Incline

A shaft, tunnel or surface tramway driven at a steady angle rather than vertically or level, laid with rail track so that wagons or skips could be hauled up and down it by rope rather than carried by a vertical winder — a practical option wherever the ground itself, or the material being moved, suited an angled route better than a true shaft.

Historical usage

Inclines are recorded across British mining and quarrying from the 18th century onward, especially common in Welsh slate quarries, where huge tonnages of rock and waste had to move between terraced workings at very different levels, and in collieries and metal mines linking underground workings to a surface tramway or railway. Some remained in industrial use remarkably late: Kilmersdon Colliery's 1877 gravity incline was, by the time of its closure, the last gravity-worked rope incline still operating industrially anywhere in the United Kingdom.

How it worked

Rail track was laid at a fixed, often steep gradient, and wagons or skips ran on it connected by a continuous rope to a winding drum or, on a self-acting or gravity incline, simply to each other — a loaded wagon descending under its own weight hauled an empty wagon back up on a parallel track, needing no external power at all beyond gravity and a brakesman to control the speed. Powered inclines instead used a steam, and later electric, winding engine at the top or bottom to haul wagons in both directions.

Why it was used

An incline let a mine or quarry move heavy, bulky material — ore, coal, slate, waste rock — over a change in level far more cheaply than building a full vertical shaft and winder would have cost, particularly useful for connecting underground or hillside workings to a valley-floor railway, tramway or processing site, and self-acting gravity inclines needed no fuel at all for the descending, laden side of the run.

Risks & limitations

An incline's wagons relied entirely on the rope, its attachment and its braking system remaining sound — a broken rope or a runaway wagon on a steep gradient was a serious, sometimes fatal hazard, as the 1863 shaft accident at Botallack demonstrates, where a carriage ran back down an incline out of control after its safety mechanism failed.

Regional variation

Welsh slate quarries in particular relied on extensive networks of inclines to move slate and waste between terraces and down to valley railways — Oakeley Quarry's incline down to the Ffestiniog Railway and Dinorwig's Vivian Transporter Incline of 1873 are both well-documented examples of the type.

Images

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Cae Coch Sulphur Mine — Conwy (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes an incline built down to the turnpike road.
• Dinorwig Slate Quarry — Gwynedd (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes the Vivian Transporter Incline of 1873.
• Hafotty Manganese Mine — Gwynedd (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes a tramway with inclines carrying ore to a loading point.
• Kilmersdon Colliery — Somerset (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes its famous 1877 double-track gravity incline, the last of its kind still working industrially in the UK.
• Llechwedd Slate Caverns — Gwynedd (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes an incline connecting the quarry to the Ffestiniog Railway.
• Oakeley Quarry — Gwynedd (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes the 'K Trwnc' incline and the Oakeley Incline down to the Ffestiniog Railway.
• Rosedale Ironstone Mines — North Yorkshire (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded history explicitly describes a rope-worked incline at Ingleby on a 1-in-5 gradient.
• Wheal Friendship — Devon (well documented example)
  The mine's own recorded workings explicitly describe an incline shaft sunk in 1808 and a later incline tramway serving the arsenic works.

Disasters associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis, with the nature of the relationship stated — not every disaster where this term might plausibly apply.

• Botallack Mine shaft accident (contributing factor)
  The accident involved a carriage running back down an incline out of control after its safety mechanism failed.

Sources

1. (secondary) Flatrod system — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Katoomba Colliery – Coal skips to passenger skips — Blue Mountains Historical Society

Record created: 22 August 2026 · Last researched: 22 August 2026