Queen rocker
Queen rocker inside the Queen Mine Tour
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. First used at the North Star mine in Grass Valley, California, Sherman later brought the design to Bisbee modifying to fit the mines needs. Sherman thought they were bulky , to tall to hand muck in and would be replaced by a square side dump cars quickly, this proved to be wrong . The basic design would last to the end of underground mining in Bisbee with the K,H & E cars.
Grass Valley version of the Queen Rocker
Two such cars found at the 3rd level Southwest shaft station during the cleaning process of the mine preparation for the public tour. This type of car is still abundantly found on other levels of the Southwest mine. The two cars found during the tour renovation differs slightly than the cars on other levels of mine. They have a V-shaped tub that has been flatted near the top and one has had dumping handles added.. To dump the car, miner removes the pins on both sides and pushes on the opposite side car of the direction that you want to dump. The design of the car makes dumping full cars easy, but partially full cars take two persons. Wet and sticky muck hangs in the cars and will need removed by the use of a blow pipe or beating the bottom of the car with a double jack to knock the muck loose.( Note: The dents in the bottom of the cars are from being repeatedly hit.) These cars require the use of chain to be attached to the track or to have some other means of keeping the cars from turning over when dumped like bumper boards. This car able to be hand trammed easily or pulled by trains, In Southwest mine all the cars that exist do not have couplers indicating that they were hand trammed. The letter designation is unclear at this time but is probably a "C or D" car.
Queen Rocker full of water, 4th level, Southwest mine
Queen rocker trucks below the Sunrise Shaft
Queen rocker (modified) notice the tub flatten towards top
Sunrise (Southwest) mine, 6th level close to shaft station
Queen Rocker with Anaconda Trucks
References
Richard Graeme IV 2010, pers. comm., 8 February
Richard Graeme III 2010, pers. comm., 2 February
Handbook of Mining Details 1912, McGraw Hill Book company pp. 229-230
Peele, R 1941, Mining Engineers’ Handbook 3rd edition John Wiley & Sons, Inc p. 11-07
Sherman, G 1916 ‘Tramming and Hoisting at the Copper Queen Mine’ in
A.I.M.E. Transaction Vol 52, The Maple Press pp. 466-471