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64-706: Significant coal deposits are located in the range, and the Denniston Incline at the end of the Conns Creek Branch railway was built up to a plateau in the Papahaua Range to provide railway access for some mines. Due to its extremely steep climb and spectacular operations, the Denniston Incline was known during its life as the "eighth wonder of the world" by locals. The Papahaua Ranges are largely forested and human habitation

128-520: A hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power. Today, steel rails, steel cables and an electric motor have taken over, but the line still follows the same route through the castle's fortifications. This line is generally described as the oldest funicular. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution , several railways used cable haulage in preference to locomotives, especially over steep inclines. The Bowes Railway on

192-463: A cable railway is to move vehicles on a steeply graded line that is too steep for conventional locomotives to operate on – this form of cable railway is often called an incline or inclined plane , or, in New Zealand, a jigline , or jig line . One common form of incline is the funicular – an isolated passenger railway where the cars are permanently attached to the cable. In other forms,

256-401: A common rail; at the centre of the incline there will be a passing track to allow the ascending and descending trains to pass each other. Railway workers attach the cable to the upper wagon, and detach it when it arrives at the other end of the incline. Generally, special-purpose safety couplings are used rather than the ordinary wagon couplings. The cables may be guided between the rails on

320-406: A common shaft, and the wire rope wound in opposite directions on each drum. So while one drum was letting the rope out and lowering a full wagon down the incline, the other drum was winding its rope in and pulling an empty wagon up the incline. Hydraulic pistons slowed the rotation of the winding drums to control the speed of the wagons. The Denniston Incline was actually two inclines. The higher of

384-705: A historical novel by Jenny Pattrick , set in the 1880s at Denniston. Coal is still mined on the Denniston Plateau, at a small scale, and 9 kilometres (5.6 miles) to the north at the Stockton Mine near Millerton . In 2010, Bathurst Resources announced the Escarpment Mine Project to mine for coal on the Denniston Plateau, a move strongly opposed by environmentalists. In March 2013 the Environment Court gave Bathurst

448-405: A licensed hotel from 1894 to c.1921. The last permanent resident departed in 1956. The community at Denniston served no other purpose than to support the operations of the coal mines and the incline. Once a usable road was put through from Waimangaroa to the plateau, people started to drift away from the plateau to the warmer climate of Waimangaroa or Westport below. By the 1960s, demand for coal

512-430: A rate of 12 to 18 wagons per hour. The track gauge was the standard NZR track gauge of 3 ft 6 in ( 1,067 mm ). The railway wagons used on the incline were mainly the common "Q" class hopper wagons , the hoppers of which could be detached from their wagon bodies and lifted by wharf crane over the hold of a ship, and the bottom discharge doors of the wagons then opened manually to discharge coal into

576-417: A single track and cable is required for this type. The stationary engine may be a steam or internal combustion engine, or may be a water wheel . In a gravity balance system two parallel tracks are employed with ascending trains on one and descending trains on the adjacent track. A single cable is attached to both trains, wound round a winding drum at the top of the incline to provide braking. The weight of

640-416: A total of 516 metres (1,693 feet) in 1,670 metres (83 chains or 1.04 miles), with some sections having gradients steeper than 1 in 1.3. The short-lived Koranui Incline on the other side of the valley was higher, with a total fall of 700 metres (2,300 feet), and over twice as long as the Denniston Incline, with a length of 3.6 kilometres (2.2 miles). Wagons could be delivered from Denniston to Conns Creek at

704-535: A whole peaked in 1911, at just over 1400 inhabitants (the population of Denniston township peaked later, in 1926). The first settlement, known as "The Camp", was located on a rock ledge above the Waimangaroa River. It was built below the level of the plateau between two escarpments for protection from relentless winds. The first workers developed the Banbury Mine, but many did not stay long owing to

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768-730: Is a small settlement, 15 kilometres (9 miles) east of Westport , on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated on the Denniston Plateau , 600 metres (2,000 ft) above sea level in the Papahaua Ranges . It is named for R. B. Denniston, manager of the first major mine to open on the West Coast in the 1870s. During the first few decades of the 20th century, up to 1400 people lived in

832-531: Is driven away from the head of the incline, hauling wagons up the inclined plane. The locomotive itself does not travel on the steeply graded section. An example is at the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum . This is most commonly used for a temporary incline where setting up the infrastructure of a winding drum and stationary engine is not appropriate. It is similarly employed for recovery operations where derailed rolling stock must be hauled back to

