Aerial Ropeways & Inclined Planes

Aerial ropeway to the dirt tips from the Vreoci coal washery, Serbia.

Receiving station at the end of the Claughton Manor Brickworks aerial ropeway. An empty tub sits on the static rail to the right awaiting despatch back uphill. On the left side is the hopper that takes the shale down into the storage bunker. This is the only working ropeway left in Britain and brings shale down from the quarry 1½ miles away. The capacity of the ropeway is 250 tons per day.

Part way along the aerial ropeway at the Claughton Manor Brickworks.

Vreoci coal washery as background to the start of the dirt tip aerial ropeway.

Having started a new group for aerial ropeways I thought I ought to start posting a few relevant images beyond those that have been uploaded for a while. This is taken from the 1952 Guide to the Coalfields and features a rather fanciful setup at the top and a fine piece of actual practice at the bottom.I wish I knew where that particular ropeway was. There were several companies offering ropeways in their portfolio at this time.

I really wanted to see the ropeway loading and start point at Banovici but it was hidden at the back of the washery, well out of the public gaze. However, fortune favours the brave, and after a series of misadventures I finally found myself watching the tubs of dirt as they began their long journey to the tip with a steep climb of the ridge behind the loading station.

A lost industry in Britain. With only one ropeway still in use the market for industrial installations of the type illustrated has long since vanished. Taken from a 1950s Guide to the Coalfields. White were responsible for the supply of the ropeway at Cwm Bychan .

The dirt tips of the Banovici washery are several kilometres from the mine over hilly terrain. The waste material is transported by this aerial ropeway, seen here about 2 kilometres from the mine.

It was a long way off across the hills, but I couldn't resist the sight of an aerial ropeway in action. This fairly modern ropeway carries ore from the Xiaotieshan Lead/Zinc mine over the hills for several kilometres and down to the Sanyelan smelter of the Baiyin non-ferrous Metal Group.

Angle-changing station close to the top of the Claughton brickworks aerial ropeway.

A colour image made up from 3 plates showing an aerial ropeway at a mine in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1910. I have been unable to discover anything about the mine, but suspect it was working iron ore. It is taken from the Library of Congress collection and is listed as having no restrictions on publication. Forms part of: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress). LOT 10335-B, no. 363

Another long lost manufacturer of aerial ropeways. Mitchell Ropeways Ltd advert from the 1948 Colliery Year Book. This shows that they also made blondins/cableways.

Loaded skip at the spoil chutes of the Oskova coal washery. This is a long ropeway running for several kilometres over wooded ridges to the dirt tips.

Mandalls Slate Co Ltd worked a number of quarries on the slopes of Coniston Old Man. The main processing area was the mill at Saddlestone to where the slate 'clogs' were brought down by an aerial ropeway and sawn in the shed seen here. There were also a number of riving or dressing sheds on this level. The worked stone could then be sent further down the ropeway towards the Coppermines Valley for outward transport by road. Remains of the ropeway are still evident right up the hill with both fixed and moving ropes lying on the ground. The collapsed wooden framework was the start of the next flight of the ropeway.

Advert from Kempe's Engineer's Yearbook 1914. In 1872, Adolf Bleichert designed his first aerial wire ropeway for a paraffin manufacturer in Saxony. The innovative system differed from standard systems of the day by incorporating a separate hauling rope. This hauling rope was lighter than the carrying rope and attached to individual cargo carriers. This allowed the carrying rope to be fixed and established the Bleichert system: the bi-cable wire ropeways we know today. By 1874, Bleichert's first wire ropeway - at 2,242ft long - was hauling 13t per hour. Eduard Brandt, a friend and owner of the Bitterfield brickworks, allowed Adolf Bleichert to build a facility to test a new aerial wire ropeway design that encompassed lessons learned from the earlier paraffin conveyance system. This new "Teutschenthaler aerial wire ropeway" was built and tested in May 1874. With help from fellow engineer, Theodor Otto, Bleichert tuned the system until having "disputes" with the foundry. Leaving the facility, Bleichert collaborated with Otto to create a separate “concern for the construction of aerial ropeways." On July 1 1874 in Schkeuditz, the firm, Bleichert & Otto Civil Engineers, was founded. Engineering and practical expertise was billed as the firm's initial strength with sub-components bought from other manufacturers. During the summer of 1876 Bleichert parted ways with Otto. However, he continued on his own to pursue ideas for innovations and inventions and established the new firm, Adolf Bleichert & Co. In 1877, Bleichert rented a small factory in Leipzig-Neuschönfeld, gathering 20 workers for the shop and another six for the technical office. Here he began the design, manufacture and sale of wire ropeway system components. With new facilities and advanced manufacturing equipment, the company had registered over 50 domestic and foreign patents by the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Adolf Bleichert & Co. was world-renowned and held all the world wire ropeway records: highest and longest in Argentina (20.6 miles to the altitude of 13,940ft), longest-over-water in New Caledonia (0.6 miles), highest capacity in France (500t per hour), steepest in Tanzania (86% grade), most northern in Norway (79 degrees latitude), and most southern in Chile (41 degrees latitude). Adolf Bleichert died from tuberculosis at the age of 56 on July 29 1901. His will provided for the continuation of the company as an open partnership and family enterprise. The Commercial Registry of October 12 1901 officially listed the widow Victoria Emilie Bleichert and all six children as, “co-owners of a factory of wire ropeways.” Through its offices in Brussels, Leipzig, London, and Paris, Adolf Bleichert & Co. provided an extensive catalogue of conveyance and hoisting systems that saw wide-spread use in a spectrum of industries. Founded in 1876, Adolf Bleichert & Co. succumbed to the Great Depression, filing for bankruptcy one year after the 1931 collapse of the German banking system. Though family control was lost, the company and its core competencies continued on, surviving the Second World War and then Soviet control in a variety of forms. Today, several modern companies carry the Bleichert name: Pohlig Heckel Bleichert (PHB) builds wire ropeways, while another, Bleichert Förderanlangen GmbH, manufactures conveyor systems, overhead gantry transfer units and inverted electrified monorail systems.

