Volume Two - The Era of Optimism, Investment & Development - The gridiron and slipway of the Penarth Shipbuilding & Ship Repairing Co. . . .

An example of a slipway of the end-on type is shown at Fig. 201. This slipway was designed by Messrs. Lightfoot and Thompson, and consists of longitudinal timbers carried on timber sleepers placed close together.

There are three sets of rails of cast iron on which the rollers of the cradle run. The cradle is of timber, carried on numerous cast iron rollers, and provided with a rack and pawl arrangement to prevent the cradle running back in the event of any failure of the hauling machinery. Moveable bilge blocks are provided on the cradle to support the ship. The hauling gear needs no special description and usually consists of powerful winches worked by steam or electricity and winding up the cradles by wire ropes.

In other cases hydraulic rams are used connected to the cradles by means of a series of steel links, each link being of a length equal to the stroke of the ram. After each stroke, the cradle is arrested and one link is removed, the cross-head of the ram being made fast to the next.