896-484: Is filled with water until the combined weight of the filled tank and train is greater than the weight of the loaded train that will be hauled uphill. The water is either carried in an additional water wagon attached to the descending train, or is carried underneath a trwnc car on which the empty train sits. This type of incline is especially associated with the Aberllefenni Slate Quarry that supplied

960-561: Is listed as a Category 1 Historic Place on the New Zealand Heritage List, and considered to have special or outstanding historical or cultural significance or value. The Denniston Incline and the key historical areas of the plateau are now managed by the New Zealand Department of Conservation. At Brakehead, replicas have been built of some of the former trackwork and three original Q wagons placed on

1024-420: Is low. The decline of coal has led to some settlements such as Denniston and Millerton becoming virtually ghost towns . 41°47′59.02″S 171°43′1.34″E  /  41.7997278°S 171.7170389°E  / -41.7997278; 171.7170389 This West Coast Region (New Zealand) geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Denniston Incline Denniston

1088-533: The Dinorwic Quarry and several in Blaenau Ffestiniog . These were worked by gravity, but instead of the wagons running on their own wheels, permanently attached angled wagons were used that had a horizontal platform on which the slate wagons rode. This is a variant of the gravity balance incline that can be used to move loads uphill. A water tank is attached to the descending train. The tank

1152-653: The 1 in 17 Bagworth incline opened on Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line ; the incline was bypassed in 1848. On July 20, 1837, the Camden Incline , between Euston and Primrose Hill on the London and Birmingham Railway opened. A Pit fishbelly gravitational railway operated between 1831 and 1846 to service the Australian Agricultural Company coal mine. B Pit opened 1837 and C Pit opened mid-1842. All were private operations by

1216-485: The Corris Railway. This form of incline has the advantages of a gravity balance system with the added ability to haul loads uphill. It is only practical where a large supply of water is available at the top of the incline. An example of this type of cable railway is the passenger carrying Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway . An uncommon form of cable railway uses locomotives, fitted with a winding drum, to power

1280-666: The Denniston Incline were taken over by the New Zealand State Mines Department in 1948. The Denniston Incline began operation in April 1880. It was a self-acting ropeway that used gravity to lower 12.5 ton gross laden weight New Zealand Railways' coal wagons one at a time from Brakehead, at Denniston, at the top to Conns Creek below. Each descending wagon hauled an empty one up the incline by means of wire ropes, each wagon attached to its own rope and brake drum. The two drums were mounted beside each other on

1344-584: The Denniston Incline, and the roperoads from the mines to the top of the incline. To raise additional capital to develop the mines further, the Westport Colliery Company was reformed into the Westport Coal Company in 1881. The company also operated mines in other places on the West Coast, including Millerton , and by 1905, the company was by far the largest coal producer in New Zealand. The Westport Coal Company's mines and

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1408-419: The Denniston Plateau, and the Denniston Incline itself, existed solely to extract coal from the plateau. Living conditions at Denniston were harsh; the rocky, windswept plateau is often immersed in cloud, receives a high annual rainfall, and very low temperatures are common. Once good road access to the plateau was established and the demand for coal declined, the townships shrank – and disappeared altogether once

1472-468: The Ironbridge Mine led to the establishment of the settlement known as Burnett's Face, about 2 kilometres southeast from Denniston. It was initially a cluster of tents, but by 1891 there were wooden cottages, a school, two hotels, a butchery, a bakery, several stores, two halls, and two billiard saloons. Its main road was the constantly running roperoad skipway linking the mine with the bins at

1536-603: The Ironbrook Mine and on to the Coalbrookdale Mine—a distance of about 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles). The roperoad system was renewed along a partly new alignment between 1900 and 1904. (An image of one of these roperoads can be seen below in External links.) In 1952, a monocable aerial ropeway 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) in length was commissioned (with buckets carrying coal suspended from the rope) to carry coal from

1600-408: The ballast wagons to the top of the incline. One of the major inclines at Dinorwic had four parallel tracks, two worked by the ballast method and two as conventional gravity balance. Inclines are classified by the power source used to wind the cable. A stationary engine drives the winding drum that hauls the wagons to the top of the inclined plane and may provide braking for descending loads. Only

1664-402: The cable. These ranged from simple lumps of rock wedged behind the wagon's wheels to permanently installed chocks that were mechanically synchronized with the drum braking system. At Maenofferen Quarry a system was installed that raised a short section of the rail at the head of the incline to prevent runaways. The operation of an incline was typically controlled by the brakesman positioned at

