Taylorton- Western Dominion Tipple

Western Dominion Collieries


Constructing the Original Taylorton Tipple in 1905
Photo Above courtesy Luscar Ltd, part of Archive Photo Place Mats, used at Bienfait Reunion 2005

When the mine moved from the Valley, to the Prairie above, ca Jan 1906, They changed from the Drift Method (D) of Coal Mining, into the side of the River Valley, to a Sloped Shaft Method (B) of mining, using a Steam Driven Tipple, to raise the coal cars from the mine.

Mine cars, containing 2 tons of coal, were hauled up the slope by steam gear via a 2in thick cable which was rolled up on a revolving drum.
Vertical distance to the coal seam was 60 ft- (source Taylorton 1955 History book)
Horses were used down underground to pull the carts to the bottom of the slope.
Jan 1906- The tunnel on the slope was 7 ft 6 in by 16 ft wide. 2 tracks run to the 8 ft thick Coal Seam.
A third section of the slope was reserved for the use of the mine workers. It was known as a Double Entry, Board and Pillar mine.
It used 3 100 hp boilers. a 75 hp double hoist with a 5 ft Drum. A Car loader with a capacity of 1,000 tons daily, and a modern tipple.
The tipple was made of wood, 170 ft long, 33 ft high, and 32 ft wide.
On it were triple tracks for handling mine cars. A Mitchell Automatic Dump, and creepers to move the cars to the dump.
A spur line 5 miles long was built to Bienfait CPR line.
They had a locomotive House, Powder magazine, Power House, and Store House, all made of stone.
In addition they had a combined carpenter-blacksmith shop, and stables for the horses used.
1/3 of a mile away was Taylorton Village, There they had the Company's Store, warehouse and Oil House, all of stone.
and what they claimed, a number of handsome little cottages for the 200 workers.
R. R. Taylor was President, and John Taylor was the Manager.

After WWI the mine changed to a vertical shaft mine. (C) This allowed the full cars to be lifted to the top of the tipple, where they were dumped automatically.
2- 150 hp boilers drove the hoisting equipment.

In 1939 Western Dominion Collieries amalgamated with Truax-Traer, to form Western Dominion Collieries Ltd. Strip mining equipment was brought from Truax-Traer property near Estevan. During WWII they operated strip mining (D) and deep mining (C) side by side. In 1945 the deep mining operations were abandoned, and strip mining continued.

Next 3 photos below, were part of a Student's display at the old EJH School in Estevan in 2000

Old Taylorton Steam Plant

Taylorton Tipple
The original tipple burnt down in a great fire in 1935
It put about 170 men out of work at that time.
It was rebuilt in 1936.

Taylorton Tipple

Taylorton Plant and Tipple were moved to the Klimax Mine

More Taylorton Tipple Pictures taken by Joseph James

Western Dominion Collieries

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