British Canals: Is their resuscitation practicable?

by Edwin A. Pratt

Of the way in which coal is loaded into railway trucks direct from the colliery screens I have already spoken; but, in respect to steam coal, it should be added that anthracite is sold in about twelve different sizes, and that one colliery will make three or four of these sizes, each dropped into separate trucks under the aforesaid screens. The output of an anthracite colliery would be from 200 to 300 tons a day, in the three or four sizes, as stated, this total being equal to from 20 to 30 truck-loads. An order received by a coal factor for 2,000 or 3,000 tons of a particular size would, therefore, have to be made up with coal from a number of different collieries.

The coal, however, is not actually sold at the collieries. It is sent down to the port, and there it stands about for weeks, and sometimes for months, awaiting sale or the arrival of vessels. It must necessarily be on the spot, so that orders can be executed with the utmost expedition, and delays to shipping avoided. Consequently it is necessary that ample accommodation should be provided at the port for what may be described as the coal-in-waiting. At Newport, for example, where about 4,000,000 tons of coal are shipped in the course of the year (independently of "bunkers,") there are 50 miles of coal sidings, capable of accommodating from 40,000 to 50,000 tons of coal sent there for shipment. A record number of loaded coal trucks actually on these sidings at any one time is 3,716. The daily average is 2,800.

Now assume that the coal for shipment from Newport had been brought there by canal boat. To begin with, it would have been first loaded, by means of the colliery screens, into railway trucks, taken in these to the canal, and then tipped into the boats. This would mean further breakage, and, in the case of steam coal especially, a depreciation in value. But suppose that the coal had duly arrived at the port in the canal boats, where would it be stored for those weeks and months to await sale or vessels? Space for miles of sidings on land can easily be found; but the water area in a canal or dock in which barges can wait is limited, and, in the case of Newport at least, it would hardly be equal to the equivalent of 3,000 truck-loads of coal.

There comes next the important matter of detail as to the way in which coal brought to a port is to be shipped. Nothing could be simpler and more expeditious than the practice generally adopted in the case of rail-borne coal. When a given quantity of coal is to be despatched, the vessel is brought alongside a hydraulic coal-tip, such as that shown in the illustration facing this page, and the loaded coal trucks are placed in succession underneath the tip. Raised one by one to the level of the shoot, the trucks are there inclined to such an angle that the entire contents fall on to the shoot, and thence into the hold of the ship. Brought to the horizontal again, the empty truck passes on to a viaduct, down which it goes, by gravitation, back to the sidings, the place it has vacated on the tip being at once taken by another loaded truck.

THE SHIPPING OF COAL: HYDRAULIC TIP ON G.W.R., SWANSEA.

(The loaded truck is hoisted to level of shoot, and is there inclined to necessary angle to "tip" the coal, which falls from shoot into hold of vessel. Empty truck passes by gravitation along viaduct, on left, to sidings.)

[To face page 88.

Substitute coal barges for coal trucks, and how will the loading then be accomplished? Under any possible circumstances it would take longer to put a series of canal barges alongside a vessel in the dock than to place a series of coal trucks under the tip on shore. Nor could the canal barge itself be raised to the level of a shoot, and have its contents tipped bodily into the collier. What was done in the South Wales district by one colliery some years ago was to load up a barge with iron tubs, or boxes, filled with coal, and placed in pairs from end to end. In dock one of these would be lifted out of the barge by a crane, and lowered into the hold, where the bottom would be knocked out, the emptied tub being then replaced in the barge by the crane, and the next one to it raised in turn. But, apart from the other considerations already presented, this system of shipment was found more costly than the direct tipping of railway trucks, and was consequently abandoned.