Good morning to you all Dear reader's - another day - and another 'Blog' from the lower reaches of the South Pacific. I trust that you are well, and ready for another episode of the 'Blog.
And today's topic is ?
Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure yet, but come along anyway and we'll see what we can find . . .
Ah yes, as usual, 'the Kaiser's' - except that today, for once, we will not be at the mine - rather its a case of 'what went on with the rest of the 'drawer - and what happened when I went 'On the Other Side. . .' (cue loud 'impressive' organ-type music).
To refresh your memory about the basic geometry of the entire layout:
It is effectively a rectangle measuring 131/2" x 23", with a Scenic Divider running diagonally across it.
Through the Scenic Divider, at each end, is a hole (no, NOT a tunnel) through which the track accesses each side of the layout.
Effectively, one side of the layout is devoted to the mine, the other to the processing plant. But what form would this latter take?
My intention when I started to build the layout was tha the 'Mine was to be on one side of the Scenic Divider, and the Reduction Works (Battery, Processing Plant, Concentrator) was to be on the other, with the divider so painted as to convey the fact that the two sites were located a considerable distance from each other (as was frequently the case with New Zealand Gold Mines.
So far so good, but for the reduction works, after making allowance for scenery and a Locomotive Shed, my working space was effectively a triangle measuring approximately 2" x 14' x 14" But what to put in it?
So as not to confuse you Dear Reader, I think that it would be a good idea at this point to give you some idea of what processes are involved in extracting Gold from Quartz Rock - if only to make things perhaps a little clearer for all concerned:
As you may be aware Gold in its 'underground' form is usually found 'locked-into' other rock, frequently quartz, and is as a result invariably inaccessible without further treatment to 'unlock' it from the surrounding rock.
The names given to the surrounding rock formations containing the metal vary, but in New Zealand they are referred to as 'Reefs', in the US, 'Lodes'
For our purposes the Tramway on the Kaiser's layout is used to take bits of reef, containing the gold (and collectively known as 'ore' to the Reduction Works (Battery) to be processed, and have the gold released
So, let us begin:
On arrival at the Battery, the ore is put through an Ore Crusher which reduces the rock-pieces to a uniform size (about the size of an adult-human's head), and, after storage,it is then fed into the Stamps (Stampers) which reduce the rock even further - to the consistency of fine Talcum Powder!
The stamps (or, technically Gravity (or Californian) Stamps) look, in shape, a lot like the 'Tamping Poles/Rods' which were used in the days of Cannons (19th Century) to ram-home the explosive charges down the barrels before the cannon was fired.
Except that these 'Tamping Poles' are solid steel (and consequently heavy - 8001b is an average weight) stand vertically, are usually in groups of 5, and can be mechanically lifted sot that thee bottom of the Stamp (the shoe) is some 8"-10" above the horizontal at the peak of the lifting cycle.
From which height it is then dropped!.
The combination of Gravity, weight and downward movement means that when the Stamp impacts on the very hard Quartz rock and does so repeatedly, it shatters it, and eventually reduces it to Talcum Powder consistency .
Water has been added during this process and what results looks like a very thin 'mud' - (thinner than pancake batter if you will).
This 'mu' is then allowed to wash over inclined tables (usually made of Copper Sheeting) which have been covered with Mercury.
Mercury will try to 'grab' any gold going past (and usually obtains about 65% - depending on conditions) and will form what is called an 'Amalgam' with what it has taken - the Amalgam being removed at periodic intervals for further processing.
However, Mercury cannot take all the gold out, and because of this, after the 'Mud' has flowed across the Amalgamating (Mercury) Tables, a variety of chemical means are introduced to make sure that as much gold is removed from the Mud as possible.
Chief amongst these is Sodium Cyanide, a chemical which actively dissolves Quartz, does it very efficiently and has a very high Gold extraction rate as a result.
Without going into technicalities, suffice to say that, to be at its most efficient, Cyanide in solution is mixed-in with the previously-mentioned Mud, water is added, and the resulting chemical cocktail is firstly all mixed-in together than allowed to settle, for few days ( to give the Quartz maximum exposure to the Cyanide and to dissolve as much of it as possible, so releasing the Gold within), then treated with progressively weaker solutions of cyanide to release even more gold, until finally the Mud is given further processing and the gold in the cyanide solution is released - hopefully in total.
All of which is all very well Dear Reader, but what did it mean in reality - what did i need to install on the available space to create a reasonable representation of a typical medium-sized Coromandel Battery?
As Perceived it, i somehow m\needed to represent the building that covered the entire process (and known collectively as 'the Reduction Works' or 'Battery' - the terms are interchangeable), Cyanide agitating and settling tanks, a Boiler House (because the Reduction Works would be steam powered), an Assay House/Smelting house, Blacksmith's Shop, a Coal Bunker, Company Offices (of some sort) and a Goods Shed.
And the list DIDN'T include the Locomotive shed and, most significantly, two 'tall Tanks' vertical towers some 50' high by 20' wide, for which i didn't even have any working drawings and only very poor photographs!
And all this in a space measuring 2" x 14" 14"!!!!
And with a Railway running through it!
Where WOULD it go Dear Reader, where would it all go?
And how was I going to make all these things anyway? I only had a box with scrap-bits with me, and its contents didn't seem overly promising!
Well, to find out, you will just HAVE to return Dear Reader, won't you?
But, until then
Happy modelling
Komata
"TVR - serving the Northern Taranaki . . . "
