I was at the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association in Kent, CT, on Saturday for their fall show. Among the many displays was a nice mining museum. Outside were a mine motor, mucker, a few mine cars, and a tiny restored double drum hoist. It was missing its engine, but another small hoist in a different part of the grounds was connected to a single cylinder gas engine. Photos are at:
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/560893381uGsAUi

nice pics mike, whats with the wheels with the flanges on the outside?

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That makes two places we have seen with flanges on the outside. Guys we have no idea why they do this but we do know that you can not go through switches.

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

Can you not rule out that someone just put the wheels on backwerds? They certinly look like they are backwerds, if you are going to put design into the wheel, you'd put the design on the outside (like the fake spokes these wheels have), not on the inside so noone can see it. The outside is currently flat while the inside has fayk spokes.. These wheels were certinly NOT intended or built to be used like this.

As far a switches go, you can probably negotiate a switch if you had a diffrently designed frog. The switch points would just needed to goe on the outside of the track to catch the outside flange. I'm sure it could be done, but I doubt that the wheels were used this way though.

Miner Greg

Yes, you can go through (specially designed) switches:
http://books.google.com/books?id=AZUEAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA6-PA244&dq=c.w.+hunt
The outside flanges indicate that the equipment was from a railroad that used the Hunt System. The wheels at CAMA came from a long gone power plant in Albany, New York. In the Hunt System, the outside flanges helped the cars go around curves, because one flange would ride on the head (on top) of the outer rail. This meant that tight turns could be negotiated without the wheels slipping as the greater diameter of the flange corresponded to the longer distance of the outer rail of the curve. The system was also less prone to derailments caused by the widening of the track gauge.