Aerial Ropeways & Inclined Planes

Easy access to the steep heights of the Great Wall of China is attained by using this cablecar at Mutianyu. It is only a few years since tourists had to slog up many steps and slopes to reach the wall. China is changing fast and has already changed a lot.

Advert for the British Ropeway Engineering Co Ltd. in the 1963 Guide to the Coalfields. By this time I don't think the practical advantages outweighed the capacity and economic considerations and the company was selling few, if any, new ropeway systems in the UK. That said they are still in business today.

George Hargreaves & Co sank the shaft of Grimebridge Colliery in 1851 and soon after a 'ginny road' was built across the moors to transport the coal tubs to the road up the valley from Waterfoot. At the site of the Fox Hill colliery the chain hauled line became a steep incline which crossed a wooden viaduct and then passed through a long tunnel to reach the staith. The line operated for at least 90 years before the coal was routed through the hill to a wharf near Old Meadows on the Bacup to Burnley road. These are the remains of the viaduct on the incline from Fox Hill to the staith at Whitewell Bottom. The wooden viaduct would have been supported on these stone piers

Filling buckets with shale at the top loading station of the Claughton Brickworks aerial ropeway.

Nearing the top loading station on the Claughton aerial ropeway.

Industrial archaeological features are so easily lost. Development of industrial units at the site of the former Thorncliffe Colliery in South Yorkshire has seen this concrete base cast aside. This once held a tower for the aerial ropeway carrying coal to the Smithywood coking plant. A small thing but worth recording before it is gone for ever.

Buckets pass with minimum fuss whilst sheep graze below on the Claughton aerial ropeway.

The Conwy stone quarries are easily visible from the A55 a short distance west of the tunnel under the estuary. A microgranite was worked here during the nineteenth century under a number of quarry owners. A series of inclines connected at least four levels with the mill and loading bunkers on a siding off the Chester and Holyhead Railway. Closure came at some point between 1936 and 1945 after an agreement was reached to supply the North Wales Granite Co Ltd with stone from Penmaenmawr. The quarry is now sometimes used by climbers and the five incline brake drum houses stand empty, staring out onto the Irish Sea. This is the remains of the drum house at the top level of the quarry.

Fallen pylon from the aerial ropeway that brought slate down from the mines and quarries on the slopes of Coniston Old Man to the mill at Saddlestone. The casting of the rope guide shows that the ropeway was manufactured by the Widnes firm of Richard White and Sons.

This is a carrier for a bucket on the Claughton Brickworks aerial ropeway. The rope gripper is on the right whilst the wheels are for carrying over the pylons. In use the visible sections would be on the underside. Replacement parts such as this all have to be specially made and this adds significantly to the cost of operating the ropeway.

Drumhouse for Incline 54 at Penmaenmawr West Quarry. It is 1,050 feet down to the sea from this point.

Launch point at the top of the aerial ropeway supplying shale to the Claughton brickworks.

A relic of the fluorspar extraction from mine hillocks in the Great Longstone area of Derbyshire. The spar was lowered down an inclined plane with the rope passing around this wheel with brake wheel above.

Whilst out and about seeking limekilns I happened upon these pillars for the brake drum of a self-acting incline. After a bit of research it appears that this was for a line serving the Bryngwyn limestone quarry to the south of Gwernymynydd. Map evidence suggests that it was built after 1914 and abandoned by 1940. Stone was taken down to a loading bank close to the main road in the village.

Drumhouse for the No.39 Penmaen Mill Chute incline at Penmaenmawr. This was a powered incline using a motor geared to the drum.

Winding drum remains at the top of the lower Nant Gadwen Incline which carried ore from the various Rhiw Manganese Mines down to a pier at Porth Ysgo. The pier was completed in 1902-3 and the incline operated until the closure of the mines in 1925, although a certain amount was shipped from the tips for a few years afterwards. The building on the left served the weighbridge.

Drum for the self-acting Bodwyddog Fawr incline at the Rhiw manganese mines. Ore was taken down to the pier at Nant Gadwen until the end of the First World War. There were two more inclines before the pier was reached and a long section that was eventually worked by a steam locomotive.

Bucket 42 is on the rail and ready for launch at the top of the Claughton Brickworks aerial ropeway. The launcher is waiting for an empty bucket to reach a certain point on its way up before sending this full bucket of shale along the rail and onto the rope. This ensures that the load on the rope is kept evenly spaced and the speed correct as it operates entirely by gravity. The bin is a bonus.