Ratio Coaling Tower.

[Gilwell Park]

Hi.  I am currently building the Ratio coaling tower for a steam shed diorama.  There is a door at the bottom of the conveyor tower with a representation of a bucket. My question is how did the coal get from a truck into the bucket? Did somebody just stand and shovel through the door or was there some labour saving device? Was the coal just dumped from the truck in a heap or was there a pit beneath the rails? On all the photos I have found there is a truck, or rudimentary shelter in the way.

 

Thank you

 

Roger

[banburysaint]

At Marylebone there were little tubs which ran on a narrow gauge railway according to a colleague whose father was based at Aylesbury. Hope this is helpful

[orford]

I suspect that it varied, although bear in mind that the Ratio kit represents a fairly modest coaling tower, compared to the huge automatic concrete structures employed at major sheds. Accordingly I believe that the majority of coaling towers of the Ratio kind would have alost certainly have been filled by 'hard labour', which came cheap and plentiful during steam days.

 

In other words, coal would be shovelled by hand, direct from wagons standing on an adjacent road into the bucket-like receptacle which you mention. There were many of these 'buckets' (not just one), spaced all along a kind of vertical conveyor belt which rode up inside the box-shaped structure to the top of the tower where the coal was automatically tipped into the hopper as the conveyor and its buckets rolled over the top before returning empty to ground level.

 

This is certainly the way I have represented the operation on 'Wickham Market' (see photo).

 

'Wickham Market' will be featured in Railway Modeller October 2016 issue for those wanting more photograhs, whilst its alter-ego 'Orford' is scheduled for the preceeding (September 2016) issue.

 

Don Mason

[Ben Alder]

Here is a link to the Stranraer Coaling tower, which is the basis for the Ratio kit.  Oban and Wick also had these types, with less of a shelter for the coalmen to feed the conveyor.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/monochrome_trains/2974703425

[Grovenor]

Roger,

PM sent

Regards

[Gilwell Park]

Hi

 

Thanks for all the replies, I now have an idea of what to do.

 

Regards

 

Roger

[Ben Alder]

Here are two shots of the Wick coaler taken in 1971, showing the shelter. Oban had a similar structure but I can't lay my hands on an image just now.

 

 

[66C]

Hi.  I am currently building the Ratio coaling tower for a steam shed diorama.  There is a door at the bottom of the conveyor tower with a representation of a bucket. My question is how did the coal get from a truck into the bucket? Did somebody just stand and shovel through the door or was there some labour saving device? Was the coal just dumped from the truck in a heap or was there a pit beneath the rails? On all the photos I have found there is a truck, or rudimentary shelter in the way.

 

Thank you

 

Roger

 

Hi Roger

 

This extract from the original drawing may help.  It shows the foot of the elevator and the adjacent wagon road.  Coal was offloaded onto the small hopper at the foot of the elevator.  The Ratio kit is missing some of the detail even though they were given access to the original drawings.

 

 

Regards.