Semi-white Christmas

[rginn]

I've lived here 21 years and this is the driest and warmest I've seen it this time of year. Our Main Street is snow free. To see much snow you have to get up to around 11,000ft. And my Christmas present for myself, a buffalo robe which will come in handy camping.

 

[tamrock]

The old number 81. That motor connected to the muck cars was used for hauling the concrete transit mixers underground. I ran that very motor many shifts. I remember seeing it in the yard when they first arrived, as there were two of them. They were used and had a fully enclosed cab on the operator end and only one trolley pole in the center. They were painted a tan color and said Penn Dixie Cement Co. on the sides. They went to the Lokey shop which was short for the Locomotive Shop and they fabricated an open well for the operator. They rigged up two trolley poles on each side because the overhead trolley lines would switch from one side to the other throughout the mine. I would haul 4ea. 5yd. mixers with it. It was a very active procedure switching in and out of a drift to the concrete pump. Were were always moving at a rapid pace. Those motors were fast and with the empty mixers in the main portal coming back out to the batch plant there was a derail on the track you'd call the dispatcher at. You would notify him you were there at the derail and ready to head out. When closed that derail I would crank the points on that box you'll see in the operators well all the way around and head out on a mile or more straight stretch to the portal a full speed. You had to hold down your hard-hat so it wouldn't blow off your head going down that stretch. Once you arrived at the batch plant you un-coupled that motor on a parallel track section with switches on each end. You would then run the motor from the end you came out one and couple it to the other end of the mixers to push them to the shoot where they were the filled with a fresh batch of concrete to again take the long trip back to the pour site. This photo of us ( back when I could swing like Tarzan) was taken after we got a diesel powered concrete pump and broke a record yardage pour around 1979. Before the diesel pump you used a big 2.5 yard air pot. You filled it the 2.5yrd of concrete with a mobile convaror belt each time close the lid and open an air valve which would pressurize the pot and push the concrete into the forms. That was a lot of hard work with that setup and the pipes used were 10' x 6" and made of steel. Later the diesel pump used 10' x 4" aluminum pipe and you could move so much faster with a lot less fatigue. The diesel pump doubled the amount of yards that a single shift normally did with that air pot.

 

[rginn]

I knew you would recognize that one pic TR and thanks for telling us about it.

 

[tamrock]

I knew you would recognize that one pic TR and thanks for telling us about it.

I was told by some of the folks at the Henderson mine that at times they would run to Climax to check out the pumps and whatever else was still minimally operating underground. They would use the other identical motor to that one, as its still in the mine to use. It was I was told it was used to pull out all the old jacklegs, slushers and what all else that was deemed to never be used ever again and sold off to the highest bidders back in the mid 1990s. Much was sold as scrap, but a lot ended up at a used mine equipment dealer down in Farmington, NM. The Henderson guys said everything in places like the old maintenance shops underground at Climax were as though the place was still in operation and ready to go, decades after the last soul ever entered that shop. All the tools were still around put up and organized, as the day we all left back in1983. The plan is to one day reopen the underground and when it does, it most likely will be mined with the most advanced mining equipment money can buy. Probably much of it by remote operation.

 

[rginn]

Haven't been up by Henderson in a while and don't know what's goin on up there these days. I see Climax is hirin, but I got all the job I can handle. Note to visitors that may come to this area, you see signs posted sayin Climax property no trespassin, take them serious. They have an active security patrol, and they won't accept 'Sorry I didn't see the sign'. Really the only ones I see them tag are out of staters, probably just a strange coincidence, haha!