KAYMOOR - ONE "Think of Kaymoor as being a house with three stories or floors. In order to go from one floor to another you must have an elevator or stairway". The mine was located on a narrow bench about halfway between the rim of the canyon at the top and New River at the bottom. There was barely enough room on the bench for the headhouse and other necessary buildings. The other facilities -- miners' homes, schools, churches and stores -- had to be built either at the bottom near the river or on the rim of the canyon. And there had to be a way to move people and supplies between three levels. Low Moor Iron Company of Virginia opened Kaymoor One mine in 1899 and immediately set about building a town where none existed. Just after the turn of the century the so-called mountain haulage was built. This was a small car that ran on tracks from the rim of the canyon down to the bench level and on to the bottom of the slope. A steam engine powered the winch which raised and lowered the car by a thick cable. In 1913 the cable snapped, allowing the car to careen out of control down the mountainside. Two men were killed in this accident. New River & Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company bought the Kaymoor properties in 1925 and immediately embarked on an extensive expansion and replacement program. A modern steel tipple replaced the old wooden tipple that had burned the year before. The mountain haulage was completely replaced. A new track slightly to the side of the original track was constructed. A new hoist house was built to house the electric motor which replaced the old steam engine. A thick steel cable wound around a large drum raised and lowered the car on the track. Kaymoor's new "elevator" was ready for use. The car was a simple piece of equipment. Essentially a box on wheels, the car was about the size of a farm wagon with benches for about a dozen and a half passengers. There were no sides or top on the car -- passengers were at the mercy of the elements. Miners in their dirty "bank clothes" rode the car to and from work, so the seats were covered with coal dust. Passengers in their "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes usually carried newspaper to sit on, to protect them from the dirt. Riding the haulage car was a scary experience, especially when the car plunged over the 70 foot cliff. The only other way to reach the bench level was to walk the concrete steps built next to the haulage track. And after the haulage ceased operations for the day -- around midnight -- one had no choice but to walk the stairs. The haulage remained in use until the early 1960s, when mining at Kaymoor ceased. Only the foundation of the hoist house remains today. For years the old haulage car lay in the woods near the tipple. It is not known if anything remains of Kaymoor's "elevators" since the National Park Service demolished the tipple in early 1999. The immediate problem facing Low Moor Iron Company when they opened Kaymoor One mine was how to move the coal from the mine on the bench level to the tipple some five hundred feet below. One way was to lower the loaded coal cars themselves to the tipple. But this worked only on slopes of twenty degrees or less and the slope at Kaymoor was thirty degrees. Another way was to use a retarding conveyer or "button line" to control the movements of the coal in a large metal trough This worked at Nuttallburg - - just upriver from Kaymoor. But the company decided on another option - - a gravity incline. This system utilized two 8-ton monitor cars running on adjacent tracks. The cars were raised and lowered by a steel cable. The cable was wound such that when a loaded car was at the bottom the empty car was at the top. Thus the weight of the loaded car helped pull the empty car to the top. The loaded car at the bottom, was dumped, the empty car at the top was filled, and the process was repeated. The two cars passed at the halfway point. The monitor cars resembled giant horizontal hot water heaters on wheels. Until recently one of the old monitors was lying in the woods near the tipple. It is not known if it remains there since the tipple was removed in early 1999.
KAYMOOR - ONE
"Think of Kaymoor as being a house with three stories or floors.
In order to go from one floor to another you must have an elevator or stairway".
The mine was located on a narrow bench about halfway between the rim of the canyon at the top and New River at the bottom. There was barely enough room on the bench for the headhouse and other necessary buildings. The other facilities -- miners' homes, schools, churches and stores -- had to be built either at the bottom near the river or on the rim of the canyon. And there had to be a way to move people and supplies between three levels.
Low Moor Iron Company of Virginia opened Kaymoor One mine in 1899 and immediately set about building a town where none existed. Just after the turn of the century the so-called mountain haulage was built. This was a small car that ran on tracks from the rim of the canyon down to the bench level and on to the bottom of the slope. A steam engine powered the winch which raised and lowered the car by a thick cable. In 1913 the cable snapped, allowing the car to careen out of control down the mountainside. Two men were killed in this accident.
New River & Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company bought the Kaymoor properties in 1925 and immediately embarked on an extensive expansion and replacement program. A modern steel tipple replaced the old wooden tipple that had burned the year before. The mountain haulage was completely replaced. A new track slightly to the side of the original track was constructed. A new hoist house was built to house the electric motor which replaced the old steam engine. A thick steel cable wound around a large drum raised and lowered the car on the track. Kaymoor's new "elevator" was ready for use.
The car was a simple piece of equipment. Essentially a box on wheels, the car was about the size of a farm wagon with benches for about a dozen and a half passengers. There were no sides or top on the car -- passengers were at the mercy of the elements. Miners in their dirty "bank clothes" rode the car to and from work, so the seats were covered with coal dust. Passengers in their "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes usually carried newspaper to sit on, to protect them from the dirt.
Riding the haulage car was a scary experience, especially when the car plunged over the 70 foot cliff.
The only other way to reach the bench level was to walk the concrete steps built next to the haulage track. And after the haulage ceased operations for the day -- around midnight -- one had no choice but to walk the stairs.
The haulage remained in use until the early 1960s, when mining at Kaymoor ceased. Only the foundation of the hoist house remains today. For years the old haulage car lay in the woods near the tipple. It is not known if anything remains of Kaymoor's "elevators" since the National Park Service demolished the tipple in early 1999.
The immediate problem facing Low Moor Iron Company when they opened Kaymoor One mine was how to move the coal from the mine on the bench level to the tipple some five hundred feet below. One way was to lower the loaded coal cars themselves to the tipple. But this worked only on slopes of twenty degrees or less and the slope at Kaymoor was thirty degrees. Another way was to use a retarding conveyer or "button line" to control the movements of the coal in a large metal trough This worked at Nuttallburg - - just upriver from Kaymoor. But the company decided on another option - - a gravity incline.
This system utilized two 8-ton monitor cars running on adjacent tracks. The cars were raised and lowered by a steel cable. The cable was wound such that when a loaded car was at the bottom the empty car was at the top. Thus the weight of the loaded car helped pull the empty car to the top. The loaded car at the bottom, was dumped, the empty car at the top was filled, and the process was repeated. The two cars passed at the halfway point.
The monitor cars resembled giant horizontal hot water heaters on wheels. Until recently one of the old monitors was lying in the woods near the tipple. It is not known if it remains there since the tipple was removed in early 1999.