Cwt y Bugail - Page 4

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[Pic 10] Cwt y Bugail Slate Quarry - Rails and a wagon (Sept 1987)

Still on the eastern section of tramway and this is a close up of the track and an (old) wooden framed wagon. Note the track is typical lightweight rail fastened to the (thin) sleepers by small spikes. Most of the wagons here are typical metal framed examples but this one here is much older, with a classic wooden frame and obviously it was well used!

[Pic 11] Cwt y Bugail Slate Quarry - Don't tell the scrapmen (Sept 1987)

Looking back towards the (exit) adit along the eastern tramway. Note the amount of equipment dating from the final years of the quarries life that the scrapmen never got their hands on ! - That said, i wouldn't want to drag all that metal up and out of the pit!

[Pic 12] Cwt y Bugail Slate Quarry - Northern Pit (Sept 1987)

Looking down into the northern pit and the tramways 'Y' shape layout is in full view. As mentioned, the western (left) line runs to the mouths of two opened (deep) chambers in the northern pit wall, terminating (after a sharp left turn) at the top of the left chamber. This is where (in later years) produce and waste were uphauled (wire rope?) along the sloped base of the chamber. The right hand (Eastern) tramway terminates just in front of a rockface more recently worked than the quarry walls around it - was another chamber nearly opened out ? Note the waste tips within the pit are laid out by more modern means than any outside - they're more inline with something a crawler excavator would pile up. Its also reasonable to assume the pit is the result of untopping work.