Roy, what is the length of the SRT pitch in Taylor's? Free hanging or against wall?
Its a steep sloping ore pass. Its been years since I did it for obvious reasons but memory is of 60 feet or less as a steep slope. I was in Taylors the other week and looked down it and THINK I could see the hopper at the bottom.
For the benefit of everyone, its certainly not a swinging in space with rebelays on a hanging wall type thingy, I would say a piece of cake probably suitable for novices.
I will drop it myself on Thurs when I go in to rope it up, just to check everything out. I can put my findings and opinions on a bulletin bourd at NAMHO reception, or talk to me on the campsite.
75ft pitch or a tad less. Comprises two compartments: a wide ore chute -ore bin on the east and a narrow ladder way (ladders long since removed) with compressed main on the west. The timber lagging dividing the two compartments is largely missing for the top half. The ore bin is about one third full (i.e. the last 25ft or so has rock in it). If you ab down the ore chute you'll land on the broken rock but there will be lagging between you and the ladderway you need to be in to descend further. So you need to descend the ladderway all the way from the top.
When I last did it there were various old rails loose across the top that we belayed off. The pitch is about 70 degres and could be handlined for most of its height -but the top 15ft or so is wide and free-hanging and could not be handlined. The ladderway is a little constricted but unless you're built like a gorilla, it won't be tight or arkward.
Six feet from the bottom (the floor of Lefel Fawr west drivage) is a small rubble-covered wooden platform and a ricketty wooden ladder with the usual iron rungs descending to the floor of the level.
At the bottom of the pitch, eastward there is only ten yards of level, passing beneath some very poor condition timbering holding up a lot of deads in the bottom of a stope that extends all the way up to the floor of Taylor's west drivage. This timbering is very poor and in view of the volume of deads that would descend and trap you in the couple of yards of level beyond, I strongly advise against trying to explore eastwards.
Westwards is the extent of Lefel Fawr that I described in the post pasted above.
Do have a look at the very wide, slightly damp rise on the north branch of the level (i.e. on the Kigside Lode, barren at this horizon, so virtaully no stopes). Its never been climbed and whilst it is almost definately blind, there is a miniscule chance that it might just possibly connect to the workings on the Kingside Lode beneath Jackilas level - comprising about four sub-levels and some stoping according to mid C19 plans, from memory. So if anyone has a battery powered drill and a lot of bolts - this is an intriguing lead that might be just possibly be worth pushing.
When making your way along Taylor's West Drivage on the Comet Lode (the first left hand turn) from the cross-cut to the top of the pitch, shortly after you pass the ventilation engine pulley wheel in the roof just west of the cross-cut, you reach the end of the water and clamber up an easy slope of deads. In this area keep as close as you can to the (north) footwall because there is a hole in the floor into a 60 to 70ft deep stope, almost invisible due to deads having run onto it, at the (south) hanging wall side. I cleared the hole once and abseiled into it to survey the stope, but the deads later ran back and largely re-covered the hole. Its not a hole you want to discover by stepping on to the rather small timbers covering it!
In Taylor's East Drivage on the Comet Lode (the first right hand turn), the air has always been fine as far as the deep water beyond the fall at a small stope. Do please checkthe water level at the (east) far end of the fall and let me know whether there is still air space.
There used to be a shallow trench and a 4 inch plastic pipe throught the fall to keep the water level low enough to maintain an airspace so that atmospheric mixing would occur and the bad air further on in the drivage disapate. There is a full description on another thread of the discovery of the bad air in the 1980s, and of the cautious survey of the passage ten years later (during which time I ensured that an airspace had been maintanined) by which time the bad air was no longer discernable. The water is very deep - fully neck deep - and in view of the risk of the passage having sumped and the bad air having returned, I advise against a visit beyond the fall at present.
Hope these notes are useful!