I see what you mean about the foot of the incline. Even in a Outram rail
environemnt it could well have been more practical to use wooden
sleepers underground but above ground is another matter.
Yours,
Peter
No Name wrote:
> Thanks Peter
>
> Perhaps the context of this quarry might explain why I have my doubts that a wooden railway was ever used there. The workings in question were without doubt developed at a time immediately after the opening of the Croydon Merstham and Godstone Iron Railway, a classic tramway built to the Outram standard, and supplied by the Butterley Company, between 1803 and 1805. The quarry was developed after the completion of a drainage level in 1809. Stone from the quarry was taken directly to the CMGIR and then north to Croydon, and onwards to the Thames. The quarry owners were Messrs Jolliffe, who were key promoters of the CMGIR. The partnership Jolliffe and Banks leased the quarry, and they had also installed in 1809 an inclined plane powered by a steam engine, both supplied by the Butterley Company. It doesn't seem credible that they would then utilise WOODEN railway technology at the immediate base of the incline plane, which is where the 'railway sleepers' have been noticed, sup
porting the roof. It is also in this same passage that the signs of removed railway sleepers is suspected. The drainage level was blocked in 1820, and the quarry was drowned....
>
> Peter Burgess
--
Dr Peter Northover,
Materials Science-Based Archaeology Group,
Department of Materials, University of Oxford
Tel +44 (0)1865 283721; Fax +44 (0)1865 841943 Mobile +44 (0)7785 501745
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