Geschichte und Betrieb:mining-railroads

Mining-railways are used to transport anything produced or needed between daylight and the underground production or construction areas.
They transport exploitable minerals and dead rock as well. The latter is either used as packing in already exploited tunnels, or dumped above ground. Furthermore the mining-railways transport timber, bricks, machinery and all the other tools needed below ground.

The most common car on mining-railways is a mine-car which is called "Hunt" in German. The word "Hunt" is derived from the slovacian word "Hyntow", which means "car".
The mine-car is of simple but sturdy construction: It consists of a mine-cage and two sets of axles, which are bolted together withoout springs.
The first mine-cars were built from wood, and could be tipped to one end-wall. Therefore the upper front-end wall was mounted to a pair of hinges, and locked at its lower end. Later mine-cars were constructed from heavy sheet metal riveted to sectional steel, today riveting is replaced by welding. The mine-cars were equipped with coupling devices for horse- and locomotive-operation. To use the mine-cars with human power, the couplings were made removable.

There were various ways to unload the mine-cars. The most popular were stationary tipping-devices, that rolled or tipped the cars sideways, or the cars were tipped over their head-end while the leading wheelset was held in special halfround-shaped rails.

Mine-cars were mostly moved in underground mines by horses until 1914. After WW-I horses became rare and feeding expensive, so mechanical devices were used to move the mine-cars.
This mechanization included the use of stationery winches pulling the cars with ropes as well as utilization of locomotives. Depending on the kind of mine, all known power-sources were used on these locomotives.
Main criterion for any power-source were on one hand the danger of firedamp, being exploding mine gases (mostly Methane), and on the other the possibilities to get enough fresh air to the mine-tunnels. If there was no sufficient fresh air any power-source with combustion was unsuitable. On the contrary combustive power-sources and battery powered locomotives of course could be used in mines with danger of firedamp, if they were equipped with the appropriate safety devices.