Show RAILROADS AND STEAM SHOVELS at the regular monthly meeting of the utah society of engineers H C goodrich chief engineer of the utah copper company presented the following interesting and steam shovel paper on railroad building operations at Bing bingham harn utah with the early history of the bingham camp some of you gentlemen are more familiar than I 1 am some time in the the bingham camp floyd constructed a narrow gauge railroad so that ores from this camp could be delivered to the amel then in the valley the railroad was constructed on a tour four per cent grade and extended into bingham canyon as far up as the grade would allow from this point a survey was projected using seven and one half per cent grades which is the average grade of bingham canyon from the present denver rio grande depot to the united states mining companas comp anys house at the mouth of bear gulch A horse tram line was constructed on this survey accommodating the starless utah copper united states Com commercial mercal and other mines along about 1890 the narrow gauge railroad from the valley to bingham canyon was rebuilt to a broad gauge line I 1 first visited bingham canyon in 1900 this was the first time I 1 had ever seen freight transported as it was on the horse tram A string of twenty or more mules and horses would haul up the small ore cars to their several destinations the drivers would tie strings of these horses to gether tail to head and turn them loose down the wagon road in the bottom of tho the canyon the drivers would then get on the loaded ore cars running them down the grade by gravity to the loading station where the railroad would pick up the ores for the smelter the horses and mules would be on hand for another haul up the hill first standard gauge I 1 was sent to this camp by the rio grande western railway company to reconstruct the horse tram into a railroad the instructions were to follow the horse tram as near as possible using maximum seven and one half per cent grades and forty degree curves which was done this railroad was constructed from the rio grande western depot to the commercial mine in 1900 1901 the track was laid to the commercial mine in the spring of 1901 this was the first standard gauge railroad that was built up to the mines in bingham canyon it is necessary to use a special type of engine for these grades and curves the one most commonly used being the shay in 1903 1903 a branch branc h line was built up carr fork to the yampa mine and later exten extended cled to the boston consolidated ore bin which company at that time was mining sulphide ores about this time the utah copper company began building a mill of tons capacity at copperton hopperton Cop and other mines were actively engaged in producing ores I 1 am going into these details in order to show you gentlemen that the style of railroad originally beitl for the handling handlin of the commercial mine ore was not able to handle the tonnage later turned out by the various mines united states company the highland boy and yampa company had to construct aerial tram lines down to the main railroad in order to get their product to market the utah copper company commercial and other mines were not able to dispose of the ore they were mining on account of the limited capacity of this road it is an expensive railroad to operate and while probably better than a horse tram one should hesitate before adopting it to handle freight over prophecy fulfilled there was a remark made to me in the fall of 1900 that I 1 would like to repeat now we were standing at the old rogers mill that was situated about the center of the utah copper property when the gentleman with me said goodrich you will see the day when that hill will be moved with steam shovels about six years later I 1 saw the first steam shovel start at the boston consolidated soli dated mine the utah copper company in trying to protect their output at different times made surveys for a railroad on lighter gradients and curvature from their mine to the mill at copperton hopperton Cop these plans finally culminated in an entirely new location for their mill and of a capacity a great deal larger the location of the magna plant and its output you are all familiar with this radical change in the location of the mill and its large tonnage necessitated a low grade railroad with light curvature which must be built right into the ore body the boston consolidated were trying out several plans for their property finally locating their mill in the garfield district which necessitated handling of this tonnage over the new line the denver rio grande railroad company formerly the rio grande western railway company started the location and construction st of this railroad in the spring of 1905 1 I had the pleasure of having charge of the construction of this line from the utah copper mine in bingham canyon to the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining com banys plant at garfield in order to handle the construction material at the mills it was deemed advisable to start the work of building the railroad to the mills first while the location at the bingham end was in in progress this construction work was completed in november 1905 during this time several plans had been under consideration for the bingham end and extended surveys had been made finally a plan was adopted using two and one half per cent compensated grade and sixteen degree maximum curves this line was completed on january 2nd and 1907 when the first train was run over the new line to the utah copper mine in describing the operations at the utah copper mine I 1 will confine myself to the steam shovel operations