Slate wagons are specialized types of
railway wagon
A railroad car, railcar ( American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...
s designed for the conveyance of
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
. The characteristics of this stone led to the development of small open cars that carried the slate in its various forms. These were first developed on the
narrow gauge railways serving the
slate industry
The slate industry is the industry related to the extraction and processing of slate. Slate is either quarried from a ''slate quarry'' or reached by tunneling in a ''slate mine''. Common uses for slate include as a roofing material, a flooring ma ...
of
North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
in the late 18th century. They were initially used on
horse-drawn tramways
Tramway may refer to:
* Tramway (industrial), a lightly laid railway for uses such as logging or mining
* A tram transport system (public transport vehicles running on rails)
** The tracks which trams run on (also a section of reserved track for t ...
, but survived with only minor modifications into the days of
locomotives and are still to be found in use in the 21st century.
Types
The three most common types of slate wagon are:
Slate wagon
This is the basic vehicle for transporting
roofing slates from the
quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
to the destination. Because roofing slates are relatively
friable
Friability ( ), the condition of being friable, describes the tendency of a solid substance to break into smaller pieces under duress or contact, especially by rubbing. The opposite of friable is indurate.
Substances that are designated hazardous, ...
, they are packed vertically into the open slate wagons to reduce the chance they will be broken on their journey. Early designs used simple wooden rails to hold the packed slates. Later these were replaced with iron or steel railed examples of a similar design.
Slab wagon
Slab wagons are designed to carry large uncut slabs of slate, often internally within quarries. The most common form is
flat wagon (often referred to as a ''sled'') where the slab is laid horizontally on wooden runners and chained to the wagon. A less common form is the vertical slab wagon, where two slabs are chained to an A-frame mounted on the wagon; this form of slab wagon was most famously used on the
Corris Railway
The Corris Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Corris) is a narrow gauge preserved railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales.
The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, ru ...
though other lines such as the
Ffestiniog Railway
The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park.
The railway is roughly long an ...
also had examples of this type.
Rubbish wagon
These were used almost exclusively within slate quarries. They transported waste slate from the mills to the dumps. These were often crude vehicles that were heavily abused during service. They typically consisted of a basic flat wagon with a three-sided iron body that held the waste. The waste slate was usually tipped from the wagon onto the slate tips, usually by physically tipping the entire wagon and its contents.
See also
*
Flatcar
A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...
*
Flat wagon
Flat wagons (sometimes flat beds, flats or rail flats, US: flatcars), as classified by the International Union of Railways (UIC), are railway goods wagons that have a flat, usually full-length, deck (or 2 decks on car transporters) and little ...
*
Mineral wagon
*
Quarry tub
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slate Waggon
Freight rolling stock
British railway wagons
Slate industry