Two level loading banks

[Ian Smeeton]

Many places in Scotland (and some in other parts) have loading banks at two levels.

 

The lower level seems to be about the right height to roll barrels, sack trucks etc onto a van or wagon with side doors.

 

The upper level looks to be about the level of the top plank of, say, a 5 plank merchandise wagon or mineral. No good for unloading, but useful for loading, I suppose.

 

Why were these two level banks provided?

 

Regards in anticipation,

 

Ian

[Fat Controller]

I think you've answered your own question, Ian. The lower bank would be for loading and unloading traffic, whilst the tall bank would be for unloading road vehicles into rail wagons. It could be from any near-by quarry or similar operation that wasn't rail-connected. 

[swampy]

14 minutes ago, Ian Smeeton said:

Many places in Scotland (and some in other parts) have loading banks at two levels.

 

The lower level seems to be about the right height to roll barrels, sack trucks etc onto a van or wagon with side doors.

 

The upper level looks to be about the level of the top plank of, say, a 5 plank merchandise wagon or mineral. No good for unloading, but useful for loading, I suppose.

 

Why were these two level banks provided?

 

Regards in anticipation,

 

Ian

Could they be for loading double-deck sheep vans? I think the Highland Railway had some.

 

Pete 

[Ian Smeeton]

28 minutes ago, swampy said:

Could they be for loading double-deck sheep vans? I think the Highland Railway had some.

 

Pete 

Possible...

 

but Paisley St James had one. Not many sheep there.

 

Banff, too, but according to the thread, the GNoSR didn't have any double deck sheep wagons.

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

I have had a quick look for photos, but can't find the one I was looking for.

[Nearholmer]

We’re root veg grown in quantity in these areas? Cos, where I’ve seen them in France, the upper one is for tipping beet from carts into railway wagons.

[Fat Controller]

I can think of a few of the higher type:-

Liskeard (Cornwall)- loaded stone, in use until the beginning of the 1980s

Longport, North Staffs. Built for coke from the adjacent gas works. In 1980, it was used to load baled scrap. Not the best of ideas when the wagons being loaded had wooden bodies.

[Nearholmer]

Here is an irish example of beet loading http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway Stations W/Wellingtonbridge/IrishRailwayStations.html#Wellingtonbridge_20101019_001_CC_JA.jpg

 

Nowadays, a lot of this is done using conveyor-elevators, but sugar factories have huge tilting tables which elevate an entire articulated lorry to empty it out. Another method, used a lot in Germany and Poland to unload wagons, was an "elephant", which was a huge thing like a water-crane, which squirted vast amounts of water in, and washed the beet out into a sort of canal that carried it into the plant.

 

Modern French method - loading a train on the main line, no less. [EDIT: Actually, although its exactly as I've seen in France, I think this is Switzerland]

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

@Caley Jim has modelled such a loading bank for Kirkallanmuir, his layout representing a fictional Caledonian station in the Lanarkshire. He discusses it here, though he does say that the arrangement was particularly common at rural stations in Scotland:

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Compound2632

[Trog]

On a smaller scale one of the bay platforms at Northampton was higher than a normal platform so it more or less matched the floor level of rolling stock to ease the loading of BRUTES etc into vans.

[Caley Jim]

Oher than at large city yards you'd be hard pushed to find a goods yard in Scotland which didn't have such an arrangement, precisely for the purposes I mentioned in the post @Compound2632 linked to above.

 

Jim

[Rivercider]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

Oher than at large city yards you'd be hard pushed to find a goods yard in Scotland which didn't have such an arrangement, precisely for the purposes I mentioned in the post @Compound2632 linked to above.

 

Jim

So were they common outside of Scotland? I can perhaps think of one or two locations in the West Country that might fit the description, but not many.

 

cheers 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

So were they common outside of Scotland? I can perhaps think of one or two locations in the West Country that might fit the description, but not many.

 

I can't off-hand think of any examples on the two largest pre-grouping railways.

[Nearholmer]

57 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

So were they common outside of Scotland?

 

Yes, in northern France, but that probably isnt what you meant.

 

I keep thinking I've seem pictures of one/some in East Anglia, but my brain isnt serving details.

 

Another Irish one was on the Bord na Mona network south of Lanesborough, where the track crossed a main road. It was used to transfer peat from outlying, non-railed bogs from road trailers to rail wagons for the final ten or so miles to the power station.

[BrianFH]

On 21/01/2022 at 13:34, Nearholmer said:

Nowadays, a lot of this is done using conveyor-elevators, but sugar factories have huge tilting tables which elevate an entire articulated lorry to empty it out. Another method, used a lot in Germany and Poland to unload wagons, was an "elephant", which was a huge thing like a water-crane, which squirted vast amounts of water in, and washed the beet out into a sort of canal that carried it into the plant.

 

Modern French method - loading a train on the main line, no less. [EDIT: Actually, although its exactly as I've seen in France, I think this is Switzerland]

What you’re describing was used at several British Sugar factories. It was simply called “the wash-off” and the concrete channels were called flumes, like the log flumes in the USA and Canada. If the operator wasn’t careful it was possible to blow the back window out of a wagon cab, or tear holes in a wooden trailer floor. I managed to knock a lorry driver off his feet when he was slow getting back into his cab at Peterborough. I don’t think it’s still in use at the remaining factories, though. It had the advantage of pre-cleaning the crop as it was unloaded.

[BrianFH]

Sorry, made a hash of that reply.  My bit ended up attached to the quote

[eastglosmog]

Several narrow gauge lines (Glyn Valley and Sand Hutton, for example) had two level interchange yards, a high level line for tipping out of narrow gauge wagons into standard gauge and a low level line for the opposite direction.