Building the last Main Line Railway

Rugby to Barby: gcrcs3a

Close up of image 'gcrcs3' showing the face of the cutting being excavated and the steam shovel which is fully enclosed. In this photograph steam shovel is digging to its side as can be deduced by its arm and bucket being at 90 degrees to the line of temporary track. The marks and angle of the face of the excavation indicate that the steam shovel's removed the earth by an upwards movement of the arm. The bucket would then be placed over the wagon and the bottom would open allowing the spoil to drop into the wagon. The size of both the bucket and wagon would indicate that one shovel would equal the capacity of one wagon. This meant that the steam shovel was not used as efficiently as it could be based on the numbers of wagons in the photograph. The sides of the steam shovel were built open to the elements and during periods of inclement weather the crew would frequently erect temporary sides. These were made out of what ever material was available, in this case they were made out of corrugated iron sheeting.

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