Making your own mining Tramway

[jackthediscoverer]

Here's the topic of making your own tramway track or cart for your mine tunnel.
Now since you could be thinking that you could buy some light railway rails from somewhere or from overseas for your shaft, but it will cost money.
Now I tried everywhere to find light rails for my tramway but sometimes their a bit expensive, so I've made my own tramway track using wooden sleepers, some hard wooden posts as rail holders and straight star pegs as Rails.
Here's the Image of my New type of Mining tramway track that I Have made Below.

Well what do you think about my new type of mining tramway track.

 

[Tathradj]

Plus 1 for ingenuity. :Y: :Y: :Y:
But, Why are the pickets at an angle. ??
Are you going to angle the wheels to suite
I would think that the weight of the cart
and ore will pull them out.

 

[LONEWOLF]

Mmm nice idea. :Y: .. I would think the tracks, with the weight of ore in the cart, it would run off it's rails pretty easily.. Then you have the issue of trying to get it back on track with the ore still in the cart. :N:
... You could turn the pickets over and run the cart with the upright of the picket, running in a groove on the wheels of the cart,and it would be very hard for it to run off it's rails, so to speak...now I don't know where you could get these wheels from, but im sure you could find something that could work for you... If you cant find something, then you could get solid steel wheels and get a Groove cut into them.... Perhaps some type of Wheels from the Lift/Elevator Industry would work...

LW...

 

[NeilM]

hmmm like it - just gotta get a mine now

 

[Dave law]

Do you have a photo of the wheels you intend to use on your cart. Cheers

 

[Moneybox]

Jack, Perhaps timber rails would serve your requirements........

Sawmilling began on present day State jarrah forest in the Kalamunda area near Kelmscott in the 1860s, and in the 1870s near Serpentine Dam as well as near Bunbury and Busselton. As the timber fellers had to go further out to collect timber, more transport was required. Wooden rails were laid on sleepers and trolleys were drawn by horses or bullocks, such as at Quindalup in the 1850's and the Mason & Bird line near Pickering Brook in the 1870's. Other early mills were Monger & Cowan (1844) in Guildford, Hancock (1844) in Belmont and Graves in Murray St in 1881.

Phil

 

[jackthediscoverer]

Well the earliest mining tramways were made out of wood but the wooden rails ware out quickly due to the weight of wagons on them. However I'm going to make the Mining cart wheels My self out of recycled scrap metal that will be melted down and casted into the shape of a train wheel like these below.

 

[Moneybox]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPnSb3yzytE

Jack you'll need a very good furnace to handle cast iron. Do you have patten making and casting experience?

 

[davsgold]

Well the earliest mining tramways were made out of wood but the wooden rails ware out quickly due to the weight of wagons on them. However I'm going to make the Mining cart wheels My self out of recycled scrap metal that will be melted down and casted into the shape of a train wheel like these below.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...s/7463/1493070794_il_570xn.784198737_hjoi.jpg

Full marks for having a go mate, but I think your trying to reinvent the wheel, there are plenty o wheels out there ready made, just like what your going to try and do yourself.

http://www.hamiltoncaster.com/Casters/Track-Wheel-Casters

http://www.reliance-foundry.com/wheels#gref

http://www.globalspec.com/industrial-directory/track_wheel

If I was doing this myself I would be using a ready made easy to get PFC (parallel flange channel) for the rails and a ready made wheel, but hey everyone to there own.

cheers dave

 

[bluejeansronald]

Hi Mate, The best idear for tram wheels old stubs and hubs and brake drum with out the shoes, Find them under old
caravans, we used them in the saw mill sawmill,they work a treat bearings and all. Cheers.

 

[jackthediscoverer]

I could buy the already made train wheels but sadly, they all cost money in USD and also made from overseas. I'm thinking about making my own train wheels because, I have enough scrap metal on the farm to make 4 train wheels (2 for each axle) and its going to be made out of a special kind of metal using a mixture of copper, aluminium, steel and iron and it should be a great experiment.

 

[aushunter]

I would secure them either one of 2 ways as shown - but I think drilling thru the star pickets you will get better anchorage.

Cheers
Brad....

