"Incline Machine"

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Can someone please tell me what the hell this caption is on about? The wooden ramp in the background is a passenger entrance. It connects the Warwick Road at high level to the right to the down platform left. There is a longer shot of it here:-

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And a picture of the ornamental entrance here:-

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This is diagram of the station:-

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What does "incline machine" have to do with anything? TIA

(kim)

Reply to
kim
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My best guess is something equating to what today we'd call a lift or a Travolator. However, I am only guessing.

PhilD

Reply to
PhilD

I thought the same as PhilD at first. But if you look at the plan carefully, I think there are actually two labels there.

The first says "Incline" as does a similar label to the left. The second would have said "Machine Room" or something very similar and points to the space next to the lift. The right hand side of the plan has been cut off along with the word after "Machine..."

Stuart.

Reply to
stuart

Had another look. Sorry, not a lift, a pump house of some sort. The label actually says "machine r..."

Stuart. (Who wished usenet posts had an edit facility).

Reply to
stuart

To the best of my knowledge there was nothing inside the wooden tunnel except a booking office. We only ever used the entrance to the opposite platform which is at ground level. Didn't even know there was an entrance to the down platform entrance until I researched the layout.

Could "incline macine" possibly be just railwayspeak for "passenger ramp"?

(kim)

Reply to
kim

Or whether they had some form of winch and tackle to haul heavy trolleys up the incline, or roll them down the incline under control.

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

Unlikely as the goods depot was on the other side of the station and at ground level.

As far as I can tell the ramp was for the use of passengers only.

(kim)

Reply to
kim

I was thinking of luggage barrows which could be quite heavy and would be a problem for a porter to haul up that slope, or control coming down the slope. I know that a lot of stations which were above or below road level had lifts to get heavy barrowloads from road to platform level.

There were quite a lot of goods which arrived on the passenger platforms as well as luggage. I can remember newspapers, racing pigeons, etc at my local station.

jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

I'm 'inclined' to agree with you. Whoever captioned the photos has read the diagram wrong. There was definitely a workshop behind the old engine shed.which for some reason has been labelled "pump house".

(kim)

Reply to
kim

Indeed, even the humble GPO (or modern day BURT) trolley loaded with mail sacks could weigh a considerable amount and is why many station bared the movement of such trolleys from crossing the running lines via the 'barrow crossing'.

Reply to
Jerry

But in this case there's a purpose built parcels bridge linking both platforms. When that broke down they used the station pilot to lug a 50' parcels van from one side of the station to the other. No kidding.

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(kim)

Reply to
kim

Salvé "Jerry" skrev i meddelandet news:4567562b$0$97222$ snipped-for-privacy@authen.yellow.readfreenews.net...

Burt? In my day at Watford Jct they were known as British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment or Brute's for short, and they certainly lived up to their names, fingers seemed to be their favourite foodstuffs..atleast mine were. Dont know about crossing lines but an up express and a Brute was a suicidal conmbination , oh yes they steered so well!.... Beowulf (who still has several fingers left....)

Reply to
Beowulf

This ignorant savage, after studying the diagram, feels that "incline" is one word naming that portion of the diagram that actually is an incline, and that "machine r" is actually a fragment of the words "machine room". Note that "machine r" has a callout line running to the room next to the incline on the diagram, which supports my theory.

Is there no one left alive who actually worked there and who could put this question to rest?

Reply to
video guy

Probably, but reading Usenet is not a compulsory task in life, there are still more people in the world without computer access than with and all that! :~)

Reply to
Jerry

I still think it is a machine room and an incline, two seperate things.

Reply to
Bob

That makes sense to me, too. "Ramp" would have been the shorter alternative.

Reply to
video guy

Except that 'Ramp' has a distinct meaning on the railway, in the context, it would be like calling the foot holes found in the side of a platform face [1] a stairway...

[1] as used by station staff to cross at track level without walking to the barrow crossing.
Reply to
Jerry

Bob,

I dug out my copy of 'Historical Survey of Selected LMS Stations' which contains the plan drawing of Coventry station and if you look closely at the words 'machine r.', you can see a line from the words pointing to one of the buildings underneath it, backing up your thoughts about two separate headings on the drawing.

I'm not sure what the machine room could have contained. It seemed to be behind the small Midland loco shed and under tanks (water for the shed?) There was also another small building with the title 'sig d.' which might have belonged to the signal department.

Jim.

Reply to
jim

I still think it is a machine room and an incline, two seperate things.

Reply to
Bob

I still think it is a machine room and an incline, two seperate things.

Reply to
Bob

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