UNESCO World Heritage Site: Zollverein Coal Mining Industrial Complex: #04 - Locomotives & Skip Carrier

October 2019 · 3 min read · Essen

Hello lovely Steemians !

I already presented to you the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (“Zeche Zollverein”). This complex is located in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany and inscribed in the year 2001 in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites as the largest on of its kind in Europe. You already saw the Coal Mine Shaft 1/2/8 (since 1847), the Coal Mine Shaft 12 (since 1932) and the Coking Plant (since 1961). This posts topic and the following one are about some equiptment that I would like to show to you.

Diesel Engine "R4"

Below ground in the coal mines, long routes needed to be traveled to take material, miners and coal to their destinations. Colliery locomotives had been used for more than 100 years for this purpose. The mine locomotive shown here was driven with a diesel engine. The locomotives had to comply to particular safety requirements because of the specific conditions underground and due to the risk of the firedamp explosions. This diesel locomotive was manufactured by the Fritz Rensmann GmbH. It has a total length of 5 metres , a serviceweight of 14 tonnes, and a towing capacity of 140 tonnes.

Sig Battery Locomotive

In addition to diesel locomotives, electrical locomotives were also used for transporting miners and material below ground along long routes. Heavy batteries supplied these locomotives with the necessary power. The battery locomotive was manifactured by the Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft. It has a service weight of 12 tonnes, a towing capacity of 125 tonnes, and a battery wright of 4 tonnes.

Parts of a Skip Carrier

The extracted coal was initially collected underground in a bunker at the shaft. From there it was transported in larger conveying units, the skips, to the surface with a speed of up to 20 metres per second. A continuous flow capacity to above ground was ensured due to optimisation of the coal transport underground and use of skips. This shaft transporter was manifactured by the Deilmann Haniel GmbH. It has a total height of 5 metres, a unladen weight (3 part skip) of 25 tonnes and a utilisation weight of 33 tonnes. In also it used an electromagnetic lock mechanism.