Shipping question - large steel cable

[nkalanaga]

It's June, 1974.  My narrow gauge serves a mine, which needs a new hoist cable.  It will be 5000 ft or 1.75 inch wire rope, weighing about 44,000 lbs.  The cable cannot be spliced, it must be shipped in one piece.

Since it will have to be delivered by standard gauge, or maybe truck, and reloaded, it needs to be in a relatively easy to handle form.  The mainline connection is a BN mainline, so no weight or clearance issues.  The narrow gauge has good clearances, as it runs ex-D&RGW 2-8-2s on passenger trains, so there shouldn't be any problems there.  Basically, if it fits Plate B clearances, it's fine.

How would this be loaded?  Will it fit on a more or less standard cable spool?

[Chris333]

I've seen an Erie photo where a long cable was loaded either in hoppers or gondolas and the cable just looped over one car to the next because it was all one piece.

[nkalanaga]

That would work, and I've seen pictures of ship anchor chains shipped that way.  It would be a little hard to transfer to narrow gauge.  If that's the only way to do it, so be it. 

But a hoist cable is designed to be wrapped around a drum, and seems it would be a little hard to wind onto the hoist if it was on multiple cars.  On the other hand, I don't know how big cable spools come.  Most of the ones I see on the highway in Kentucky aren't big enough for such a cable.  We don't have any deep mines around here, so cables that big aren't needed.

I got the size from an engineer at the Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho, years ago, but never thought to ask how they received it.  I do know that they are building a new shaft, with a longer cable than this, and the only way to deliver it is by truck.  The railroad was removed years ago.

[Chris333]

What did they need 5000' for?

[nkalanaga]

That's how deep the shaft is.  The Lucky Friday Mine in Idaho has a main shaft 6200 ft deep, so my fictional one isn't anything special.