Building the last Main Line Railway

Rugby to Barby: gcrcs3a

This close up of image 'gcrcs3' shows the face of the excavation. As can be seen by the marks on the face of the excavation the steam shovel's action was an upwards movement. The bucket would then be placed over the wagon and the bottom would open allowing the spoil to drop into the wagon.

The size of both the bucket and wagon would indicate that one shovel would equal the capacity of one wagon. This meant that the steam shovel was not used as efficiently as it could be based on the numbers of wagons in the photograph.

The sides of the steam shovel were built open to the elements and during periods of inclement weather the crew would frequently erect temporary sides. These were made out of what ever material was available, in this case they were made out of corrugated iron sheeting. C1894

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