and railroad construction st only prior to my connection with the company it had been decided that this ore could be extracted more economically and a larger lavint saving could be made by using steam shovels the ore body lies in one large deposit covered with capping from 40 to feet thick the problem is to remove the capping from the ore and deposit iton it on ground away from the ore body and remove the ore to the railroad yards below steam shovel work these operations at present extend vertically from elevation to elevation 7 or 1500 feet all of this territory was not at that time embraced within w the utah copper companas comp anys property but plans were being formulated on a broad plane to handle the property economically owing to the steep canyon that is thickly populated it was found on account of the expensive railroad construction that the economical height of the steam shoel benches should not be to exceed seventy five feet this has proven to be correct and wherever it has been found possible the levels have been made a lesser height the steam shovels and attendant locomotives are operated by steam the machine shops are located at convenient points it is necessary to place coal and other supplies at each steam shovel level and bring the equipment to the machine shop at more or less frequent intervals the ore body near the surface lies in folds so that in the removal of the capping there are times when thousands of tons of ore are loaded as it is uncovered and projects out towards the steam shovel level these are some of the important features that went toward deciding on railroad connections to the different railroad connections to the different steam shovel levels it certainly makes the most flexible arrangement to be had owing to experience that had been had with the steep grade heavy curvature railroad and our own experience esperie nce during the first operations it was decided to build these permanent tracks on four per cent compensated grades and sixteen degree maximum curves with as few of the heavier curves as possible these are the tracks that are in course of construction now to the upper levels and located on the carr fork side of the property I 1 wish to make a comparison now of the handling of ore over the new lines as compared with handling it over the old lines the new way we use the small saddle tank dinky locomotive with a small crew of cheaper labor this locomotive handles tons of ore at ten miles per hour over these grades the old way was to use iise shay engines a standard crew all pensie expensive ex labor handling tons at five miles per hour you can draw your own conclusions As I 1 have explained before the steam shovel ben benches clies are at a maximum of seventy five fet high these levels extend from the main level at A at elevation in alphabetical order to letter U each level is connected into this system of railroads so that coal and other supplies can be delivered to each steam shovel level and are removed from these levels whenever encountered by the steam shovels methods of blasting there are four ways of breaking the rock employed at the steam shovels by the gopher method keystone holes toe holes and pot holes where there is plenty of room a gopher hole is driven into the face of the level forty or fifty feet and a tee driven making two pots for the powder then a sufficient amount is put in to break the rock this method breaks the largest amount of material the keystones are used to strip the ore and also to break the rock where the room is limited the toe holes are driven along the base of the level keeping it in good line and allowing the steam to work closer to the bench the pot holes are for breaking loose rock offos off of face of levels and aiding in the stripping of the ore in addition to this gangs of men are constantly employed breaking down the loose rock that does not come freely this work saves a lot of labor and expense as sometimes a very small rock keeps up thousands of tons of rock above it FF black powder and 60 per cent monabel is used on this work the present equipment used in steam shovel operations at the utah copper mine is as follows twenty five steam shovels 53 51 0 locomotives cars and are moving approximately three quarters of a million yards of material a month the bingham garfield railway extending from the bingham district to the mills and smelter at garfield was first worked on during 1908 and completed in april 1911 this railroad is a low grade line having 2 12 1 2 per cent compensated grades arid and eight degrees maximum curves with the exception of the dry fork crossing where two ten degree curves are used tile the power that is used for the freight service is the mallet type of locomotive which hauls forty empty cars up the grade at twelve miles per hour these cars are all sixty ton capacity making 2400 tons of ore moved each trip the characteristics of construction on this line were the three large steel viaducts crossing carr fork markham and dry fork and feet of tunnels there was an enormous amount of work done during the thirteen months that was taken to complete this line cubic yards of material was handled cubic yards of concrete was placed 1400 lineal feet of tunnel was driven carr fork bridge feet long feet high dry fork bridge feet long fet high one mile of this road cost over a half a million dollars bingham canyon now has better railroad facilities than any other mining camp I 1 know of this system of roads will accommodate any probable future developments and has ample capacity to handle the tonnage of the camp and can assure all of the mines of sure and constant handling of the product in the future |