct loading into rail wagons - but they do not have the reach that the dragline does, which is probably why a dragline is being used in this instance.
cheers
Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for that clarification.
Draglines were used extensively in the East Midlands as they suited the nature of the quarrying, which involved scraping off the over-burden (which had to be kept) and then scraping up the ore for loading. They would then work along the quarry "face". Any loading hoppers would have needed moving at regular intervals, which is just another piece of equipment to pay for and maintain: it would probably have meant another crane to move it.
Once the quarrying was complete, then the overburden was put back and the land returned to farming - using any spoil from elsewhere to bring the surface level back to where it was, if possible. There were extensive quarries not far from where I live, but apart from the site which once held a small mpd, and is now used as a municipal tip, it is very hard to find any traces of the industry.
Mind you, if you visit Irchester Country Park, you can see what happened before the legal obligation to restore the land was introduced!
As a modelling subject, most quarry face operations were less interesting that Chris's model, unless you want to build a working model of a crane (and they are very big, even in 4mm scale). However, the exchange sidings might be an interesting operation, but it depends on the volume of traffic. I always enjoyed seeing the Eastwell Ironstone Company at shows like Expo-EM.
Anyone with a serious interest in the subject should contact Mr. Castens and send him some money in exchange for books!
Simon
