The slow speed producer-gas and diesel driven ammonia plants and cold storage facilities involved quite large machinery and storage rooms. A single cylinder diesel of about 60 horsepower had a bore of say 12 inches dia., a stroke of 24 inches and operated at around 250 rpm. The flywheel weighed about 3 tons and its total weight was about 9 tons. The associated belt driven ammonia compressor was of similar size and weight. Excluding any icecream and green produce storage facilities, the cold storage rooms typically comprised say one ice storage room holding up to 50 tons of block ice, a meat storage room holding say 12 sides of beef and 20 sheep (which came in warm from the abattoirs), and a milk/produce room holding numerous 10 gallon cans of un- pasteurised milk from local dairies, kegs of beer, boxes of butter, etc. There were also one or more ice making brine tanks containing about 200 ice moulds for 561b block ice, a large wet ammonia condenser and an engine cooling water tower. In the case of producer gas engines, there was also the charcoal burning gas producer and gas scrubber located in the works yard.
G. M. Craker makes reference to the ice shortages, which were a regular occurrence in Broken Hill during summer heat waves. The shortages certainly raised great anger and passion among the city's residents and with good reason. He attributes this to inadequate ice making capacity. This was not necessarily true after the Railwaytown Iceworks commenced operating in about 1938. The normal summer ice consumption was about 30 tons per day, which would increase dramatically during a prolonged hot spell. From 1938 onward, the combined maximum capacity of the five ice plants was about 50 tons per day and each plant approached the summer period with some 40 or more tons in storage.
Some ice plants were family-run and production was increased immediately a heat wave commenced. They did not have to pay engine drivers overtime and week-end penalty rates; they simply did with less sleep. Other plants were managed and these employed engine drivers who had to be paid overtime at penalty rates. The managers of these plants had to be confident that the heatwave would be prolonged before committing to full capacity operation involving engine driver's overtime. They also had to be sure that the 40 to 50 tons of ice held in stock would be sold before winter. Given the limited weather forecast service available at that time, this involved a significant cost risk as the additional labour cost would not be recovered if a strong cool change blew-in unexpectedly and ice held in storage could not be carried through the winter.
In the matter of the limited weather forecasts, I remember the criteria used in our home for forecasting an approaching strong cool change. It was a combination of cooler weather in Perth, Adelaide's day temperature higher than Broken Hill's and the corns on father's feet aching. Engines were either run or shutdown overnight on this basis
Along with many other Broken Hill residents, some managers and owners enjoyed their sport and were known to knock-off at mid day on Saturday, for an afternoon's sport, with a heat wave approaching. Perhaps they should have kept their plant running. In summary, ice shortages, after 1938, were mainly due to delays in response time.
Mention was made of the importing of ice by rail from Blaney in NSW, also from Adelaide, during periods of ice shortage. In fact, the South Australian ice came from Peterborough as it was cost prohibitive to transfer Adelaide ice to the narrow gauge rail at Terowie. The Peterborough ice was similar to Broken Hill ice being opaque and in 56 lb blocks. However, Blaney ice was highly prized, as it was crystal clear and in 112 lb blocks. The importation of ice was essentially an act of faith with customers as it was usually a loss making venture, on account of the high cost of freight and double handling.
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