Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - Mechanical appliances used in the shipping of coal at Penarth Docks - 1906 . . .

In 1905 Messrs. Tannett, Walker and Co., of Leeds, started the construction of the four tips No's. 8, 13, 19 and 20 ; two of these, No's. 8 and I3, are fixed tips, Plates 53 to 55 (above). The structures are of steel, having four upright columns which stand on two base girders resting on the quay wall.

There is a top deck, eight diagonal decks and two intermediate decks to each tip. On the top deck a hollow cast-iron shaft is fitted in plummer-blocks with roller bearings, cast-iron drums are fixed on this shaft, and on the drums the wire ropes from the cradle and the ram-heads are wound. The cylinder for the tipping-table is fitted in the centre of the top deck. A balance-weight weighing 37 tons is employed to counterbalance the weight of the cradle and hoisting-rams.

There are three hoist-rams, two 8¾-inches diameter and one 6½-inches diameter ; two valves are provided, one for the two outside rams and one valve for the centre ram. Inside the balance-weight a ram 9¼-inches diameter is fitted, and the ram-head is made fast to the weight and the cylinder to the base girder. The four cradle-ropes one on each corner of the cradle, pass over pulleys at the top of the tip and on to 6-foot drums fixed to the main shaft. The balance weight is suspended on four wire-ropes; these ropes are wound on 4-foot drum at one end of the shaft, and at the other end the ropes from the main hoist-rams are wound on drums of the same diameter.

Two ropes fixed to a cross-girder under the tipping-table pass over sheaves at the top of the tip round the head of the tipping-ram, and are wound on to 6-foot drums on the main shaft. The whole of the valves are worked from a cabin in the front of the tip, from which the operator can get a full view of the gear and an indicator is fitted in the cabin from which the exact position of the cradle can be seen.