All materials of construction were loaded on cars on the surface at the point where they were stored, and hauled on these to the elevators, sent down the shaft, and taken along the tunnels to the desired point without unloading.
The narrow-gauge railway on the surface and in the tunnel was of 2-ft. gauge with 20-lb. rails. About 70 flat cars and 50 mining cars were used at each shaft. On the surface at Manhattan these were moved by hand, but at Weehawken, where distances were greater, two electric locomotives on the overhead trolley system were used.
Tunnel Transportation.—The mining cars shown in [Fig. 19] were of 1¼ cu. yd. capacity. The short wheel base and unbalanced loading caused a good many upsets, but they were compact, easily handled, and could be dumped from either side or end.
The flat cars shown in [Fig. 20] were of 3 tons capacity, and could hold two tunnel segments. As the working face was down grade from the shafts, the in-bound cars were run by gravity. For out-bound cars a cable haulage system was used, consisting of double-cylinder, Lidgerwood, single friction-drum, hoisting engines (No. 32) of 6 h.p., with cylinders 5 in. in diameter and 6 in. stroke and drums 10 in. in diameter. These were handily moved from point to point, but, as there was no tail rope, several men had to be used to pull the cable back to the face. After the second air-lock bulkhead walls had been built, a continuous-cable system, worked electrically, was put in each tunnel between the first and second air-locks.
The engine consisted of an electric motor driving a 3-ft. 6-in. drum hoist around which a ¾-in. steel wire cable passed three times. The cable was led around a sheave, down the tunnel on the right side of the in-bound track, and returned on the left side of the out-bound track. It was then carried around a set of sheaves, where a tension of 1,000 lb. was supplied by a suspended weight which acted on a sheave with a sliding axle on the tension carriage. The cable was supported throughout its length on 8-in. pulleys set in the floor at 50-ft. intervals. All the guide sheaves were 36 in. in diameter.
Each car was attached to the cable by a grip at its side. This was fastened and unfastened by hand, but was automatically released just before reaching the turn in the cable near each lock. This system could haul without difficulty an unbalanced load of 10 muck cars, spaced 100 ft. apart, up a 2% grade. The cable operated over about 1,000 ft. of tunnel, the motor being placed at the top of the grade. The driving motor was of the semi-armored, 8-pole, series-wound type, rated at 25 h.p., 635 rev. per min., and using direct current at 220 volts. The speed of handling the cars was limited by their having to pass through the air-locks on a single track. As many as 106 cars have been hauled each way in one 8-hour shift.