Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - The Steam Navvy and the Dock Extension of 1883 . . .

After a gullet has been driven, the excavation may however, be widened in another way, often employed in dock and harbour works, namely, by working along a “ side face ” with a single road, as shown in Fig. 7.

A train of empty wagons can then be drawn up alongside the navvy, and each truck as it is filled is pulled back wards by the locomotive, so as to bring the next one into the right place for receiving the contents of the bucket, no horse being then required. But although this appears a very simple plan, it is found difficult in practice to move each wagon through just the right distance, and time is lost, and the dirt spilt about. It is therefore best to store the empties behind the machine as before, and bring each forward over a jump to be loaded ; in this way, with experienced men on the machine, two horses can be kept going.

The jump lines should of course be as near to the machine as possible and the central track should follow up close with the coal truck and the water tank wagon. Two or more navvies also can be worked along the same face ahead of each other, the centre road forming the side road for the one behind, and so on, as in the section, Fig. 15.