Mine Cars
An "A-Car" is one-ton end dump car used to haul broken rock and ore. In its early years, this style of car was the workhorse of the mining industry. In the beginning, individual cars were pushed by miners. This method of haulage is called hand tramming.....
The B car was a side dump square car, introduced in the Copper Queen mines pre 1915. The car design came from a mine car used by Old Dominion Copper & Smelting co. There are references to 16, 20 and 15 cubic ft. versions of the car......
E-cars are the best designed car used in the Bisbee mines. They were first built by the El Paso foundry and machine company and introduced at the Holbrook mine in 1910. The car was continually used in production haulage until the underground mines in Bisbee closed......
H-cars are the 19 cubic ft. version of rocker dump mine car, which was introduced into Bisbee sometime in the 1930’s or early 1940’s. The cars come in two basic versions welded and riveted tubs. Welded tubs were made during World War II. These cars were paid for by the federal government to aid the mining of copper for the war effort......
K-cars are a 30 cubic ft. rocker dump car made by Arthur Koppel Co., also referred to as Koppel cars. They were introduced underground in Bisbee after 1931, but were in employment by the late 1940’s early 1950’s and used until the mines shut down in 1975......
These cars were used to transport oxygen-acetylene welding and cutting torches underground. The gas bottles would be placed upright in the notches located at the ends of a car......
Gable Bottom cars are side dump cars that have a upside down “V” piece of steel plate in the inside bottom of the tub to force the muck out the two side doors.
These cars were first introduced in Bisbee in 1908 with the purchase of 200 cars from Arthur Koppel co
Man cars were introduced underground when the distance travel from the mine entrance to the work place by the miners became excessive. Miners in Arizona were paid “collar to collar” this means from the time they enter the mine until the time they leave......
Starting in the mid 1960’s, the "Boss’s Bike" was primarily used by the shift bosses in the Bisbee mines. Their daily jobs required them to travel thru the extensive underground to inspect each workplace once or twice......
Concrete cars were used to haul wet materials like concrete. Other types of mine cars are unfit for this job because they either leak or you do not have control when dumping the material......
This is the earliest known type of mine car used in Bisbee mines. The car is first seen in drawings made of the Copper queen mine in 1881. A single car was found in the Copper Queen incline shaft during the reopening of the Queen tunnel for tours.
Pipe and track cars were used by the pipe and track men to haul around the supplies that they needed. They usually are full of fish plates, track bolts, pipe fittings and tools like a Jim Crow (rail bender). The cars were wooden boxes with a metal frame mounted on a set of trucks......
Transporting explosives in the underground mines was done with specially designed powder cars, fuse cans and powder sacks. The powdered cars are constructed with steel wheels and frame, the box being made of wood. The inside of the car is rubber lined to prevent sparks and static electricity. The outside of the car is painted bright red and marked in white explosives......
This is an early style of a rocker dump car originally used in the Queen Tunnel and throughout the Southwest mine. This car was designed by Gerald Sherman, the superintendent of the mines department, Copper Queen Consolidated mining co......
Water cars were used to deliver fresh water underground. Only a C & A version has been identified and of these none are still known to exist. Copper Queen most likely used water kegs for fresh water instead of car......
These cars were used to transport the trolley wire reels underground and help in stringing it overhead in the drifts. The Copper Queen version is made of wood and steel. None of the Copper queen versions are known to still exist.....
In the 1910’s sanitation in underground mines become essential with the parasite hook worm (miners anemia) being found in the California mother lode mines. Although no record of any diseases or parasites of this nature being found in Bisbee’s mines they introduced a new sanitation systems (toilet cars) underground in about 1916......
Steel cars were introduced in in Bisbee soon after the mines converted to using rock drills. The early rock drills used conventional steel (integral) this is where the bit end is a forged part of the drill steel and not removable.....
Air receivers are storage tanks for compressed air. Air recievers were needed in the distant work places, for storing compressed air......