A Tipper Trip

Having featured the new, BR blue liveried, Class 17 recently, I thought we would show the Ribble Cement liveried Class 17 that we have had for some time now and which is a regular performer on the railway.

She was, originally, only meant to be used in and around the small Coal Depot, with occasional trips up the short spur to the Operating Tipper and Conveyor Belt for a bit of light relief.

However, she is such a great little performer, unlike her bigger sisters, that she is used quite often on both freight and light passenger services.

Anyway, I thought I would show her, here, performing her primary duty in a series of photos as she propels the Adler and Allan tipper wagon up the inclined branch line to the Hornby Tipper and Conveyor belt.

In this first photo we see D8568 at the start of the short spur, heading up to the tipper. 

She is propelling the Hornby Adler and Allan end-tipper wagon that is full of coal, which is always fake for use with the tipper / conveyor.

The Clayton is seen in the distance as she travels up the spur, which gently rises above Petersfield Junction on the main line.

She is almost at the summit of the line, now, as it levels out just before reaching the Tipper.

An uncoupling ramp releases the wagon from the loco, which then rolls gently on to the tipper platform.

Once the wagon is safely aboard it is slowly lifted up, the end door is released, and the coal is tipped into a hopper at the bottom of the conveyor belt. This then lifts the coal up and into a waiting wagon, which can just be seen at the far right of the photograph above.

So, okay, this is probably not for the serious railway modeller but it is great fun to operate, especially since I converted both items to DCC.

They also tie-in nicely with the coal depot, a part of which is seen below the tipper/conveyor.