NG Incline Railways - Newfoundland

This isn't Colorado or even steam, but these photos may have a little interest for some of you. Bell Island is in Conception Bay, close to St. John's, Newfoundland. For many decades it was the center of iron ore mining in eastern Canada - millions of tons being mined in shafts extending as far as three miles out under the ocean. Ore would be taken to the ocean-side ore docks on a 2' gauge rope/incline railway, built in 1901. I assume it was powered by steam in the early years but possibly electricity later. Maybe someone will have more details. According to Lavallee's Narrow Gauge Railways of Canada the system was six miles long. I gather it ran until around 1950, when it was replaced by trucks. The ore itself went by ship to the steel mills in Sydney, Nova Scotia, but the mining quit in 1966 due to cheaper mines being opened up in Labrador. Here's a couple pics from the Andrew Merrilees Collection that I hadn't seen before.





And then there was this short little 3'6" gauge incline that took passengers from the ferry docks to the upper level of the main town. It looks like there were two cars that ran on two separate tracks, diverging at the half way point (second photo), so no switches were involved. Two of these photos are in Lavallee's book, but the third one is new to me.







Cheers,
Ralph