I drove the early 70s version of the trams and much the same 3 speed forward and reverse with handbrake running on a 24 inch gauge rail system of which I laid 100s of metres over a 5 year period . They were capable of pulling or pushing 8 to 10 tons at a time depending on gradient. The mine is typical late 60s 70s 8ft x 8ft drives and cross cuts. In my last two years we upgraded to a larger still battery driven Eimco that could pull up to 12 tons and 2 ton wagons instead of 1. Most things were air driven, drills ,air legs , muckers and the fans, these produced around 116 decibels when running at full speed and deafening at a time when ear protection was non existent. Left me with 60% hearing loss in one ear and 40% the other and constant tinnitus. The drills faired little better at around 85 decibels. For me a fantastic job in my late teens, very tough conditions, excellant pay and essentially set me up for life. In cornwall we measured our levels in fathoms not feet and directly vertical below the surface and i worked at 340 fathom level or 2040 ft straight down. The sump eventually ended up 2600ft. Shaft riding would take around 3 minutes to go from the surface to my level .
I'm not exactly sure, they weighed around the 1 ton mark with large 24v lead acid batteries inside the box, and most times were connected to about 8 wagons which weighed around another 3 tons empty. Most levels had a gradient so when pushing empty wagons would run at about 10 mph. Most levels followed the lode so they were quite windy and relatively narrow with often roof supports so speed was not a necessity but pulling power was. Possibly The loco on its own may have managed about 15 mph ish.
Atleast a small section of the mine is open as a museum, whole town of Ajka was a mining town. Sadly since the mines died out, the city itself is starting to die out too...
i spent 5 years running one of those Mancha "Little Trammer" Type B mining locomotives. i was working a underground mine out side alleghany calif. i had to rewire the Mancha as water had turned the cloth wrapped copper wire into green powder. replaced the wire with welding cable and i had already charged the old 1973 40 volt battery and found it took a charge even in 1998. the original batteries for the Mancha little trammer were edison Nickel-iron batteries so you are running the little trammer off the third type battery its been run on. The Mancha little trammer i had was charged with a rewound truck alternator that was wound to put out 43 volts and powered with a small Pelton wheel with water from 200 feet higher in the mine. this allowed me to plug in the charger just after blasting at the end of the day and not having to run a generator at night to charge the battery
your found matchbooks were pre-1973 because, In 1973, federal safety laws required that strikers be placed on the backside of matchbooks instead of the front. I remember this change,
It reminds me of the Dome Gold Mine that I worked at for my first 29 years in mining, though our Mancha battery locos were 3x the size of the Lil Trammers, as our ore cars were what was termed a 5 ton ore car that wasn't coupled together by a chain, but a solid thick steel draw bar with holes on each end for a steel pin, btw the Dome Mine closed about 3 years ago after 117 years of operation, with plans to 'super pit' it.
@@stevengill1736 They are in the planning phase to expand it to move a highway, the mill, and all other surface infrastructure including, the conctrete #8 Shaft to make The Century Pit, Goldcorp/Newmont own this mine now.
@@katm2140 a Bigger open pit than the two previous open pits...now today as of Aug.28/24 I'm not hearing 'anything' about the now called Century Open Pit, but the previously mined Pamour Pit all owned by Newmont about 5 miles east on the relocated HWY 101.
Wow! This is amazing, a mine with still operable equipment. It looks like it could be placed back in service with not too much effort, possible as a tourist attraction. Thanks for sharing an amazing find, stay safe.
wow ....a working loc-e ( tram ) now thats great .... I am impressed ....and that is hard to do ...... can't believe you lugged that all the way down there ....that mine is in fantastic shape..... don't let anyone know where it is at
What a great demonstration of a working piece of equipment left behind. Gravity helped him get that battery pack down there but it's gonna take some sweat to get it back out again, I'm sure he will revisit this mine again ... that looks like too much fun.
Changing polarity doesn't change direction of series wound or shunt wound DC motors. Changing polarity only reverses DC motors that use a permanent magnet field.
I live ten miles from Flint you think the drinking water is bad you should see the Flint river, looks like a holding tank! Thanks for sharing great video!
You guys actually got that thing working... that's really impressive. Now, if you could get permission from the land owners to take it out of the mines, I'd love to see the whole ore cart train donated to a railroad museum or something.
What a great resurrection video! I've always waited for something like this to happen! Just like those ukrainian guys on RU-vid (Kreosan) who went to live in Pripyat (Chernobyl) for a while and powered up lights in abandoned buildings using battery packs and inverters to see if something still works after all those years.
Remember they only built fans too ventilation the dust because they were using dynamite. The fans were getting rid of the dust so much faster. The built ventilation shafts for oxygen the fans was too help keep the dust down. No fans are running and your not dead. Because of the ventilation built into the tunnels.
you should've brought a multimeter to see how many [micro]volts were left in that poor battery pack!! i've seen batteries much older that retain a surprising amount of energy.
Gosh boxy what happened to the guys you always explore with? Miss the disco and bible study mine explores. Oh and the sparkle pony master charge. Great explore and the tram and ore car ride was great.
Hi I am a first time seeing your video and I like it ... Its nice you have your wife going on the mine with you... I'm looking forword to more videos, think you for the time to make this video...
While I’m sure this goes without saying for the vast majority of viewers, if you just discovered this channel and like the content he puts out, be sure to check out his other RU-vid channel “ Shango066 ” lots of resurrection videos of vintage electronics.
The current that thing pulls should have smoked the smaller battery cables. But totally sparklepony framistan, dude! Next week, running the vertical hoist on a couple smartphone batteries? I hear it works great going down....up, maybe not so much...cheers.
BTW, motor-generator sets are what they used for radio gear too before they had solid state rectifiers and inverters. They called them dynamotors, and they worked really well for D.C. to D.C. applications, just like transformers for A.C., only not as efficient. Pretty cool old tech!
Your friend is Awesome, she knows more about the mines and their workings than some others I've watched. I'm sorry I don't know her name or if she is a Fan just exploring with you, But she could have her own show.
He probably said look at that crystal and called her funny..... funny looking not honey sounds very similar...I could see how the 2 could be mixed up 😉🤫
That was cool starting up the Trammer ,where can i get my tickets for a ride ,great to see , And those lovely beams of unused wood.gee wouln't the wood worker buffs love them.Great video ,Thanks.
New to this channel and I know this an older video but I appreciate the effort you guys put in to resurrecting that old tram. How long had it been sitting? Since the 60's?
