Dockside tracks

[Richard Gawler]

I was about to post a fresh topic to ask, "what is the minimium or typical distance of a quayside siding from the edge of a basin or dock?"

I was guessing, perhaps 8 feet. Well, the opening photo of Dundee suggests about two track gauges from rail to drop; say 9 feet. Or 8 ft 6 in on a model, to make the siding look that little bit longer and account for the viewing position well above ground level but not overhead.

Ideal . . . many thanks.

 

[Peter Insole]

Richard, in some cases there was little, or no distance at all!


copyright images shown for illustrative purposes only)

In most cases, I suspect the reason was to allow wagons to discharge directly into flat sided lighter barges tied securely alongside.

Pete.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I was about to post a fresh topic to ask, "what is the minimium or typical distance of a quayside siding from the edge of a basin or dock?"

I was guessing, perhaps 8 feet. Well, the opening photo of Dundee suggests about two track gauges from rail to drop; say 9 feet. Or 8 ft 6 in on a model, to make the siding look that little bit longer and account for the viewing position well above ground level but not overhead.

Ideal . . . many thanks.

As @Peter Insole says little or none at all. I suspect the distance will be based on several factors including which came first - the harbour or the railway and on the type of cargo being transhipped.

A search of the 1892-1914 25 inch OS maps of any port on NLS (National Library of Scotland) will provide a good guide.

This 1930 view of Lübeck Hafen show the tracks next to the quayside.

 

[Richard Gawler]

I imagine, my quayside handled imports of timber and small quantities of coal; and exports of agricultural machinery. Both of these would need a crane - on the vessel, on dry land but off-scene, or a crane tank.

I am in a happy place because of the way we make model railway baseboards - it is easy to build the substructure to provide a reasonable minimum, and then pad this out with foam board if I decide the distance should be greater.

 

[adrian]

I imagine, my quayside handled imports of timber and small quantities of coal; and exports of agricultural machinery. Both of these would need a crane - on the vessel, on dry land but off-scene, or a crane tank.

Not always the case - at Preston docks a significant amount of timber was unloaded by hand.









or bananas by conveyor belt.


Plenty more photo's from the Preston Archive - Flickr Search — “docks”

 

[simond]

Now that would be an interesting day in the engineering office…

”we’d like a machine for unloading bananas from ships, into railway wagons please”

”ok, how many bananas, and how are they packed?”

”they're not packed, they’re attached to branches about a metre and a half long, in bunches anything up to half a metre in diameter, and they’re very fragile…”

”ok…., how heavy are they?”

and so on.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

A lot of detail in this photo for an early period scene.
Please ignore the title of my photo file, it's from my own reference files and it is not a photo of Bow Creek.
Quite often there was a track right up against the dockside for a mobile crane which would load wagons on an adjacent siding. Probably not the situation in this photo though.



Mistley Quay below is another nice example.



This would make a great cameo style layout with the massive warehouse acting as a backdrop.

 

[Richard Gawler]

These photographs show me a couple of approaches. One, especially with the timber at Preston, is everything in its place and a place for everything. The second, which suits me better (7mm scale), I will call a "more general-purpose space". The rail-mounted crane and small boats at Blythe suit a near-micro sized project.

The quayside at Mistley has been in the news for years. The warehouse is now flats; and the residents found the ambience of the disused but lovely quayside ruined by a high metal fence. The quayside now has the status of a village green, as a step towards getting the fence taken away. Some of the tracks and the fence are still there to see on Google:

Google Maps

 

[adrian]

Just for curiosity another alternative loading system to a crane from the Preston Dock archive - a coal hoist.

 

[simond]

Stothert & Pitt level luffing cranes. I have quite a lot of parts of one made, but there's a long way to go. It was on RMW but the photos have gone, of course. Somebody did a kit years back, no idea who, unfortunately..

 

[Lyndhurstman]

A lot of detail in this photo for an early period scene.
Please ignore the title of my photo file, it's from my own reference files and it is not a photo of Bow Creek.
Quite often there was a track right up against the dockside for a mobile crane which would load wagons on an adjacent siding. Probably not the situation in this photo though.

View attachment 187861

Mistley Quay below is another nice example.

View attachment 187864

This would make a great cameo style layout with the massive warehouse acting as a backdrop.

Love those accommodation (?) barges in the first shot. Might try something similar for Watkins Wharf.. If I ever get that far!

Cheers

Jan

 

[George M]

Some pictures from eastern Sweden, from which I'm currently working.

https://flic.kr/p/2oz8j2t

This is Helgenäs which served the Edsbruk estate near Gamleby

https://flic.kr/p/2oz4wrp

A 600mm gauge railway ran from Eds a little over 3km (about 2 miles) from Edsbruk down to the Baltic at Helgenäs

https://flic.kr/p/2oz8j1B

Edsbruk (Eds Works) was originally an iron smelter/foundry but converted to producing cellulose when the iron ore ran out. The railway also serves the estate sawmill.

This great set of photos was taken in the 1960s and is available from the Kalmar county museum (Kalmars Läns museet)

https://flic.kr/p/2oz9pxh

A second rail served pier lay a little to the north of the main pier and served the grain elevators as well as being used to export wood. The wooden hulled schooner can be seen with a load of what is probably firewood for one of the big cities.



These photos are providing the inspiration for my current build project, Björknäs. I really need to start a layout thread one day!