1728-417: The cable. With the cable or chain attached to the wagons to be drawn, but the drive to the drum disengaged, the locomotive climbs the slope under its own power. When the cable is nearly at its full extent, or when the summit is reached, the locomotive is fastened to the rails and the cable wound in. In a simpler form the cable is attached to a locomotive, usually at the upper end of the incline. The locomotive

1792-631: The cars attach and detach to the cable at the ends of the cable railway. Some cable railways are not steeply graded - these are often used in quarries to move large numbers of wagons between the quarry to the processing plant. The oldest extant cable railway is probably the Reisszug , a private line providing goods access to Hohensalzburg Fortress at Salzburg in Austria. It was first documented in 1515 by Cardinal Matthäus Lang , who became Archbishop of Salzburg . The line originally used wooden rails and

1856-571: The country's first miner's union was formed at Denniston in 1884. A report to the coal industry in 1919 attributed much of the industrial unrest and dissatisfaction of the Deniston miners to their 'sordid' living conditions. Denniston had a communal recreation and sports ground, its own sports clubs and Returned Services Association, and churches included Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Salvation Army. There were five lodges (Masonic, Druids, Odd Fellows, Orange and Buffaloes). In

1920-446: The days before social welfare, in an isolated community on low hourly wages, churches, unions, friendly societies and lodges provided important security for their members. Miners had formed their own Medical Association in 1883 (a doctor was contracted to visit Denniston twice a week) and an Accident and Relief Fund Association was formed in 1890. A hospital, which opened in 1910 – paid for by subscriptions, levies and fundraising efforts –

1984-459: The furthest levels in a single movement. In order to accommodate intermediate levels, turnouts were used to allow wagons to leave and join the cable railway part way along its length. Various methods were used to achieve this. One arrangement used at the Dinorwic Quarry was known as the "Ballast" method. This involved a two track incline with one track reserved for fully loaded wagons and the second used by partially loaded wagons. The line used by

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2048-416: The go-ahead, though groups such as Forest & Bird vowed to continue fighting. Information panels: Images: Video: 41°44′S 171°48′E  /  41.733°S 171.800°E  / -41.733; 171.800 Cable railway A cable railway is a railway that uses a cable , rope or chain to haul trains. It is a specific type of cable transportation . The most common use for

2112-462: The head of the Denniston Incline . By the 1950s, little remained of the settlement. Another township, Coalbrookdale, stretched for several hundred metres along sides of the roperoad in the lower Coalbrookdale Valley, southwest of Burnett's Face. There were about 21 buildings in Coalbrookdale in 1891, and the population peaked in 1896 when there were 165 people living in the valley. There was

2176-691: The hill directly from the mines. In May 1968, the Inangahua earthquake caused much damage to the incline, making the closure irreversible. Thus, what was once described as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by locals, faded into history. Little remains of the Incline or the townships on the plateau but relics can be found throughout the area. Middle Brake is one of the most intact industrial areas remaining because its inaccessibility resulted in much equipment being left on site. At Brakehead and Denniston township,

2240-403: The incline and mines closed. A former schoolhouse, now used as a museum, is one of the few buildings remaining. Very few people now live on the plateau but the area is of increasing interest to tourists interested in its history. Future opencast mining is a possibility. The setting and history of Denniston is similar to that of Millerton , located on a similar plateau 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) to

2304-485: The incline by a series of rollers so that they do not fall across the rail where they would be damaged by the wheels on the wagons. Occasionally inclines were used to move locomotives between levels, but these were comparatively rare as it was normally cheaper to provide a separate fleet of locomotives on either side of the incline, or else to work the level sections with horses. On early railways, cable-worked inclines were also used on some passenger lines. The speed of

2368-464: The incline carried an estimated 12.6 million tons of coal during its life. Some mining continued and the Escarpment Mine operated from 1964 to 1982. There were three main townships on the Denniston Plateau – Denniston, Burnett's Face, and Coalbrookdale. There were no roads connecting the townships, and everyone walked alongside the roperoads to move about. The population of the plateau as

2432-475: The incline. Settlement soon spread up onto the plateau itself, and by 1887, there were three hotels, a postal and telegraph office, four general stores, three butchers and three bakers in Denniston. Living conditions were squalid and visitors complained about the unsanitary and 'smelly' nature of the township. The cottages were utilitarian small wooden buildings with roofs and chimneys of corrugated iron. There

2496-411: The inclines was called the 'Company Side', as that was the side the company offices were located on; the northern side of the inclines was called the 'Donkey Side'. The system did not always function as intended and collisions, derailments and runaways were not unknown. The remains of several wrecked wagons still lie beside, or even some distance from, the incline formation. The Denniston incline fell

