Goods sheds - how were they used ?

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Hello

 

The classic model goods shed (Superquick) has a short platform and so this got me wondering how goods sheds in general wer used.

 

Options which I came up with.

 

1. In any given rake there were only a certain small number of wagons that needed to use the goods shed and care was taken to position them together and then position the rake so that these were against the platform. The loco positions the rake once and moves off.

 

2. There would be many wagons in various positions within the rake that needed to use the shed and the loco either stayed with the rake to move it along as required or went off to do other things and returned as/when to reposition the rake.

 

3. As #2 but a horse was used to move the rake once initially positioned - subject the length of train

 

It's just something that caught my attention as I realised that I had never seen a goods shed in action (too young - just!) and all I've seen in model form is # 1.

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[chris p bacon]

I know from talking to people in town that either worked in the shed or picked up from it, that as well as the shunting engine and horses, pinch bars would be used to move wagons inside the shed. This wouldn't be for great distances but van/wagon lengths.

 

Also for ease of unloading a lot of sheds had a small hand crane on the unloading platform that could swing between the wagon and the cart loading bay.

[anroar53]

Before the Goods Shed at Hastings was demolished in the mid 80s it was used for a time by the morning Newspaper train for unloading. Thunders, the local newsagent, would back their vans up to the loading bay for ease of level access, and undercover, without having to use the lifts on the platforms. The return Van working was then loaded with Mail bags for Tonbridge. This was convenient for the Post Office as they had use of the space to the south of the shed for parking their fleet of road vehicles.

 

Andy.

[Welchester]

Although it may not answer your specific question, Historic England has a useful little volume on goods sheds. You can either order it or download a pdf file here:

 

https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/iha-railway-goods-sheds-warehouses/

[Guy Rixon]

It's clearly less effort and quicker to move goods directly between a wagon and a railway vehicle than to hump them into the shed and out again. I would expect that most loads did not need to pass through the shed. The exceptions would be delicate goods that could not be transhipped in bad weather; loads arriving by road before the relevant wagons showed up; loads not collected by the customer before the wagon was due to depart. The last two categories should be empty almost all of the time.

 

I would not expect a train loco to wait around to shuffle wagons at a station, as the waiting time would be too long. Movement in the yard between trains would be by horses, or tractors, or pinch bars, or capstans (at the larger stations).

 

Some goods stations, mainly in cities, offered warehousing facilities, presumably at extra cost to the customer. In these cases, more of the wagons would have passed through the shed.

[The Johnster]

Worth mentioning that goods sheds in general handled 3 different grades of traffic and might have separate facilities for all three. Firstly, household coal which was unloaded from mineral wagons into staithes/cells or (particularly oop North) into drops from hopper wagons.  The local coal merchant(s) did this work.  Secondly, there was 'mileage' traffic, general merchandise in vans and opens loaded or unloaded by non-railway staff.  This would simply be positioned on a plain siding and the goods handled by third parties directly onto carts or lorries/road vans backed up to or driven alongside the wagon door.  Thirdly, and this is where the goods shed comes in, the railway's goods traffic, charged at a higher rate than mileage and handled by railway staff.  This is unloaded or loaded in the goods shed or onto a loading dock, and is further subdivided into delivery/collection traffic, which is sent out or collected in railway road vehicles or horse drawn in the old days, the main use of the iconic Scammell Mechanical Horse 3 wheeler in urban areas, or TBCF, to be called for (and signed for) by the recipient or his agent.  

 

The shed provided lifting facilities, ramps, under cover work space, and secure overnight storage for goods in transit, usually along with a small office to keep track of it all.  Note that a traditional goods yard has a minimum distance of 18 feet clear between the goods shed and mileage sidings/coal roads, that being the turning circle of a Victorian horse and cart (and part of the design specification of a Scammell MH).  There may well have been cattle facilities with a surface that could easily be hosed down after use, and an end-loading dock as well.

 

If you are down that way with 5 minutes to spare, have a look at the one at Okehampton.  It is in current use as a youth hostel, but many of the features I have described can be clearly identified and it is not difficult to visualise how it all worked.  Also, the station shop sometimes has some good RTR bargains...

[The Stationmaster]

Goods sheds basically dealt with 'goods smalls' and (if they had the facility) traffic to/from warehouse.  Full wagonloads were generally dealt with in the open although no doubt if shed space allowed they might possibly have been used for it or if it was subject to weather damage but the main use was for 'smalls' (i.e. consignments of less than 1 ton consigned along with other consignments in a single wagon.

 

The shed allowed the traffic to be unloaded undercover and sorted to delivery rounds (ir to warehousing) under cover and equally traffic unloaded from collection & delivery road vehicles could be sorted to different wagons for different destinations.

 

Not an entirely hard and fast rule as some very large depots also handled full loads under cover, even ti/from non-railwauy owned cartage but at medium size and smaller depots effectively the shed was for smalls (as long as the depot continued to handle them that is) and the yard was for full loads.  Various concentration schemes over the years, starting in the 1930s and continuing through to the '60s gradually removed goods smalls traffic from all but the largest freight depots so many goods sheds fell into disuse

[Theakerr]

The rural station I grew up on had basically two sidings, a coal one and a loading dock one, and two good sheds, neither enclosed although both had overhanging roofs.  The coal siding had one shed that was used for seeds, fertilisers etc and the loading dock siding had the second goods shed.  This one was used for animal feedstock.  The time period was about 1953 to about 1960.  Wagons were moved around using a shunting plank and brute force although I know a farmers tractor was used when no-one was looking and the farmer was in a hurry

[D854_Tiger]

I was at a model show where a young lad asked the same question.

 

He was then given the usual orthodox answer involving perishable goods etc.

 

Some rather knowing old wag in the crowd then whispered that another important function of the goods shed was to hide all the pilfering that went on, "They never went short of a Xmas joint in a railwayman's cottage."