Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - Patent Applications by George Taylor, of Penarth, 1883 . . .

The other turntables also rest on the quay or on the said permanent way and are movable thereon to enable them to be adjusted to correspond to the positions of the staiths. The portable sections of railway which connect the turntables together are made of various lengths so as to be adapted, to suit the different distances apart at which it may be necessary to place the turntables and the said sections are adapted to be laid and fixed on the said permanent way or on the quay as the case may be. The turntables are constructed in any suitable manner but are preferably similar in construction to those described in a previous application for Letters Patent made by me on the 1st day of December 1882.

My Invention relates secondly to the construction of the portable staiths and it has for its object to provide improved means of turning the waggon before or after entering the staith in order that it may be presented in the proper position for being tipped and discharged.

According to one arrangement I provide either in or alongside of the staith, a platform suspended by chains or rods from one or more points of support overhead in such manner that the waggon may be run onto said, platform and the platform may then be turned with the waggon upon it so as to bring the latter into the proper position or direction for being tipped. This platform when in the staith may serve also as the tipping cradle.

Instead of being turned upon a platform, the waggon alone may be turned by being suspended by slings before entering upon the tipping cradle. Instead of a suspended platform it may be a turntable revolving upon a pivot and supported from beneath, the said turntable being capable of being turned up or removed out of the way when not in use. In any case the means by which the waggon is turned, whether inside or outside the staith, are carried by the staith so as to form a permanent adjunct movable therewith.

Instead of a revolving suspended platform or turntable outside the staith as above described, the tipping cradle or platform of the staith itself may be provided with a turntable upon which the waggon would be turned into the desired position for tipping after it has entered the staith.