2560-424: The inhospitable conditions. However, by 1883 there were about a hundred residents, a school, and a brass band. The company's offices were above The Camp and Brakehead, alongside the tramway from the mine to the top of the incline. A bridle track was built between Waimangaroa and Denniston by 1885. Prior to this, the only access for people and goods had been to ride in coal wagons travelling at high speed up or down

2624-402: The inner rail shared by both tracks), while below the midsection of each incline (where wagons passed each other) the two sets of track were 'interwoven'. Each side of the inclines alternately had wagons ascending and descending – otherwise the ropes would get crossed over. (An image of a full wagon descending the upper part of one incline can be seen below in External links.) The southern side of

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2688-420: The loaded descending cars is used to lift the ascending empties. This form of cable railway can only be used to move loads downhill and requires a wider space than a stationary engine-driven incline, but has the advantage of not requiring external power, and therefore costs less to operate. A variation of the gravity balance incline was the trwnc incline found at slate quarries in north Wales , notably

2752-529: The main street grid, building foundations, chimneys, and the square water tanks that many houses had, are the main relics that can be seen. Most of the former building sites are empty and covered in low scrub and only a few buildings still stand. The former high school is occupied by the Friends of the Hill and is used as a museum and information centre. Other remaining buildings are now privately owned. Denniston

2816-778: The mills where slate was processed. Examples of substantial inclines were found in the quarries feeding the Ffestiniog Railway , the Talyllyn Railway and the Corris Railway amongst others. The Ashley Planes were used to transship heavy cargo over the Lehigh-Susquehanna drainage divide for over a hundred years and became uneconomic only when average locomotive traction engines became heavy and powerful enough that could haul long consists at speed past such obstructions yard to yard faster, even if

2880-399: The more roundabout route added mileage. Level tracks are arranged above and below the gradient to allow wagons to be moved onto the incline either singly or in short rakes of two or more. On the incline itself the tracks may be interlaced to reduce the width of land needed. This requires use of gauntlet track : either a single track of two rails, or a three-rail track where trains share

2944-450: The new Whareata and Sullivan mines to Brakehead, and the roperoad was abandoned. The Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge mines had reached the end of their economic lives and closed in 1944 and 1945 respectively; Banbury Mine had closed in 1890. The Westport Coal Company's coal production from the Denniston Plateau increased to an annual peak in 1910, when 464 men working underground produced 348,335 tons of coal. Production then declined. In all,

3008-484: The north. The Westport Colliery Company, predecessor to the Westport Coal Company, was formed in 1878 to mine the high quality coal on the Mount Rochfort Plateau, commonly known as the Denniston Plateau. To access the coal, the company extended the nearby Wellington Coal Company's branch railway on the south bank of the Waimangaroa River by 1.1 kilometres (0.68 miles) to Conns Creek , and constructed

3072-421: The outskirts of Gateshead opened in 1826. Today it is the world's only preserved operational 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge cable railway system. The Cromford and High Peak Railway opened in 1831 with grades up to 1 in 8. There were nine inclined planes: eight were engine-powered, one was operated by a horse gin . The Middleton Top winding engine house at

3136-443: The partially loaded wagons was known as the "ballast" track and it had a stop placed on it part way down. The distance from the top of the incline to the stop was the same as the distance that the fully loaded wagons needed to travel. Empty wagons were hauled up the incline, counterbalanced by the descending ballast wagons. These empty wagons were replaced by fully loaded wagons ready to descend. The descending loaded wagons then returned

3200-418: The permanent track. While the majority of cable railways moved trains over steep inclines, there are examples of cable-haulage on railways that did not have steep grades. The Glasgow Subway was cable-hauled from its opening in 1896 until it was converted to electric power in 1935. A few examples exist of cables being used on conventional railways to assist locomotives on steep grades. The Cowlairs incline

3264-534: The plateau and incline area amongst the scrub vegetation. The open-cast Escarpment Mine Project was established by Bathurst Resources in an area of 200 hectares of conservation land on the southern Denniston Plateau. Mining commenced in 2014, but was suspended in 2016 in response to the closure in June of the Holcim cement works at Cape Foulwind and a decline in global prices for hard coking coal. The townships of

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3328-631: The remaining workers, the provision of buses enabled them and their families to live in more pleasant conditions down on the coastal plain. The school, last shop, and last hotel (the Red Dog Saloon, owned by Johnny Cotter) closed in the 1960s, and the Post Office closed in 1971. The last lodge, the Buffaloes Lodge, closed in 1996 – though by then it had relocated from Denniston to the former Waimangaroa RSA rooms. The development of

