Traction Possibilities of Mining Railways with Frictional Drives

Present market conditions prefer an implementation in mining some highly efficient coal longwalls, which must be insured with a supply of proper machines and equipment as well as working there men, mainly by suspended and floor(narrow-gauge) railways. A frictional contact of engine driving wheels with rails of these railways limits their traction possibilities in the essential way, particularly onto rails of increased slopes. In the paper an analysis of traction possibilities of mining railways with frictional drives from the point of view of their operating on rail inclination, taking on consideration the different ways of thrust of driving wheels onto rail has been carried out. They were also given the dependences for the calculation of required frictional contact forces of wheels on rails and boundary track inclinations, which can be overcame by the railways with frictional drives.