Aerial Ropeways & Inclined Planes

Mandalls Slate Co Ltd worked a number of quarries on the slopes of Coniston Old Man. The main processing area was the mill at Saddlestone to where the slate 'clogs' were brought down by an aerial ropeway. Remains of the ropeway are still evident right up the hill with both fixed and moving ropes lying on the ground. The collapsed wooden framework was the start of the next flight of the ropeway.

Remains of the aerial ropeway that brought copper ore down from the mine in Cwm Bychan near Beddgelert to the processing mill. Production ceased c1930 and the pylons have remained safe from scrapmen ever since due to the remoteness of the site. The mound behind is one of the mine waste tips.

The Chinese have a habit of going over the top with their architecture. This Disneyesque building is the Harbin City terminal for the cable car that runs across the the Songhua River to Sun island where the snow festival is held.

Buckets for the aerial ropeway to the dirt tip at the Vreoci coal washery in Serbia.

BRECO advert from the 1946 Colliery Year Book. The photo of a bicable system hints at being of an installation in a warm country. A full description of the system shown is to be found in Meccano Magazine, June 1947, p270. AERIAL ropeways form an ideal means of transport when comparatively light loads have to be carried across hills and dales, roads and railways, and other obstacles. They can be constructed over practically any length, the longest one in the world at present having a length of 70' miles; and they have been built to handle capacities up to 300 tons per hour. The ropeway shown in the accompanying illustrations was built, designed, and supplied by the British Ropeway Engineering Co. Ltd., London, to the Associated Cement Co. of India for use at their Bhupendra Cement Works, which are situated a few miles from Kalka, near to the foothills to the Himalayas. The ropeway carries limestone from the quarries to the works and handles 100 tons per hour over a length of miles. It is in one straight line from end to end, no angle stations being involved; it crosses the paths of several wide rivers, a main road and a broad gauge railway. A large part of the route is through the forest of Malla, which is a hunting preserve of the Maharajah of Patiala. In designing the ropeway it was necessary to allow, over the forest portion of the route, for the buckets containing the material to be at such a height that they would easily clear an elephant and howdah. The individual loads in each bucket on the ropeway are 14 cwt.; they move at a speed of 140 yds. per minute and are spaced about 59 yds. apart. The ropes that support the loads are of steel and are of locked coil construction, that on the loaded side of the rope¬way having a circumference of 4¾ in. and that on the return side a circumference of 3⅜ in. The rope that hauls the loads along on the track rope is 2⅜ in. in circumference. The route of the ropeway has a fall in favour of the loads and under normal conditions only about 6 h.p. is required to drive. The photo shows a double tension station, which is provided to ensure that the correct tension is applied to the track ropes. The cages are filled with concrete blocks of the correct amount to produce this tension.It is essential that these weights should be hung freely as they have to take up any variation in the length of the rope due to temperature changes or rope stretch. Wherever an aerial ropeway crosses a road it is usual, in order to safeguard traffic passing below, to provide some form of protective bridge or net.

Remains of the aerial ropeway that brought copper ore down from the mine in Cwm Bychan near Beddgelert to the processing mill. Production ceased c1930 and the pylons have remained safe from scrapmen ever since due to the remoteness of the site.

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

The last surviving aerial ropeway in the UK carrying shale down to the Forterra brickworks. Capacity is around 250 tonnes of material per day.

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 penultimate level of the quarry.

The Chinese have a habit of going over the top with their architecture. This Disneyesque structure is the Sun Island terminal for the cable car that runs across the the Songhua River from Harbin city. The snow festival is held in the parkland behind this building.

The now dismantled ropeway carrying spoil from the coal washery at Oskova to the tip had this protective structure over the road in Jezevak village. Banovici, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Loaded skip at the spoil chutes of the Oskova coal washery. This was a long ropeway running over wooded ridges to the dirt tips. This is a reprocessing of an image posted many years ago.

Bucket on the aerial ropeway to the dirt tip at the Vreoci coal washery in Serbia.

Mandalls Slate Co Ltd worked a number of quarries on the slopes of Coniston Old Man. The main processing area was the mill at Saddlestone to where the slate 'clogs' were brought down by an aerial ropeway. Remains of the ropeway that took slate down to the valley are still evident right up the hill with both fixed and moving ropes lying on the ground. The collapsed wooden framework was the start of the next flight of the ropeway.

The cement works at Hope in the Peak District was established in 1929 by the Hull based firm of G & T Earle Ltd. The location gave easy access to the shale and limestone required to make cement and large quarries were developed to the north-east and south-west of the works. This view shows the very early development of the limestone quarry in 1929 with its narrow gauge railway incline to take the stone down to the kilns. Today the quarry remains in use but the incline has long been replaced by a conveyor.

A bucket of shale arrives at the end of the ropeway at Claughton brickworks whilst an empty one heads back to the quarry.

Drumhouse on one of the inclines down to the Ffrith Mill at Penmaenmawr granite quarry.

The Great Orme Tramway is Britain’s only funicular, or cable-hauled, tramway that travels on public roads. The one mile line, which runs in two sections, opened in 1902. The equipment was supplied by aerial ropeway specialists R White & Son of Widnes.