3392-913: The same company. The majority of inclines were used in industrial settings, predominantly in quarries and mines, or to ship bulk goods over a barrier ridgeline as the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Ashley Planes feeder railway shipped coal from the Pennsylvania Canal / Susquehanna basin via Mountain Top to the Lehigh Canal in the Delaware River Basin. The Welsh slate industry made extensive use of gravity balance and water balance inclines to connect quarry galleries and underground chambers with

3456-455: The ships' holds. (Two images of a crane lifting a hopper out of a wagon and over a ship's hold can be seen below in External links.) The mines on the Denniston Plateau included the Banbury, Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Whareatea, and Sullivan mines. The first mine was the Banbury, which began production in 1880. A double track 0.61-metre (2-foot) gauge 560-metre long horse tramway was built from

3520-426: The site. With recognition of the historic nature of Denniston and its increasing status as a local tourist icon and one that is close to Westport, a group of mainly locals, The Friends of the Hill, seek to preserve Denniston's heritage and interpret it for the benefit of people visiting one of New Zealand's most famous coalfield settlements. The growth of interest in Denniston has been aided by The Denniston Rose ,

3584-505: The summit of Middleton Incline has been preserved and the ancient steam engine inside, once used to haul wagons up, is often demonstrated. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830 with cable haulage down a 1 in 48 grade to the dockside at Liverpool . It was originally designed for cable haulage up and down 1 in 100 grades at Rainhill in the belief that locomotive haulage was impracticable. The Rainhill Trials showed that locomotives could handle 1 in 100 gradients . In 1832,

3648-485: The top of the incline to the Banbury Mine above the Waimangaroa Gorge to carry coal from the mine to the top of the incline. Later, horse-power was replaced by a steam engine-powered moving endless rope to which mine tubs were hooked by chains for their journeys to and from the bins at Brakehead. By 1889, the double track tramway (now called a roperoad) had been extended through and beyond the Banbury Mine, past

3712-489: The townships on the Denniston Plateau to service the large coal mines there. Coal was transported in railway wagons from the plateau via the Denniston Incline to Conns Creek , where steam locomotives of New Zealand Railways took coal trains to the port of Westport. The Denniston Incline closed in 1967. The plateau now has a population of fewer than 10 people, and virtually all the buildings and structures are gone, although many historical relics remain – scattered throughout

3776-522: The two began at Brakehead, and descended steeply to the appropriately named Middle Brake. Here wagons were disconnected from the first incline's rope, and placed on the rope of the second incline for a more gentle descent to Conns Creek, where the accumulated wagons would then be marshalled into trains before being taken to Westport. The drum from Middle Brake is now on display at Westport's Coaltown Museum. The upper part of each incline had essentially two sets of railway tracks side by side (three rails, with

3840-448: The wagons was usually controlled by means of a brake that acted on the winding drum at the head of the incline. The incline cable passed round the drum several times to ensure there was sufficient friction for the brake to slow the rotation of the drum – and therefore the wagons – without the cable slipping. At the head of the incline various devices were employed to ensure that wagons did not start to descend before they were attached to

3904-438: The winding house. A variety of systems were used to communicate with workers at the bottom of the incline, whose job it was to attach and detach the wagons from the incline cable. One of the most common communication methods was a simple electrical bell system. Cable railways were often used within quarries to connect working levels. Sometimes a single cable railway would span multiple levels, allowing wagons to be moved between

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3968-540: Was built in a central location to deal with emergencies from mines in all directions. Denniston did not have a cemetery as the ground was too hard; bodies were transported from Denniston to Waimangaroa for burial, initially down the Denniston Incline and later by road. The peak of population came in 1926, when there were 910 living in the township. During the 1932–35 Depression, and after World War 2, people began to move away from Denniston, with many houses being moved in sections for re-erection at Waimangaroa or Westport. For

4032-403: Was falling and the Denniston Incline closed on 16 August 1967. The Conns Creek branch, which connected to the foot of the incline, was cut back to become a 1-kilometre (0.62-mile) long spur siding where the coal carried by truck from the bins at Brakehead was transferred into railway wagons. A few months later, in 1968, the aerial ropeway from the mines also closed in favour of trucking of coal down

4096-406: Was no running water, no baths in houses, and toilets were tin sheds with cans that were emptied by night cart men. Large families were often confined to two-room huts for long periods during bad weather. There were no shrubs, flowers or gardens. Even after 20 years, these poor living conditions still prevailed. Denniston played a key role in the development of the union movement in New Zealand, and

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