Round bar rail track · AditNow Community

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Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

18 years ago

Something of a rarity this, I believe: we came across this somewhere in north Wales recently:

[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Personal-Album-2-Image-014/[/img]

Close up:

[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Personal-Album-2-Image-015/[/img]

It's an old tramway track inside a mine which was abandoned a little over 100 years ago. The right hand rail is a relatively conventional rail shape (I'm sure someone can explain a bit more about it) but the left hand rail is round bar, which I've not come across before.

Any thoughts?

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

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merddinemrys
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

Round rails were used early on in railway history - the Penrhyn Railroad was originally laid in Oval Rail. Also some quarries used Hughes Rail (named after a manager in Penrhyn?) which was a system of temporary track consisting of round iron bars with turned down ends which slotted into holes in sleepers. This was copied by many mines but I believe is still quite rare.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

Blaen y Cwm Slate Quarry (near Cwt y Bugail) is one example I can think of that had it. I also remember seeing a length lying by the "new road" up to Maen Offeren Slate Quarry circa 1990. It had vanished next time I visited the site. I have seen traces in various other slate quarries over the years.

ChrisP
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

Thomas Hughes track was forged from round bars but the ends of each length of rail were turned down 90 degrees. This allowed the length of rail to be inserted into cast sleepers, giving an easily adaptable portable track system.
[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Personal-Album-102-Image-007/[/img]

It was only temporary for use at working faces though, Vanoord's set up looks far more permanent due to the wooden sleepers.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

18 years ago

Penrhyn also had cast "chairs" of (at least two types) that were designed to be spiked down to wooden sleepers. One type consisted of the "binocular holes" the second type had a saddle for intermediate support of the round rails. There were also cast sleepers that had "binocular hole" at one end and a saddle at the other, for where there were staggered joints. The round rail was also supported intermediately by a pair of grooves in large blocks of slate. The round rails (at Penrhyn) were generally a maximum of fifteen feet, although I did see one rail nineteen feet long, now sadly buried by the new tip. In fact there were quite a number of round rails surving, only to be buried in the mid 90s.