GW Ramped Coaling Stages

Pushed up by locomotives, Peter. I've a feeling that the 'level' track at the far end of the top of the coaling stage might have had a very slight gradient on it, and the wagons were pushed through the coaling stage, the brakes applied, and then were allowed to run back into the stage by gravity to the appropriate place to be unloaded, but not 100% certain on that point.

"Keith J Patrick" wrote

Nope. They were shoved up the stiffish gradient one or two at a time by a pannier tank but not worked through, unless there was enough inertia to fly shunt them. Empties were kept on the far end of the through rail but it was level track with a buffer stop - sometimes earth banking but often brick arch viaducting. Visit the sole preserved one at Didcot Railway Centre and you will see a prominent cast sign by the entry arch under the water tank NO LOCOMOTIVE BEYOND THIS POINT. The brickwork (hollow under the stage as there was a store-room beneath) was not passed for loco axle loads. Wagons would have been shoved through by hand or pinch bar, and possibly worked back down the gradient empty by (illegally) pinning down the front wagon brake lever and riding it down on a brake stick, if a loco was not immediately available to work them back down before bringing up a fresh supply.

The GW rather fetishised not gravity-tipping loose coal through a hoist and hopper as they were convinced that crumbly Welsh steam coal would turn to dust if treated thus (whereas hard Yorkshire coal didn't mind the LNER's wagon hoists, nor their fireboxes the grade of coal) but given the roughness of those GW tipping barrows and the drop into the tenders one has to wonder. In any case the GW rationalised the situation by decreeing that crappy dust and slack went into pannier bunkers and best big lumps were reserved for Kings and Castles, making depot shovellers do the work of machines in the process. Visit Didcot to get a taste of the real thing: they let you go up there and take photos no problem - I've got loads of pics of a bygone filthy era recreated. (and my own model of the coal stage about to be incorporated on a 8' x 2'6" depot layout).

Tony Clarke

Thanks guys, I have the plans for the Didcot stage. My own measurements lead to an incline of about 1:15 which made me wonder about capstans or even loco hauled cables and sheaves. Braking on wet days must have been fun.

Peter A

At Weymouth the usual practice was for a loco to remove the empties (which had been left on the slope), park them then pick up the full ones and push them up the slope and into the coal stage. The engine would stop with the wagon closest to the engine positioned ready for use. The rest of the wagons would then be "up slope" of the first, usually extending to the buffer stops at the other end (they were good at judging such things then).

As each wagon was emptied it was allowed to run down the slope under the brake control of one of the coalmen and the next moved down into position to dispense the coal. I assume that there was always a very slight slope through the stage and on to the buffers in order to aid this. Certainly there was no mechanical aid to move wagons into position. The wagons would therefore gradually be assembled into a train of empties downside of the stage extending up the slope.

I can only speak of Weymouth but usually the removal and replacement was regularly carried out each morning (?about 7.30ish), sometimes by a pannier tank but more often by one of the sheds Moguls. If all of the previous days wagons had not been used then one or two full ones would be left at the buffers with appropriately less full ones being shunted up.

Thanks for asking the question - it has taken me back on a nostalgia trip of regularly seeing the whole operation from the front bedroom of my Nan's house less than a hundred yards away. Why I have said about the time is that I always associate it with also seeing the Royal Wessex go up the bank past the shed at the same time.

Ray Collins