Coal loading in the 1930s

[Mick38]

I am modeling a small country terminus in the 1930s and I wondered how would the locos be loaded with coal where there was no elevated coal siding? Nowadays a front end loader could be used but they weren’t around then. Any ideas please?

[Fat Controller]

Shovels, and the Mk1 human. There might sometimes be a small hand-crane and bucket.  Even when there was an elevated coaling stage, the wagons would be emptied by manual means.

From personal experience, the man and shovel combination can handle a surprising amount in a day.

[doilum]

Unless the loco was shedded there, coaling would be probably done at the main line end of the line?

[Il Grifone]

An example (St. Ives, Cornwall - 1961, but it wouldn't have changed much) - muscle and shovel.

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p297823005/h1E289381#h1e289381

[Wheatley]

Coaling at Loch Tay (small loco shed beyond the terminus at Killin, no facilities at the junction) was done by shovelling out of a 16ton mineral parked on the adjacent line right up until closure in the 1960s. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Wheatley

[tractionman]

1 hour ago, Mick38 said:

I am modeling a small country terminus in the 1930s and I wondered how would the locos be loaded with coal where there was no elevated coal siding? Nowadays a front end loader could be used but they weren’t around then. Any ideas please?

 

Here's an LMS example, Redditch, a coaling stage--looks very modellable!

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/Ln1CzstUzzcrmH2cA

 

From Warwickshire Railways, excellent web-site:

 

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrred418.htm

 

cheers,

 

Keith

 

[rockershovel]

55 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

Shovels, and the Mk1 human. There might sometimes be a small hand-crane and bucket.  Even when there was an elevated coaling stage, the wagons would be emptied by manual means.

From personal experience, the man and shovel combination can handle a surprising amount in a day.

 

Also known as the 1RB! 

[DCB]

Coal could be laboriously shovelled from a wagon on to a line side platform and them laboriously loaded onto a loco bunker or tender, but on the GWR the practice of out stationing a loco at the terminus died out through your period in favour of sending a loco from a major depot. 1930s  GWR locos had very large bunkers compared to most, 3 tons plus, after the bunkers were lengthened with a "Bustle" and raised so they could easily do a whole days work on a branch without re fuelling. 4400 went from 2.3 tons as built to 3.75 tons coal capacity when their bunkers were lengthened.   Last one I know of was Princetown until closure, where the 44XX was coaled direct from a wagon buffered up to the loco.  The GWR Bunker with the "Bustle" extension reduced the gap between loco and wagon.   Coaling platforms such as St Ives remained until closure but I doubt they remained in use until the end of steam when Long Rock depot was not far away.    .

Edited May 8, 2020 by DavidCBroad

[Mick38]

Many thanks for all this helpful info. The thought of flinging shovels full of coal from ground level up into a tank engines bunker didn’t sound too good, but shoveling from an adjacent wagon or a staging was obviously the way to go. While coaling would normally be done at the main line end, I thought it would be appropriate to provide some means at the terminus, just in case!

[The Johnster]

There were all sorts of block and tackle arrangements with buckets to assist the task and minimise spillage as well.

[rockershovel]

Also the once-ubiquitous 5 ton Coles mobile crane, the mainstay of small tunnelling sites in the 60s, 70s and 80s, many of which had been displaced from the railways by the end of steam. 

[rockershovel]

On a completely different note - NYC, 1938