 

[LONEWOLF]

very nice CAD work aushunter... that's what I was talking about... but after seeing your pic it might be a bit weak... :/

LW....

 

[aushunter]

If you weld on some lugs/joiners from each star picket and bolt together in a staggered way it should be enough as the main force is a downward one.
As long as the trucks are only pushed/pulled in a straight line i think it would hold for a while.
I remember when we where kids, dad used to work in a sawmill and it was relocated leaving the old sawmill in a shamble. but there where plenty of tracks and so on even wheels so we made our own rail track that ended up being over 250m long, it was on reasonable even ground but the last 100m or so end up going down hill towards the dam. We had fun on that thing regardless of the dangers until we all ended up into the dam, trolley and all, reckon the wheels would still be there today.
Brad

 

[Moneybox]

I could buy the already made train wheels but sadly, they all cost money in USD and also made from overseas. I'm thinking about making my own train wheels because, I have enough scrap metal on the farm to make 4 train wheels (2 for each axle) and its going to be made out of a special kind of metal using a mixture of copper, aluminium, steel and iron and it should be a great experiment.

It sounds like a great experiment Jack but I'm not sure you'll save money. I do too many of these things myself but it rarely saves anything. It just gives you a lot of satisfaction to design and build something new.

I do like the brake drum idea

 

[silver]

What about just putting angle iron over the inside of your timber rails and getting a few old tramway wheels from a sugarmill up in queensland somewhere. :Y:

 

[aushunter]

I thought about doing this a while back, getting some old track and building an ore cart for the front yard, I reckon those old wheels from the sawmill would still be in the mud, take the Excalibur and go for a swim, might get lucky.

 

[jackthediscoverer]

Thank you aushunter for a nice story of yours, and thank you so much for a new solution for my mining tramway idea. :Y:

 

[jethro]

About 25 yrs ago I helped some old fellas decommission a ''miners right claim'' they had in the Victorian high country. The drive in to intersect the reef was about 60 odd metres long. They used RHS for the rail with 3 or 4 metre sections of rail prefabbed and tied together by 25 x 3mm flat at about 750mm intervals. These were screwed down on 75mm square redgum sleepers. Apparently It was good enough to take out a 20ton sample from the reef in skips.

 

[Hunting the yellow]

you could use wood rail in 2m long lengths but joint it go the next rail and nail together or screw it down to the sleepers under it put iron strap the same width of the rail on top this is exactly what older mines in the 1860s and later did it served 4 things 1 it was easy to replace 2 you never wear out the real rail in this case wood 3 you can put steel wheels like someone suggested break drum discs/brakes witch work good 4 counter sink any nails or screws as far as you can into the wood as the top of the nail/screw will wear down/off first before the actual nail put each rail half a meter apart

downsides to this you will use a lot of wood and a chainsaw and trailer I would suggest you get it from local domestic firewood collection areas already seasoned not rotten or cracked it won't cost you loads of money buying wood if you want to do more than say 150 meters of rail
and getting the metal strips may cost a bit but cheaper than solid steel rail and easier to replace when worn down if you have a chainsaw you can make your own milling attachment up to cut nice flat boards/flanks also watch the grade of the track often adit/tunnel always go's up slightly from the portal in so if any water was met it drains out of the mine also this was done so it was easier on the men to push the full cars/trucks/carts ( they have many names these days ) down hill to the portal of the mine as apposed to up hill on the way back to refill they would be empty and weigh a lot less going back up the low gradient also remember to have drainage on both sides of the track and raise the track about half a foot or so above the original floor of the adit/tunnel so the wood won't rot as fast if in a wet mine and to make sure your rails are level if not your cart and all will derail

1 more thing to consider if you have a low cart long with the wheels not far apart about half a meter you can carry more load/weight than if you have something that comes up to your waste or higher

good luck PS I like your idea and jethros idea on the RHS steel rail

also one more thing to add ashhunters idea is ok having the rail/star picket like that but 2 main things to consider 1 its very narrow for a cart to run on the top without compressing it down with the weight and buckleing it unless you weld 2 side by side with a flat piece of steel over the top of the two it won't work well for a rail but that gets costly over a long distance and very time consuming.