Bullivant & Co., Ltd were based in Millwall, London and specialised in the manufacture of wire ropes. Ropeways were a natural development of their business when in 1868 Charles Hodgson set up Hodgson’s Patent Wire Tramway Company with William Mumford Bullivant as the company chairman and Mr William Thomas Henney Carrington as their engineer. The firm eventually evolved into Bullivant & Co., when Bullivant and Carrington bought the patents and good will from Hodgson. Ropeway construction was undertaken by the company all over the world and it developed an excellent reputation for its products. Bullivant’s was sold to British Ropes Ltd in 1926. This advert from Page's Magazine, Feb 1905, shows the ropeway that was erected for the Newcastle and Gateshead Waterworks to bring construction materials to the Wylam Waterworks from railway sidings on the other side of the River Tyne. The project was the construction of the pipeline to the Wylam pumping station from the Whittle Dean Reservoirs. The ropeway was 1800ft long and powered by an undertype portable steam engine. It carried coal and coke for the pumping station and also cement and bricks for the new works at Whittle Dean and the Ryal-Matfen tunnel which formed part of the water line from the reservoirs.

Advert from Page's Magazine Nov 1904. In 1872, Adolf Bleichert designed his first aerial wire ropeway for a paraffin manufacturer in Saxony. The innovative system differed from standard systems of the day by incorporating a separate hauling rope. This hauling rope was lighter than the carrying rope and attached to individual cargo carriers. This allowed the carrying rope to be fixed and established the Bleichert system: the bi-cable wire ropeways we know today. By 1874, Bleichert's first wire ropeway - at 2,242ft long - was hauling 13t per hour. Eduard Brandt, a friend and owner of the Bitterfield brickworks, allowed Adolf Bleichert to build a facility to test a new aerial wire ropeway design that encompassed lessons learned from the earlier paraffin conveyance system. This new "Teutschenthaler aerial wire ropeway" was built and tested in May 1874. With help from fellow engineer, Theodor Otto, Bleichert tuned the system until having "disputes" with the foundry. Leaving the facility, Bleichert collaborated with Otto to create a separate “concern for the construction of aerial ropeways." On July 1 1874 in Schkeuditz, the firm, Bleichert & Otto Civil Engineers, was founded. Engineering and practical expertise was billed as the firm's initial strength with sub-components bought from other manufacturers. During the summer of 1876 Bleichert parted ways with Otto. However, he continued on his own to pursue ideas for innovations and inventions and established the new firm, Adolf Bleichert & Co. In 1877, Bleichert rented a small factory in Leipzig-Neuschönfeld, gathering 20 workers for the shop and another six for the technical office. Here he began the design, manufacture and sale of wire ropeway system components. With new facilities and advanced manufacturing equipment, the company had registered over 50 domestic and foreign patents by the end of the 19th century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Adolf Bleichert & Co. was world-renowned and held all the world wire ropeway records: highest and longest in Argentina (20.6 miles to the altitude of 13,940ft), longest-over-water in New Caledonia (0.6 miles), highest capacity in France (500t per hour), steepest in Tanzania (86% grade), most northern in Norway (79 degrees latitude), and most southern in Chile (41 degrees latitude). Adolf Bleichert died from tuberculosis at the age of 56 on July 29 1901. His will provided for the continuation of the company as an open partnership and family enterprise. The Commercial Registry of October 12 1901 officially listed the widow Victoria Emilie Bleichert and all six children as, “co-owners of a factory of wire ropeways.” Through its offices in Brussels, Leipzig, London, and Paris, Adolf Bleichert & Co. provided an extensive catalogue of conveyance and hoisting systems that saw wide-spread use in a spectrum of industries. Founded in 1876, Adolf Bleichert & Co. succumbed to the Great Depression, filing for bankruptcy one year after the 1931 collapse of the German banking system. Though family control was lost, the company and its core competencies continued on, surviving the Second World War and then Soviet control in a variety of forms. Today, several modern companies carry the Bleichert name: Pohlig Heckel Bleichert (PHB) builds wire ropeways, while another, Bleichert Förderanlangen GmbH, manufactures conveyor systems, overhead gantry transfer units and inverted electrified monorail systems.

1918 advert for Wakefield based wire rope manufacturers and engineers George Cradock & Co Ltd. They did not manufacture aerial ropeways, but would supply and erect examples from specialist manufcaturers along with their own ropes.