SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

I wonder if anyone remembers a structure that used to gobsmack me and my pals when we were kids?This was back in the 40s and 50s, when from home in the Temple View Terrace area – still there behind the Irish Centre in York Road – we`d walk down to play in East End Park. Sometimes we`d end up on the far south side of the park – and there it was.Across several railway lines stood a huge tower, in my child`s memory at least 80 ft tall, shaped seemingly like a giant wedge of cheese.Every so often – not often enough for us keen watchers – a string of rail wagons packed with coal would arrive, with one positioned at the foot of the tower.This wagon would be gripped somehow at each end so that it and its load would be pulled very slowly up the tower`s face.Once at the top, the wagon would tilt inwards and its load would thunder down inside the tower. Then the wagon would straighten up and begin the slow descent back to the rail line.We imagined that the coal was landing in some sort of hopper, ready to load onto wagons on a different rail system, or even onto road lorries, in order to distribute the fuel around the region.That seemed a better guess than just having the coal hit a floor and then have to be shovelled into new loads.The whole operation fascinated us. I know there`s another thread about ”wagon lifters” at Central Station where tracks were apparently on two levels. But this tower was on a different planet entirely.Does anyone please have any detailed knowledge of this apparatus? I would love to see a photo, but so far my search has been in vain.I hope this touches a nerve! Thanks, glax.

Copyright cabsaab900http://www.flickr.com/photos/24041160@N02/

The one at Holbeck shed looked even more impressive I.M.Ohttp://snipurl.com/spp6h

Nice views Phill. They were called coal plants Glax. Their function was to load coal into the tenders of steam locomotives. This was achieved by the devices to be seen on the underside of the hopper, called "jiggers", which delivered a measured quantity of coal when the operating switch was moved. Further east along the park at Neville Hill was the plant's predecessor, a building overlooking the track with a siding ramped up to it where wagons were shunted for gangs of men to shovel the coal into wheeled skips to be manhandled via a tipping plate into the locomotive tenders or bunkers. This was kept for the occasions when the modern plant broke down, or for the odd event such as someone mistakenly tipping a wagonload of cast iron firebars into the coal plant.Other coal plants in the Leeds area were at Holbeck, Farnley Junction and Ardsley. Sheds at Copley Hill and Stourton were hand-coaled to the end of steam. Stourton did get a gantry with an electric hoist in its last years, but a considerable amount of shovel work was still needed.For the first ten years of my working life, maintenance and repair of coal plants and coal stage equipment was part of my job, so if there is anything else you would like to know, enquire within.......     

I`m delighted with the swift responses to my plea for information about what i`ve now learned to call "coal plants".Hi, Phill, your great photos provide me with objective evidence of something I`ve seen only in my mind`s eye for all these years. Thanks very much.Hi, Jim, your detailed factual account throws an interesting new light on the way railways worked - for me, at least - and of course you show we made the wrong guess about the purpose of these structures!The expert testimony from both of you is typical of this wonderful website and proves what a marvellous resource SL and its dedicated SecretLeedsers can be. I`m very grateful.Glax

Glax wrote: I`m delighted with the swift responses to my plea for information about what i`ve now learned to call "coal plants".Hi, Phill, your great photos provide me with objective evidence of something I`ve seen only in my mind`s eye for all these years. Thanks very much.Hi, Jim, your detailed factual account throws an interesting new light on the way railways worked - for me, at least - and of course you show we made the wrong guess about the purpose of these structures!The expert testimony from both of you is typical of this wonderful website and proves what a marvellous resource SL and its dedicated SecretLeedsers can be. I`m very grateful.Glax Glad to have helped, although they aren't my own photographs, they come courtesy of flickrs share option. You may find some more useful local photos in the Leeds/West Yorkshire railway group herehttp://www.flickr.com/groups/leedsrailways/I'm sure Jim will spend a few hours having a look through that lot too

I`m so chuffed about how this topic has been treated that I`m emboldened to make a further cheeky plea, Although I feel like Oliver asking for more, could there be somewhere a photo of the entire coal plant with a loaded wagon at the halfway up stage, or even at the top?I`m steadily ploughing through the flickr pix linked by Phill. Such a shot, rather than the interesting inner workings, would show the sight that fascinated a bunch of scruffy urchins a long time ago!Thanks again, Glax.

You might find this of some use Glax.Full size can be viewed here.http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com ... bgBc8lk%3D    

Phill, you`re a marvel! What a model contributor! Many, many thanks, Glax