Ratgoed - Page 2

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[Pic 4] Ratgoed Quarry - Track remains (Sept 1987)

In 1987 there were a few chunks of rail like this scattered around the site - typical light weight tramway rails - usually just hammered with simple nails to rough wooden sleepers of all kinds of quality.

[Pic 5] Ratgoed Quarry - Old cutting (Sept 1987)

Up among the older and very degraded pit workings is this long abandoned cutting (through rock) into one of the pits. Judging by the depth of plant overgrowth and damage by the elements to the route inside the pit itself (slate shattering from years of frost damage has totally eroded much of the walls) it has certainly been well over 100 years since a wagon ran through here bound for a waste tip or the mills.

[Pic 6] Ratgoed Quarry - Ratgoed Tramway (Sept 1987)

Appologies for the strange man in this pic - but i've chosen this one because it displays the base of the big main incline (my brothers stood right on the base) where it emerges right onto the Ratgoed Tramway (which runs off into the distance) and also fanned out into the mill buildings on the right. Imagine the tidy well built nature of the walling here without all the forestry overgrowth. Care was obviously taken to make everything look tidy at one point.

(Continued on Page 3)