Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Handbook to Penarth Dock & Ely Tidal Harbour - 1904 . . .

it is possible by an arrangement of stop valves and branches connecting them together at intervals, to cut out any section of these pipes, and so turn the water past the defective section. The return water is carried back by a 12 in. main to the hydraulic engines.

Two large accumulators are fitted upon these mains, one at the eastern end of the tips, the other at the engine house. The water is pumped by three pairs of compound "Tandem" engines, collectively capable of delivering 1,440 gallons of water, at a pressure of 750 pounds per square inch, per minute.

The sidings are arranged in connection with these tips so as to facilitate the mixing of coal and insure rapid dispatch. Provision is made by which all wagons are weighed on the way in and re-weighed on the way out, so that the exact weight of coal can be ascertained, no matter what the tare of the wagons may be.

The sidings are so laid out that a full train can be put upon either. The sidings will, together, hold a cargo for a steamer of 2,500 tons, and are so constructed with a slight raising gradient at the centre, and a falling gradient thence to the tip, so that the men engaged at the tips manipulate the whole train load and work it down without the assistance of locomotive power.

The capacity of these new tips as regards dispatch may be gathered by the following fact : -

A steamer has arrived at Penarth Dock and proceeded direct to the four tips, and commenced loading at 11.55 a.m. and completed her full cargo of 2,115 tons of coal by 1.50 p.m. and sailed on the tide of arrival, having taken on board the whole of the cargo in the short time of 1 hour 55 minutes.

Steamers of a capacity up to 2,400 tons are frequently loaded and dispatched on the tide of arrival at these four tips.