Hi everyone who has posted photos of this Floor 3 bridge.... I 've decided that I need to make a drawing of this bridge - it's relevant to my Oakleley part one since the Welsh Slate Company had an enormous run of bridges suspended from the clay slant on floor DE - which were probably similar to this one, although with a smoother roof and at a lower angle - about 30 deg. No, I don't want anyone to go and measure it for once, but I'm guessing that the original photos were taken at higher resolution than they appear here. So, what I'm interested in in is a higher resolution image of the suspension links holding the bridge beams up. I suspect what we've got here are screwed rods which could be adjusted at the turnbuckles(?) or whatever they are that you can see, the images as posted are almost enough, but not quite to see properly. Any help appreciated! I can scale the bits, I think, because I'm assuming the two main beams were centred at about 2ft, as they would have had the tramway rails directly above them. It's an awful long time since I stood and stared at this bridge, so any feel for the sizes of those timbers would be helpful. (And I will post the draft/finished drawing here for comment as well.)

Cheers

Grahami

Photograph:

🔗Oakeley-Slate-Mine-28-04-2007-Image-004[linkphoto]Oakeley-Slate-Mine-28-04-2007-Image-004[/linkphoto][/link]

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Will have a dig through all my photos tonight 😉

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Many thanks. I can't make my mind up about the cross-beam under the main span beams, that is the one which is actually supported by the rods. Is it one wooden beam , or two bolted together ? On one shot it seems as though one of the long beam goes through a cross beam, yet on another it looks as though the cross beam goes underneath the main beams - which is what I would have expected. Most confusing!

Cheers

Grahami

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From what I remember, the suspension rods are set lengths hanging from the pegs in the roof (with an extension piece for the longer drops on the left). The rods go through the cross members where (if I am picturing it right) they are finished with a thread. A large nut screws up to support the cross members from below with a square washer/plate to spread the load and stop the nut being pulled through the timber. This nut would make for the adjustment/tensioning.

I am only 70-80% sure thats how it worked.

Oh yeah, the mains beams sit ontop of the cross members and the cross members are one single timber, about 6" wide and 12" deep. The main beams are around 8" wide and 12 to 14" deep..... well.. what's left of them is..! ::)

PM sent Graham, hope they are of use.

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Thanks Simon. Great - loads of rust! Thought the fastenings rang a bell - just look at the connections on this Oakeley 1950's bridge. Steel girders under the floor, rather than massive timber beams, but otherwise much the same.
🔗Oakeley-Slate-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-38118[linkphoto]Oakeley-Slate-Mine-Archive-Album-Image-38118[/linkphoto][/link]
Back on Floor 3, Playing with sketching, I reckon the flooring timbers must be getting on for a foot wide and 2.5in deep. I count about 8 timbers between each hanging support, and five hanging supports - that gives a bridge length of approx 6 x 8 = 48ft - which is about the right width for a chamber. I don't know - and I can't tell how much the bridge timbers are supported by the rock floor in the levels at either end - I would guess a couple of feet - no more?

I'll redraw on this basis unless anyone feels I'm wildly out.

Cheers

Grahami

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Eeek..! Just the thought of taking a block of that size across any of the bridges in there makes me shudder. It's hard to imagine that they were pretty solid things 100 years ago when I'm so used to the soggy mess they are now.

Regarding the flooring timbers, I agree with your dimensions. There were only a couple of timbers supported by the rock on the near side but very different on the far side where there are more like 6 or 7 timbers kind of sitting on the slanting rock beneath before you were really on solid ground.

The 'slanting' rock directly below the bridge provides the start of the ledge (or cat walk) which takes you round to the landing at the head of the chamber. You can still edge your way round to the landing although it's a bit exposed.

Definitely agree with Speedy there about the number of times supported by rock, more so on the far side by a factor of about 3.

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