Job out at Britannia Mines

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(captions below each set of pics)


Started work out at Britannia Mines last Saturday. We're replacing the tin siding and roof on the old 1921 building. For those who haven't seen it, it's built like a set of stairs up the mountain. A small town surrounds it, and it's about 10 minutes out of Squamish.
Looking up at it in this picture, you should be able to see the parts we have and haven't done. The grey-silversh siding is the new tin... the old beige-rust colour stuff higher up is yet to be covered up.
The site attracts at least a hundred tourists per day, but apparently they haven't actually been allowed on tours through the entire mine since the eighties.
One of the journemen I work with named "Frenchie" took me on a tour of it today. We've got all the safety gear required for a tour included in our work equipment, so it wasn't a problem. Harnesses, ropes, hard hats, boots, etc.

Here's a series of sequential view shots from the roof we were on today.


Here's a shot of the catwalk we take into the top of the mine, and the somewhat unusable portion of the catwalk on the other side of the structure.

Shot of the interior of the upper floor. Bar across the centre is a 30 tonne crane


Frenchie on a ladder


Nearly three hundred stairs to the top. Old rock car tracks on the left side


Down the same chute


Frenchie tied in.


From outside on the roof, looking in.


Yours truly... tied in...

Frenchie at the old rock-car controls. "One lever for up... two for down."


Mines from the outside. Bottom three layers finished... upper three layers yet to go.