Cool Underground Tunnel and Nanaimo's Old Mine Shafts

[Sitka]

Thanks for the detailed report on Wolf mountain, Gwyneth. That was fantastic. I have another question for you. Do you remember where the coal from Wolf mountain was trucked to and loaded onto to ships?

[GR74]

More newspaper clippings....

[GR74]

Those are some great stories, gwyneth! lol, extracting pillars

[gwyneth]

Thanks for the detailed report on Wolf mountain, Gwyneth. That was fantastic. I have another question for you. Do you remember where the coal from Wolf mountain was trucked to and loaded onto to ships?

Trucked by Hub City Paving to the washplant, located in the gravel pit on Nanaimo River Road, just west of the railway tracks. Loadout was at the barge-ramp at Brechin Point. Haulage of the coal through Nanaimo was rather contentious. Duke Point would have made better sense but Harmac did not want wind-blown coal in their pulp chips.

[gwyneth]

Gwyneth, do you happen to remember when production at the Tsable River colliery completely finished? From my understanding there were there were three men that stayed on and worked the coal mine, on a limited production level till an unknown date.

Rather more than three men, perhaps in the end down to 20 or so. Last shipment of coal was in 1966, by Comox Mining, under manager Stan Lawrence.

[Sitka]

Thank you Gwyneth, your a wealth of knowledge.

[Peter Roosen]

Some interesting old (about 1920) blueprints of small mine equipment from Nanaimo Archives (safety lamp, gas detector, etc.)

[Peter Roosen]

last one

[Peter Roosen]

I got side-tracked and didn't answer your question. I figure somewhere from $100k to $1 million depending on several factors that I won't get into here. Yes, #19 in Piper's Park is a good runner - at least from what Bob Swanson told me years ago. Not operational but operable which is close enough to count. And she is not rusting away or having bits stolen, torn or shot off that I am aware of.

(referring back to posting #1519)

A couple of you have been asking me about locomotive #19 so I checked with Richard (Rick) Slingerland at the Nanaimo Museum who looks after #19 currently located inside the little shed on top of the bluff in Piper's Park - picture of him beside the locomotive in 2000 article that GR74 posted as posting #1544. Rick confirmed that the locomotive might be operable but barely so. There is a cracked cylinder and the boiler is not in great shape. On the positive side, the 2001 partial restoration about which GR74 put up various newspaper clippings etc on this forum over the past few days (see posting #1542), does have the running gear (rods, etc) in good enough condition that the wheels should turn okay. He wonders how she in 1952 managed to get from the back of a truck under her own steam to the spot where she currently sits. I said it isn't a big deal for a light engine to move (no loaded cars) on level track, even with a cracked cylinder and other problems. I would expect that because the engine was sitting outside exposed to weather for about 50 years before the shed was built, that the air pump, lubricator, valve seals, etc will be in bad shape. Also, wherever there was any trapped water or excess moisture, things might have rusted or possibly cracked due to freezing. I wouldn't want to try running her as is without a careful inspection and at least a modest workover. You can add to the list of coal mining related dangers: getting caught in a steam locomotive boiler explosion and getting stuck on a runaway train (no brakes going downhill)!

[AceMcCool]

Just thought I would post this. I was looking on the free section on Kijiji and found a post where some one is allowing people to come dig in his yard because he found an old garbage dump with bottles and china as well as miners picks dating back to the 1800's

Thought some of you might be interested in a little dig.

http://nanaimo.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ243349683