From the same archive as the flood photos:
http://search.digido.org.uk/?id=llgc-id%3a1465422 
"Images of John Vaughan Jones, a former quarryman, riding down the tracks on the incline at Craig-ddu Quarry on a "car gwyllt", which was a sort of velocipede and was only used at that quarry, together with close-up shots of the velocipede."

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That might be the caption - but the location looks suspiciously like the Votty incline to me! - Notice the remains of the bridge over the tracks in the distance, and the road at the right hand side, Diffwys floors above the drumhouse at the top of the incline.

Grahami

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Thanks Graham, I did wonder!

This one's fascinating too - Stwlan and the hydro scheme under construction:
http://search.digido.org.uk/?id=llgc-id%3a1468200 

If anyone has a few weeks to spare, I'd recommend clicking around the collection. It just goes on and on...

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Which quarry / incline is it in the background behind the Stwlan dam?

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It's Moelwyn slate. The water now comes up to around the level of the shadow on the incline.

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Thanks Mr Eckers, thought it might be.

CB

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"If anyone has a few weeks to spare, I'd recommend clicking around the collection. It just goes on and on..."

Damn! trying to write a report today.......but fallen down the rabbit hole!

Grrrr.... my post this morning seems to have disappeared!

Rather than browse at random through this collection (of course you can if you like...) if you go to the home page and put the magic word "quarry" in the search box and search the index - then on the page displayed do it again, you get a vast number of entries, arranged in collections. Significantly there are photos of the very early days of quarry tours at llechwedd, a number of collections of photos of Penrhyn Quarry and its railway, including the water balances and mills. A large collection of (new to me) photos of Oakeley in working days, both on the surface and underground including some superb shots of the main underground incline - I suspect its the K2 - lots of swing in the mills etc. Also some shots of the beginnings of Gloddfa Ganol with a young Wil Roberts installing the Bruce Peebles motor from Bocn Coedan in the Floor 5 winding house. Lots of interest and so on.

There is a shot of the car gwyllt looking the other way - showing the Queens hotel and DUffws station in the background.

Grahami

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Yes, found the underground Oakeley photos showing the incline. Nice to see.

I suppose all underwater now, probably forever 😞

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The underground incline appears to be the "K2" "Inclen Newydd" - as it has three tracks at the crimp. Some very nice shots of the various landings and the bridge across at one point.

I think the mill interiors shown is the old Bonc Siafft mill.

Reading the site info it would appear the images can be used for non-commercial purposes as long as the NLW is acknowledged as the copyright holder - so I think we should be able to reproduce them here. I can't find any way of commenting etc. on them on the NLW/digido website itself.

Lots of good stuff on there!

Grahami

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Car Gwyllt wasn't just used at Graig Ddu. For instance, an old quarryman told a friend of mine that he used one on the Oakeley Chamber 34 incline back in the day.

Speaking of that area and the NLW photos, have a look at this one:

🔗101382[linkphoto]101382[/linkphoto][/link]

I don't think it's the Queen Mary Caban though it rather looks like it (taken from the door). If it is a different one, it must look extremely similar to how the Queen Mary Café must have looked, don't you think?

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The picture is of the inclain coming down from Bowydd Qyarry (Lord).

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I imagine that the car gwyllt could be used on any incline - if one was daring enough!

I agree the photo looks rather like the Queen Mary caban - but I don't think the photographer ventured that far in, more likely to be the DE caban or one of the others close by the K2 incline. The compressor in a couple of shots is almost certainly the DE floor compressor.

There's a photo of the "L Floor" caban in "Caban" somewhere - I'll see if I can find it.

Grahami

Car Gwyllt wasn't just used at Graig Ddu. For instance, an old quarryman told a friend of mine that he used one on the Oakeley Chamber 34 incline back in the day.

Speaking of that area and the NLW photos, have a look at this one:

🔗101382[linkphoto]101382[/linkphoto][/link]

I don't think it's the Queen Mary Caban though it rather looks like it (taken from the door). If it is a different one, it must look extremely similar to how the Queen Mary Café must have looked, don't you think?

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Hmm - not Caban L but possibly Caban K two photos here from "caban" magazine. The Cabannau on floors M, N, O, P and Q-R appear to all be in the rock, the rest were for the mills on the surface and too big.
The interior shot definitely looks the same:
🔗101384[linkphoto]101384[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗101383[linkphoto]101383[/linkphoto][/link]
Grahami

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Just uploaded cross-sections of the K2 and K3 inclines as pdfs.
See also the combined plan of the inclines uploaded much longer ago.

Grahami

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Must be caban K then by the look of it!

Quite narrow really, more so than the Queen Mary looking at it. Must have been stuffy, all those fellas in there, probably smoking too...

Under water now of course, or under fall...

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Must be caban K then by the look of it!

Quite narrow really, more so than the Queen Mary looking at it. Must have been stuffy, all those fellas in there, probably smoking too...

Under water now of course, or under fall...

Who knows - it'd take a heck of a lot of pumping to drop the water level to K - three floors below G and a lot of chambers in both Old and New veins to de-water!

Grahami

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haha I understand

I imagine that the car gwyllt could be used on any incline - if one was daring enough!

I agree the photo looks rather like the Queen Mary caban - but I don't think the photographer ventured that far in, more likely to be the DE caban or one of the others close by the K2 incline. The compressor in a couple of shots is almost certainly the DE floor compressor.

There's a photo of the "L Floor" caban in "Caban" somewhere - I'll see if I can find it.

Grahami

Car Gwyllt wasn't just used at Graig Ddu. For instance, an old quarryman told a friend of mine that he used one on the Oakeley Chamber 34 incline back in the day.

Speaking of that area and the NLW photos, have a look at this one:

🔗101382[linkphoto]101382[/linkphoto][/link]

I don't think it's the Queen Mary Caban though it rather looks like it (taken from the door). If it is a different one, it must look extremely similar to how the Queen Mary Café must have looked, don't you think?

Graham, do you mean the compressor in chamber 33 with the cooling tanks? Seem to have missed the archive photos which may show this. If there are photos of DE in this area, maybe there are photos of the chamber 34 incline kicking about somewhere as well 🙂

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Sorry, should have been clearer- I meant the DE compressor housed in the old boiler house of the HIK incline at the eastern end of sinc fawr. It was a 2-stage (cross-compound) compressor while the DE chamber 33 compressor was a single-stage one.
In the background of the NLW photo you can see the motor beneath the gable roof.
Here is a photo of the compressor house (on the right) and the receiver.
🔗7384[linkphoto]7384[/linkphoto][/link]
And a photo of the whole complex:
🔗101394[linkphoto]101394[/linkphoto][/link]
I'm sure I've got a photo of the compressors somewhere as well. For now a diagram will have to do:
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents//OSQ-Compressors.pdf 

Grahami

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