For general merchandise in boxes or bales, a raised loading-bank inside the shed is usually found to be the most convenient arrangement both for loading and unloading. The top of the loading-bank should be a little below the level of the railway-truck floor to give clearance to all truck-doors opening outwards. By means of short portable gangways or landings, the moderate-sized
packages are readily transferred to or from the trucks, either by hand or by small two-wheeled trolleys, the heavier pieces being lifted by cranes. The cartway should run parallel to the rails on the opposite side of the loading-bank, and may be either inside or outside the building, according to the importance of the place. When the cartway is inside, the entire front of the loading-bank is available for cart traffic, but this advantage entails a considerable increase in the size and cost of the building. When the cartway is outside, the cart traffic is worked through large doorways placed at suitable distances, and fitted with projecting roofs or awnings to protect the goods during the loading or unloading. At some of these doorways, short docks about 10 feet square, or more, are formed in the loading-bank, into which the carts may be set back fairly into the shed for the greater convenience of the transhipment of the goods by hand or crane power. Where the stacking space is ample, the contents of several railway trucks may be discharged on to the loading-bank without any delay in waiting for carts, and the same railway trucks may be loaded with other goods and dispatched outwards, or may be taken away empty if the loading-bank is reserved for arriving goods only. Where the traffic is large and constant there is an advantage in having separate goods-sheds for the inwards and outwards work.