The LNER Encyclopedia

Hi Folks,

I've worked out I can squeeze a coal drop into my new layout and have worked out I can put it in, without an incline, and have around a 14ft ( scale) gap between the base of the coal drop where the coal merchants vehicles stand, to the base of the sleepers ( so top of the baseboard).. Is this sufficient or do I need to add an incline into this section. I have enough room to gain around a scale 4ft (at 1in48).

Thanks

Kat

According to the drawing of Haltwhistle coal drops in the book "North Eastern Record Volume 1" the distance under the rails to ground level was just over 8 feet so 14 feet would be overkill. On my Trainz simulation of the Malton & Driffield railway (example here at Burdale) I've had to construct a number of drops and I usually allow 7 feet, dictated by the height of the wall I use http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/4405188924/
Its worth remembering that these drops were only designed for horse drawn carts to go under, not modern lorries.
Also of course if you live in the North East there are preserved coal drops at Beamish Museum and Goathland station plus a lot of derelict examples including those at Lartington, pictured by me in 1996. You get a good impression of how low they are in this photo. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3887581610/

I've just been digging through my photo's and this one of the drops at East Boldon is the best I have http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3628839978/ You can judge by the height of the handrail that they are no more than seven feet high and they also had the standard "NO ENGINES" notice at the end - this could be cast iron or wood.
These ones at Millfield http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3526958280/ were "non standard" in that were on a very crude concrete base (it looked like it was made from sea pebbles!) and the ramp was very steep.
This guy http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswiss ... 235195@N22 has some terrific photo's of Hexham on Flickr with the coal drops looking LESS than 6 feet tall!

WOW substantially lower than I expected. Makes things nice and easy, much easier to raise the floor level than the track bed. Thanks both

Should have a few photos of the coal drop area at Beamish if they're of use - also not much use for O gauge but the Hornby Skaledale coal drop seems to be based on the Beamish one

3mm/ft gauge actually

Higher height = bigger drop = broken coal = more waste = less profit. So the information provided is correct.
What is the area you are modelling?

NER, Port, probably somewhere between Scarborough and Newcastle.

Should add the 'town' is a port, but like Scarbourough the station is inshore. A branchline serves the port itself, so the station is a urban town station with significant goods facilities.

More coal drops at Penistone http://www.flickr.com/photos/industrial ... otostream/. Plus drawings from one of my favourite sites http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/8-yards/cdrop.jpg.

Peter

PGBerrie wrote:More coal drops at Penistone http://www.flickr.com/photos/industrial ... otostream/. Plus drawings from one of my favourite sites http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/8-yards/cdrop.jpg.

Peter

Those are interesting drawings but I have to say I never saw any NER drops with a wooden ramp - it would be prone to decay and require maintenance. Nor did I realise that BR had a standard design - did they actually ever build any? There are a splendid set of drops at the former Oakwellgate goods station in Gateshead and they are Listed but very neglected.They are very tall with wooden chutes which was the exception rather than the norm.

Thanks for all the help (including by PM )..

This is what I came up with



The gap between the support timbers is probably a touch narrow but that's a consequence of using 12mm TT track - 14.2mm would, obviously, be noticeably wider.

The height is also really about 3mm ( 1 ft) less as these images don't show the now, in place, clay surface.