Re: Silica

Posted by Jeff Young on Nov 17, 2015; 10:13am
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Silica-tp2143p3944.html

Hi Norm,

According to the ICC maps, it was a siding rather than parallel spurs.  There’s just enough of the branch line after the siding re-joins to run an engine around a cut of cars.  The ICC maps also show a “chute” about 3/4 of the way down the siding, but I don’t know what it looked like.

In the early days (when the brick factory was running), they also unloaded limestone from Bolton for the lime kiln.  Probably coal or coke as well.  There appears to be a light narrow gauge track running from near the road crossing back around to the trestle that feeds the top of the kiln.  (Limestone and either coal or coke would be loaded into the top in alternating layers; after burning the quicklime would then filter out the hatches under the arch at the bottom.)  It would be great to know if there’s any sign of this grade left.

As for loading, it’s possible they were still using the “chute”, whatever it was.  

I’ve always assumed the piles were tailings.  I don’t think a man could shovel from ground level into a coal car.  If you look at the aforementioned transfer picture (Narrow Gauge Pictorial Vol VIII) you can see that the top board of a coal car would be above a man’s head when standing on the ground.  I suppose you could shovel from the *tops* of the piles into a coal car, but building a timber dock would be easier than blasting out enough additional feldspar to stand on.

I agree that they were quite economical during later years.  Take, for instance, the outer layer of feldspar on the lime kiln shown in the early pictures.  While it’s possible the metal bands rusted through and it just collapsed, I think it more likely that they broke it up and shipped it out with the rest of the product.

Given the lack of evidence (and my need to greatly compress the space at Silica), I went with something along the lines of the Blackhawk dock.  I have no real evidence that such a thing existed, however.

About 2/3 of the way back to Waterton is the Bolton limestone quarry.  There’s a spur there with a fork at the end.  There’s also the (very short) “Frauenhoff” spur near the Bolton quarry, which I imagine is related to the quarry.  Info on either of these appears to be pretty scarce.  Anyway, might be another location for your steam shovel. ;)

Cheers,
Jeff.