OK, it's head scratching time. Can anyone who actually saw the Llechwedd "Robey Incline" drums, either in position before the demolition, or afterwards when the drums were lying on the ground, give me a good estimate of the actual diameter of the drums? Typical figures from Oakeley are 4ft, 4ft.9in, 5ft. Now you can get different answers, depending on whether you are referring to the sides of the brake path, or the actual winding diameter - but any help would be appreciated. I've not been able to find a figure in the archives.

Also, looking at the various photographs, it looks as though the drum which was used to wind Sinc Fawr (that's the one where the rope came out of the back of the drum house and round a pair of sheaves) was narrower than the other two - can anyone remember ? (It's the one nearest the gear wheel)

Also 2, how about the height/radius of the flywheel ?

Given these figures I can do a lot with trying to draw the whole thing. I can take an intelligent guess, but figures from someone who was there would help!

Cheers

Grahami

Photograph:

Drums on stage
🔗Llechwedd-Surface-Destruction-Image-011[linkphoto]Llechwedd-Surface-Destruction-Image-011[/linkphoto][/link]
Drums afterwards
🔗Llechwedd-Surface-Destruction-Image-028[linkphoto]Llechwedd-Surface-Destruction-Image-028[/linkphoto][/link]
Flywheel etc.
🔗Llechwedd-Surface-Destruction-Image-006[linkphoto]Llechwedd-Surface-Destruction-Image-006[/linkphoto][/link]

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If not identical to the Maenofferen winding drums then very close, size wise at least
Non of us actually measured them as far as I know, we had no idea it woud be demolished wihin a few days, but I can remember looking at it and thinking the Maenofferen winder was a pretty close match in many ways.

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/view_picture.asp?id=11666 

I don't remember the Sinc Fawr drum being a different size.
Its the one on the right of this picture but the hanging wriggly tin obscures the others-

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/view_picture.asp?id=11668 



http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/view_picture.asp?id=11660 

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/view_picture.asp?id=11660 

Good pictures of the flywheel courtesy of Simply Exploring, I think it was 8' to 8' 6" or thereabouts.

Sorry I can't be more precise

Thanks for that. I'll see how it scales out...

Any more ideas welcome.

Curiously the Sinc Fawr drum is a different design to the other two - the triangular spaces between the "spokes" of the end castings are different sizes.

Grahami

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Not had a chance to do any drawing yet. However, have been having a look at my pictures of the drums on Maenofferen's Back Vein winder and the B31 winder.

Curious. Both Maenofferen winders have the clutch mounted at the same end of the drum as the brake path. Llechwedd's Floor 5 winder and the Oakeley ones I have photos for were arranged with the brake path at one end and the clutch at the other. In their case the "driver" stood between the two controls with the speed lever in front of him, at Maenofferen, he stood to the left of both levers, facing down the incline, with the speed lever in front of him.

Cheers

Grahami

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Just to keep you up to date:
From the photographs (here and historic - such as there are, plus Michael Messenger's book and a shot courtesy Dave Sallery) I have now got (I think) a reasonable structure plan.

For the machinery, a lot of very peculiar scaling and cross referencing shots has given me these approximations:
Flywheel: 10ft diam.
Large Gear on end of drumshaft: 5ft 6in diam. 68 teeth.
Small gear on flywheel/crank shaft: 24 teeth.
Drums: 5ft diam over rims
Brake path: 6in+ wide
Drumshaft 8-9in diam.
East (Sinc Fawr) Drum approx 20in wide
West and Centre Drums approx 30in wide

Crank throw approx 16in. (Engine stroke 32in?)
Large gear on flywheel/crank shaft: 4ft2in diam 192 teeth
Small gear on motor shaft: 28 teeth

Official data:
Motor 360rpm
Incline winding speed 4ft/sec
(NB This is equal to 240ft/min - which seems rather high for an incline, Oakeley's max was 100ft/sec.)

I cannot yet reconcile any reasonable sizes with the gear ratios to give the official winding speed! I can only conclude that the motor did not run at anything like full speed.

I'll post my conjectural history shortly.

Cheers

Grahami

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Thanks for the update Graham, it made a nice distraction from accounts... look forward to seeing the history writeup

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Latest update - the drawings are progressing -as is the number of calculations - however, for your enlightenment, :smartass: here are my current musings on the Floor 5 Winder:

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Llechwedd-Slate-Mine/Inclen-Bon.pdf 

Enjoy!

Cheers

Grahami

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