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The Hercules Haulage, also known as the Mount Read Haulage, the Hercules Tram and the Williamsford Haulage Line, was a self-acting 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge tramway on the side of Mount Read in Western Tasmania, that connected the Hercules Mine with Williamsford and then to the North East Dundas Tramway.

The Mine

The Haulage was created to move ores from the Hercules Mine on Mount Read. The mine was operational between the 1890s and the 1980s, and closed in 2000; rehabilitation works commenced in 2005.

The Haulage

The haulage was "self acting", one mile (1.6 km) long and 1,642 feet (550m) high with a maximum gradient of 1 in 5. It was claimed to be the largest and steepest self-acting tramway of its kind.

Later haulage

On the closure of the NE Dundas Tramway, the Aerial Ropeway from Hercules was built which took ore in a northerly direction to Rosebery, some literature confuses the two separate systems.

Notes

1. Harvey, John Henry 1855–1938 photographer (1880), Tram to Hercules Mine, Williamstown, Tas, retrieved 6 April 2012{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
2. Williamsford haulage c1890s, State Library of Tasmania, retrieved 6 April 2012
3. Williamsford: collection of postcards, State Library of Tasmania, retrieved 6 April 2012
4. Some references note the Hercules Mine as being on Mount Hamilton, a separate named feature on the slopes of Mount Read
5. "Hercules Mine, Williamsford, Rosebery district, West Coast municipality, Tasmania, Australia".
6. Pollington, Michael; Lockley, Jim; Grun, Aniela; Pitt & Sherry (Firm) (2005), Hercules mine decommissioning and rehabilitation plan – public discussion draft, Pitt & Sherry, retrieved 6 April 2012
7. http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/self-acting – see item 2
8. Light Railways, number 35 Autumn 1971 p.22 has the gradient average as 1 in 3.2, and a maximum of 1.5 with operating speed of 14 mph – further details in Light Railways number 27, page 25 by Wayne Chynoweth
9. Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9. 3rd edition 1967 page 243
10. NOTES ON SELF – ACTING TRAMWAY, THE HERCULES MINE, TASMANIA.(A paper read before the Sydney University Engineering Society, November 12th,1902. By.B. SAWYER, B.E.) The Hercules Mine, situated on the western slope of Mount Hamilton, a spur of Mount Read, is connected with the terminus of the North-East Dundas Railway at Williamsford by means of an inclined self-acting tramway-on the endless rope system. The slope length of this line is eighty and a half chains, and the difference in elevation between the Government line and the "send-off" at the Mine is 1,642 feet. The average gradient is, therefore, 1 in 3'2, the maximum gradient being 1 in 1'5, and the minimum, i.e., the approach to Williamsford terminus, 1 in 8-8. source: http://escholarship.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/SUES/article/.../2239
11. "ZINC COMPANY'S WORKS AT ROSEBERY — PREMIER'S TOUR". The Mercury. Hobart, Tasmania. 13 September 1929. p. 10. Retrieved 6 April 2012 – via National Library of Australia.

References

• Pink, Kerry. The west coast story : a history of Western Tasmania and its mining fields Rev. ed. Zeehan, Tasmania : West Coast Pioneers Museum, 1984. ISBN 0-9598295-2-0
• Rae, Lou (2001). The Abt Railway and Railways of the Lyell region. Sandy Bay: Lou Rae. ISBN 0-9592098-7-5.
• Whitham, Charles. Western Tasmania – A land of riches and beauty (Reprint 2003 ed.). Queenstown: Municipality of Queenstown.
• Whitham, Lindsay (2002). Railways, Mines, Pubs and People and other historical research. Sandy Bay: Tasmanian Historical Research Association. ISBN 0-909479-21-6.

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