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Colud anyone please tell me what this is and what it was used for.thanks

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The 2 fittings are definitely for a bogey axle, I have a small slab truck here at home with these fitted.
The whole thing is suggestive of some kind of arrangement to do with a run of flat rods, although in Wales these would be iron rods as can be seen at Llywernog Mining Museum.
Remember that various fittings were all available from stock produced by the various foundries, how this was used was never engraved in stone but basically up to the imagination and ingenuity of the companies that purchased it.
Hence we have some very odd and significant arrangements, examples:

The simultaneous pumping of 2 shafts by a huge water wheel at Wheal Call, with timber flat rods running through a ‘tunnel’
The double angle bob pumping arrangement at Llanrwst Mine, can still be seen today.
The use of a mine truck running on a short stretch of rails as part of the flatrod system at Van Mine, Llanidloes. There are photographs of this in existence.

I would advise that more could be learned by (carefully) turning this artefact over and seeing what attachments there are on the other side.

An alternative possibility is that it maybe ran down an incline as a counterbalance like the arrangement at Rhosyth?

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Hmm....can´t say what I know what its for,but can make a few suggestions:In the second photo,what I thought may have been axle mounts,look more like a safety hook when you look at the photo enlarged.As if you would loop a rope around them,sothat it doesnt come off (Anti slip or anti displacement hooks as health and safety call them).Plus they seem to be facing different ways so rope could hold from each side?or maybe they have been adapted to hold an axle?
In the first photo it looks as though the metal bracket was meant to hold another thick timber at a right angle to the extant platform (hence the 2 unused bolt holes).
But as is well known,slate quarries tended to àdopt,adapt,and improve`,so I maybe throwing you off course!Was it found near anything that might give us a clue?Good luck,got me thinking now! 😢 :confused:

Something that seems a bit surprising is the "handle" (for lack of a better term). It is held there by bolts (rivets? I can't quite see) it is done in such a way the the "handle" can be at differing angles to the body.

Looking at it further (in super zoom mode). There are markings that indicate that there were rectangular plates bolted on either side of the two extant "axle boxes". Maybe at one time it was 4 wheeled but later reduced to two centrally placed? The two remaining axle boxes are bolted down using two of the original bolt places. The bases are partly over two of the original plate places.

Something that seems a bit surprising is the "handle" (for lack of a better term). It is held there by bolts (rivets? I can't quite see) it is done in such a way the the "handle" can be at differing angles to the body.

Yes the handle can be moved up and down quite easily. at first i was thinking the same as Roy that it could have been used as a counter balence for a incline bit i think its a bit to small and light for that as i was able to pick it up and tern it over.there didnt seem to be anything on the top side just smooth woden bords.it is situate on a wall just up infront of the cornish pump house

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If it is a trolley,I would think if would have been 4 wheeled originally,and the bit you see here is the turntable end (maybe if turned over there might be a centre pin for turning).
Difficult to use as a 2 wheeled truck as the drawbar is not rigid (like having a 2 wheeled barrow with flexible handles).
Answers on a postcard to .......

...also,in the book Steam Engines and Waterwheels by Frank D Woodall,there is a photo of Dorothea engine house in the fifties,when the wall around the pump shaft was broken down to install electric pumps.The photo shows lots of long pipe piled up by the engine house.One idea might be that if you had a long and awkward load to move,you could lash up one two wheeled trolley at one end of the load,and have another seprate trolley or just a set of wheels on an axle tied to the other.Having a drawbar would make this the leading trolley if that was the case,but we can only guess.Hope any of this helps.Still think that the closest àxle block`casting looks suspicious on the supersize photo though.Why cast it hook shaped?Probably came off something else....

Assuming the 4 former ironwork areas were for 4 wheels it must have been awkward to use though as all 4 wheels would be fixed.

If i get chance tomorow i will go and take some better pics.thats if its still there

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I'd agree that it doesn't look large enough to be a balance bob. I don't know enough about the details of the pump rod arrangements described to comment on that.

I would suggest that the 'handle' is a tow-bar, intended to be used with a pin-type coupler, possibly on a narrow-gauge locomotive? BEV-type battery locos often have these, pulling trains of muck-tubs linked by simple pin-and-plate couplers.

I've seen long items like pipes and logs transported by pairs of small bogies, coupled mainly by the piece itself, and partly by a simple security chain or wire rope between the two bogies. Usually these are four-wheeled, but I have seen two-wheel ones; I remember using a pipe camel of this type, with the twin bogies linked by a simple steel bar with clevis-type pin couplers, which served the purpose of keeping it upright when empty

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I would hazard a guess at the swiveling turntable bogey end of a truck. Assuming it had flanged wheels for use on tracks it must have been art of quite a long truck. More likely not to be used on tracks though.

Does look quite like it could be a turntable for a non rail going truck,but from a construction point of view,it looks as though it is the `right way up`as the main `chasis beams`are underneath the platform.If so the wheels (in such a case) would be mounted above the platform and would have to be quite large.I think I would have bolted the àxle brackets`to the
thickest timbers at the bottom (assuming it is a trolley).
If you supersize the first photo the àxle mount`casting that is in the best condition looks too much like it wasnt designed for that,but agree it possibly came to hand when needed for the construction of the thing.

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There are two thing that realy interest me about this is that the first time i lookd at it i thorght the draw bar was free moveing up and down but when i looked tonight it has been welded on so i dont think it is oringal and the second thing is that the so calld axel boxes are open so im not so shore thay are to run a axel as thay look nothing like that of the type used on slate wagons.could it be that this object may have been used to conect two cable ropes together? im still unshure

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Could be the top of some sort of mast,if you imagine a large timber at a right angle to the `deck`slotted through the bracket that holds the drawbar on.

Could be the top of some sort of mast,if you imagine a large timber at a right angle to the `deck`slotted through the bracket that holds the drawbar on.

Maybe - I need to have a look at my photos of PenyrOrsedd's mast tops.

Grahami

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I dont know too much about Dorothea,but has there been àfter closure unofficial tip working`there?The idea of it being a mast component got me thinking of crude cableways used by tip workers and the like that A.J.Richards writes about in Cwm Gwyrfai.It looks a bit makeshift to be part of the chain incline or blodin masts.Most of the components seem to have had a previous life.In the supersized mode you can see by rust `shadows`where brackets have been,or moved from.The hooked brackets are facing opposite ways,and the flat iron attaching the `drawbar`to the timber seems to have come from something else,as you can see where it has been cut half way through a bolt hole that has never been bolted through the timber.And the welding of what was I`m sure in a previous life a `drawbar`obviously has a purpose.
Whatever this thingymyjig is,I think it demonstrates the resourcefulness found in these sorts of places.I would`t like to hazard any more quesses,I hope I haven`t confused anyone in previous replies.The answer is out there somewhere...but if not its given us a brain workout.The quarry version of a crop circle?....