Last Saturday (May 3rd) the Dutch Group met at a brickworks museum in the east of our country. This is situated at the village of Losser, near the town of Enschede on the German border. The brickworks named 'De Werklust' was shut down in 1998 when it still worked to a traditional process involving semi-mechanised brickmaking and an oval-shaped tunnel kiln. The clay was brought in by a 70cm gauge tramway. The plant shut down as it couldn't compete with modern industrial brick production in huge factories. They turned it into a museum soon afterwards.
I will show a few key photos from our visit.
The 15m deep clay pit, which is circled by a narrow gauge tramway. This is glacial clay deposited during the last Ice age, on a bed of sandstone boulders:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F01IMG_7510.jpg&hash=0e1450e11b51ef3d0f6a39e6eedde3281f1d569c)
A bucket dredger which was aquired for the museum at a later stage. This is in the wrong position as it should be at right angles to the track.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F01IMG_7635.jpg&hash=4ebde4aeba650610b060db135e53d8b162890ed9)
Dutch group members on the excursion train:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7517.jpg&hash=595ee30db68135168eab028520df9ce12d797ab9)
The train standing beside the road, with Rob Reinders' young daughter Sophie admiring the locomotive:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7523.jpg&hash=09d921e37868f0359649773bff94f516277c4523)
A string of skips in line with the winch that used to haul them out of the pit:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7545.jpg&hash=b8a0da00c26bc64cd6f7656f5775c1ac0bd3ccc7)
The workshop yard:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7638.jpg&hash=985d5c9e8b0e7a4e062a8adc687242fa6ecca445)
Traverser inside the workshop building:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7526.jpg&hash=ee084534b3bf04786f818d44e9fc4ab1c10db595)
The remarkable arrangement of rails in the workshop - four rails each 70cm apart:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7528.jpg&hash=2b7410b2e3b641430110a6426c7b8c9bf310c6be)
A mobile generator set on a skip chassis:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7538.jpg&hash=ff454483d8e1757ff7d530de2439ed699dd4dfe9)
The picturesque line along the road, only about 100 yards from the brickworks site:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7669.jpg&hash=5aad4a5976c72d863b4d414ea7152f7fe51289a8)
The end of the line in the processing plant:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F02IMG_7627.jpg&hash=08c70848f1c84885fa95280c1f7aac0be142ee89)
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F03IMG_7569.jpg&hash=b8aa29baa4e89fe7781813909cc773a6eadb183d)
A remarkable view of the kiln building with its tall chimney:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F04IMG_7566.jpg&hash=d2207ccc9fed887a1e99a2d8d9c4d7dd7e597bf9)
One of the extensive drying sheds where the moulded brick shapes were set out to dry in the summer months. The firing process took up the winter period. Note the remnants of the extensive ground level cableway along the shed. This was used to transport the drying boards on which the bricks were stored to dry.
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F05IMG_7614.jpg&hash=54a4c2a423c8cf9e5ecbdcfcdb4a1b764b978db4)
A view inside the kiln tunnel, with a stack of bricks ready to fire:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F04IMG_7597.jpg&hash=befba553081a93b4b404c170487a810f95315336)
And a view of the attic of the kiln building, which was used to store coal, fire the kiln through numerous stokeholes, and operate the air valves which sectioned the central flue leading to the chimney:
(https://forum.009society.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.009dutch.nl%2Farchive%2F2014%2Fgallery63%2Fimages%2F04IMG_7604.jpg&hash=6c1b7d7222b23f3ccfd38fd99fc0e0205c8d77a5)
The coal was originally brought in by standard gauge - there was a siding from a branch railway entering the premises. But for model purposes the coal could be brought in by narrow gauge as well. The bricks, instead of being transported by a cableway, could be transported on narrow gauge trucks.
The entire photo album is on this web link (http://www.009dutch.nl/archive/2014/gallery63/index.htm). I will in due course put the entire tale on to the Dutch Group website.
For those interested, here is a video of our visit to the brickworks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAq-6ciQ-iE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAq-6ciQ-iE)
Viewed the images earlier and the ones on the website. Just watched the video, it certainly added more depth to the scale of the site and the enormity of the drying sheds and kiln.
Thanks
Thanks for the pictures, Ted. The line running along the side of the road looks very atmospheric and that skip chassis with a generator on it is an interesting prototype which may deserve to be modelled! At 15m that must have been quite a deep pit for its size (judging for the photo).
David.
There is a very similar tunnel kiln at Llanymynech on the English/Welsh border. It was used for lime burning, the limestone was quarried nearby but the coal was brought in by rail (SG) and the burnt lime taken away by the same route. There was a quite extensive narrow gauge network to bring the limestone from the quarries (with inclines) and to move the materials about on the site. The kiln is preserved and well worth a visit, and there is a small exhibition room which if it is open has a nice 009 model of the site as it was.
http://www.llanymynech.org.uk/html/info_freebies.html
Frank