73119 at Lavant Quarry
73119 slowly propels its bogie hoppers under the discharge equipment at Lavant quarry. This equipment comprised of a very large overhead concrete bunker which was fed by a conveyer belt system from the active part of the quarry, where the gravel & clay mixture was simply dug from the ground as an open cast system by mechanical excavator. Once the bunker was full the resultant overflow was allowed to collect to the sides. This allowed the first 5 wagons to be simultaneously loaded by gravity by emptying the bunker via hydraulically operated doors. The second set of 5 wagons were then pushed back, leaving the bottom bunker doors open, where the collected overspill gravel was simply pushed from the sides by bulldozer via the bunker into the wagons. This was a very rapid form of loading, taking little over half an hour for the whole train.
Image dated November 1987
73119 at Lavant Quarry
73119 slowly propels its bogie hoppers under the discharge equipment at Lavant quarry. This equipment comprised of a very large overhead concrete bunker which was fed by a conveyer belt system from the active part of the quarry, where the gravel & clay mixture was simply dug from the ground as an open cast system by mechanical excavator. Once the bunker was full the resultant overflow was allowed to collect to the sides. This allowed the first 5 wagons to be simultaneously loaded by gravity by emptying the bunker via hydraulically operated doors. The second set of 5 wagons were then pushed back, leaving the bottom bunker doors open, where the collected overspill gravel was simply pushed from the sides by bulldozer via the bunker into the wagons. This was a very rapid form of loading, taking little over half an hour for the whole train.
Image dated November 1987