Cool Underground Tunnel and Nanaimo's Old Mine Shafts

[seaman]

wow that's pretty cool, I have no idea what that is but must have been fun to be able to find artifacts in your back yard, a buddy of mine I was talking to this morning bought the property in departure bay fronting the old dunsmuir coal port he's excavating and told me he dug up 12 feet of railroad track the other day they just re buried it so it's still there, pretty freakin cool to have some history in your back yard!

[GR74]

Hmmm. I'm looking at those photos and it looks like some leaf springs are laying in the pile of scrap metal there..... I don't think coal cars had leaf springs (or and kind of suspension period). Could have been a carriage of some kind, maybe farm equipment????? Thats my guess.

[grdnkat]

QUOTE=GR74;54025]Hmmm. I'm looking at those photos and it looks like some leaf springs are laying in the pile of scrap metal there..... I don't think coal cars had leaf springs (or and kind of suspension period). Could have been a carriage of some kind, maybe farm equipment????? Thats my guess.[/QUOTE]

Thanks GR74I think that's a pretty good guess. My uncle who thought it was the undercarriage of a hansom cab was an old farmer, and checking it out on the net today I found a picture that shows what this part looks like under the front wheel.

http://www.georgianindex.net/horse_a...carriages.html

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[Flugel Horn]

Question about routes of narrow-gauge railways from Departure Bay to Wellington (Dunsmuir mine) and East Wellington (Chandler mine):

- what route would each of these narrow-gauge have taken to exit the sea-level lands at Departure Bay and climb to the highlands of Wellington & East Wellington?

I'm assuming that "up Bay Street" would be too steep, unless there were lots of tight switchbacks; which would be possible with a narrow-gauge RR.

The only other routes would be to go south along the shoreline, following today's Stewart Ave, and then up to Wellington along today's Terminal Ave route. But that would have gone through the Newcastle townsite, so that's unlikely.

Going north, I can't see a railway hugging the rocky headlands near the Pacific Biological station.

What do you think?

[GR74]

If you drive down Hammond Bay Road and look into Departure Bay, you can still see some of the support pilings that were once part of the loading wharfs in Departure Bay. This area was called Wellington Colliery North Wharf. By glancing at the maps that I have, the railroad grade left the wharf and went through the area of town we know as Sherwood Forest. The grade followed Sherwood Drive to a switch track at Neyland and Departure Bay Road. Neyland Road, between Departure Bay Road and Bay Street, was actually an old railroad grade at one point.

From the switch track at Neyland, the grade followed Departure Bay Road straight up to Rock City Road where it continued straight through what is now a variety of houses and private property.

The Wellington Bunkers and South Wharf, the East Wellington Wharf and the Northfield Wharf, down in Departure Bay, all appear to have met up together, following a route along Cilaire Drive, heading south through Woodlands, Strathmore, and Nelson Streets. They also seemed to have followed another route known back then as the Cornishman's Railway 1878-1890, heading north-west from Departure Bay following Argyle Ave. and continuing on a northwestern route across Rosstown Road and over to the Starlight Trail area of Wellington.

It's hard to say exactly where the routes are without showing you the map that I am looking at because they extended through so many different streets.

[GR74]

The funny thing is that the majority of these old railroad grades look like they cut through mulitple housing developments and very few actually followed the present roadways in our community.

[BigMac]

Here's some photos that might interest you guys. Not around here, but it is interesting to look at.

http://dzrtgrls.com/old_mines_old_da...mountains.html

[seaman]

GR74 and I went looking for Yogis slope today, don't really know where the old railway used to be, but did find some cool stuff, so offering up a few gps coordinates to Yogi for more info on that slope you saw.

[seaman]

So we did find two slope entrances one was sealed up pretty good, the other one not so much, this we're calling the 2 for 1 slope you've got the main working portal and the second smaller haulage portal, both of were in pretty good shape, we had really good air, but found the ground water after probably 300-400 ft down each slope. So there are alot of pictures,

[seaman]