Ratio 547 Coaling Tower (LMS)

[DaveFrk]

Hi all, still lurking. Noticed the above subject line and thought I could help a little. Some years ago I was involved with the East Kilbride club near Glasgow and the then new layout 'Nerston' had a small shed which needed a coaling stage, now, in the mix of members in that club was one Jimmy Anderson, a draughtsman who worked at 'Blantyre Engineering Ltd' and guess what they used to make? Yes, coal handling equipment, mainly for the mining industry. Now Jimmy remembered seeing some old drawings for a steel hopper coaling plant for the LMS railway, he hunted them down in the drawing office files and built a model from these drawings and as far as I remember it's the same design, he reckoned they built about a dozen of these plants for railway companies. I don't know if he still has the drawings (I will ask) but the company closed down over twenty years ago and mine, just along the road, also closed a few years later.
I'll try and find more info and perhaps a photo of the model if anyone is interested.

Regards,
Dave Franks
www.lanarkshiremodels.com

[grovenor-2685]

Dave,
I am certainly interested, the pics Les sent me of the North Yorkshire Moors tower provide some ideas but that one is a significantly different design.
Thanks
Keith
NB. Original topic at http://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1776.

[Mark Tatlow]

Dave,

I beleive that the Ratio coaler was based on the one at Wick (albeit a little loosely).

I do know someone that has a couple of pictures. I will see if I can get permission to publish them on here. I suspect I will, as they are on the Highland Railway Society's site.

[davefrk]

Hi Mark, yes I believe the one you refer to at Wick was a 'Blantyre' one and IIRC, the drawings listed Wick, Stranraer and a couple of other places....

Dave Franks,
www.lanarkshiremodels.com

[Mark Tatlow]

Dave,

I have just posted on Keith's thread as I can not post photo's in the guest-book.

I also think there are some fleeting views of the same coaler in one of the Cam Camwell's videos (although I do not have these to know).

[DaveFrk]

Hi, I see Keith has posted on the other thread so I'll try to answer through this one. The photo of the Wick coaling plant shows that the hopper has been modified quite severely, the shed has been closed for quite some time by the look of the bricked up shed entrance and the ground cover. The cylindrical tank sitting in the 'square hopper' looks to me like some sort of grain hopper.... the outlet at the bottom is possibly a canvas or light metal tube as used for loading grain wagons or road vehicles. I've seen similar set-ups in distilleries for spent grain, it's just conjecture at this point though but I would say the plant definitely wasn't built that way.
To answer the operation question, I believe that a loaded coal wagon was parked on the siding next to the plant, under the added corrugated roof or wooden cover (see all photos), the wagon side or bottom door was opened and the coal fell or was shovelled into a ground level hopper which had a small bucket conveyor, this ran inside the vertical square ducting which came up and over the top of the plant and deposited the coal into the big hopper. The loco ran under the hopper and IIRC a sliding plate could be opened and allow a controlled flow of coal to fall into the tender. I understand this design of hopper was first used in the thirties and some were still being installed during the war and were between 20/30 ton capacity.

Hope that helps,
I'm still waiting on a reply from the gentleman who built the model of one of these plants.
Dave Franks.
www.lanarkshiremodels.com

[grovenor-2685]

... the outlet at the bottom is possibly a canvas or light metal tube as used for loading grain wagons or road vehicles. I've seen similar set-ups in distilleries for spent grain, it's just conjecture at this point though but I would say the plant definitely wasn't built that way.

Ok that make sense, so ignore the light tube type outlet.

I believe that a loaded coal wagon was parked on the siding next to the plant, under the added corrugated roof or wooden cover (see all photos), the wagon side or bottom door was opened and the coal fell or was shovelled into a ground level hopper which had a small bucket conveyor,

Indeed, the kit models an opening ito the conveyor with bucket visible inside, what I was hoping for was something showing how the coal got from the wagon to this opening, which is vertical. One contributor to RMweb thought that there was an end tipper for the wagons but if so I would have though there would be some evidence in the pics. Use of an end tipper or the bottom doors would imply a hopper below rail level and hence a need to extend the kit ducting so the opening to the conveyor is below ground. If the side doors are used then a trackside hopper could be built. Perhaps the trick is to make the bottom of the conveyor nicely obscured by the roof over the wagon road.

The loco ran under the hopper and IIRC a sliding plate could be opened and allow a controlled flow of coal to fall into the tender.

This is the mystery bit, such a plate needs some quite powerful operating mechanism which I would expect to be evident, OK on your assumption this would have been removed from the Keith plant but its very hard to make out anything on the other two, although the Speke Jcn one does have an intermediate landing for the access ladder that may give access to something at that level.

Hope that helps,
I'm still waiting on a reply from the gentleman who built the model of one of these plants.
Dave Franks.
http://www.lanarkshiremodels.com

It will certainly be interesting to see what he comes up with.
Thanks
Keith

[DaveF]

Hi Keith, can you email me with your email address and I'll send you a file with the drawings in, I don't think I can post an attachment from the Guest book.

Dave Franks.
www.lanarkshiremodels.com

[R Doake/Ben Alder]

I took the original photos of the wick coaler in 1970 or 1971, IIR, and am quite happy to set them loose in the public domain if they are of use to anybody. I just wish I had taken more close ups, but I suppose that the mods would have obliterated the original transfer gear.

[Mark Tatlow]

Gents,

When I was visiting Edinburgh a couple of weeks back, I spent a bit of time in the General Register Office (which absorbed the Scottish Records Office).

I came across a listing for the LMS's file on the building of the Stranraer coaling plant. I only saw the listing for this, you have to call up files for viewing the following day, so I did not see its contents. However, I got the impression it was the whole of the LMS's correspondance file on it.

Its reference is BR/LMS/26/115 in case you want to call it up (you have to be registered to do so and they will only deliver it to their office in Edinburgh).

They are here: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/