JULY 1901. 596

BARROW DOCKS AND APPROACHES BY LAND AND SEA.

BY MR. FRANK STILEMAN, OF LONDONAND BARROW-IN-FWRNEEB.

The Barrow Docks,* Plate 108, are owned by the Railway Company, who are also the Harbour Authorities. The railway system connects with the Midland at Wennington Junction (the line between Wennington and Carnforth being jointly owned by the Furness and Midland Railway Companies), and with the London and North Western Railway at Carnforth and Oxenholme to the South, and Whitehaven on the North. The Furness Railway Company also owns and works the branch lines to Lake Side (Windermere), and to Coniston Lake, and on both Lakes it has a regular service of steam yachts. The following are the dates of the opening of the various lines now constituting the Furness Railway system :-

* See also ‘‘ Docks and Railway Approaches at B.irrow-in-Furneas,” by Mr. F. C. Stileman ; Proceedings 1850, page 321.

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DATESOF OPENINU.

&in Line. Year. Miles. Chains. 1846. Dalton to Kirkby ...... 6 69 1847. to Barrow Old Passenger Station ...1 33 1848. Kirkby to Broughton ...... 3 43 1849. Ravenglassto Whitehaven...... 16 61 1850. Foxfield toRavengless ...... 17 45 1851. Lindel to Dalton ...... 1 53 1854. Ulverston to Linda1 ...... 268 1857. Carnforthto Ulverston ...... 19 35 1867. Millwood Junction to Dalton Junction ...0 33 1875. Barrow, Old Station, to Junction ...1 70 1881. St. Luke's Junotion to Barrow Docks ....1 42 1882. Barrow and Park Loop (Salthouse to Park) ...5 41

Branch Lines.

1846. Goldmire Junction to Pie1 Pier .....6 13 1859. Broughtontoconiston ...... 8 67 1863. Branch ...... 0 52 1865. Millom to Hdbarrow...... 1 49 1867. GmklandetoStainton ...... 1 56 1869. Levens Junction to Greenodd Junction ...0 29 1869. Ulverston to Lake Side ...... 9 38 1873. Salthouse JunctiontoStank ..... 1 74 1876. Arnside to Hinca8tt.r (Kendal Branch) - . . 5 25 1882. Oak LeaendGoldmire Junctiou. ....0 31 1883. Plumpton Junction to Bardsea (Priory Station) . . 2 00 38 34 Joint Liaes.

1867. (F. and M. Joint) Camforth to Wennington ...9 50 1880. Carnforth (F. and M. Curve) .....0 21 9 71

Total ...... 127 58

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The approaches to the docks from the sea are past Hilpsford Buoy to the south west of , through a dredged cut some 300 feet wide, and of a depth of 14 feet at low water ordinary spring tides, thenoe round the south end of Walney, past Pie1 and (from which the Belfast steamers used to depart years ago), wp Walney Channel and past what was once an island known as Barrow Rameey, but now forming the southernmost end of the dock system. There are therefore four reaches from the sea to the Ramsden Dock entrance, all of which have required a considerable amount of dredging. Three of them are provided with sir leading lights, two in each reach ; the first in each reach are constructed in timber work, the back ones of brick work, the front panels of which are of white glazed bricks. Nos. 1 and 2 reaches are also provided with illuminated buoys lasting for three months; some of them are Pintsch's gas buoys, while others are Wigham's oil buoys. These latter are now being experimented with. They consist of a copper cylinder with a receiver on top. The wick, which is carbonized and is burnt horizontally, passes over a roller on top. The burner is surmounted by a combustion cone and surrounded by lenticular apparatus ; one end of the wick is conveyed up through an oil-tight copper tube with holes in its sides, and the other end is brought down through a tube standing above the level of the oil in the lamp, and soldered or secured at the lower end. A circular float is placed in a copper cylinder fixed to the bottom of the lamp and filled with oil. When the lamp is first lighted, this float is at the top of the cylinder and is attached by means of hooks or loops to the wick. The oil in the cylinder is caused to drop slowly out of it through a valve of peculiar construction supplied by a cotton core, at such speed as may be necessary.

Ramsden Dock.-The entrance to this dock is situated to the north of Barrow Ramsey, and has entrance gates 100 feet wide, with a depth of 31 feet 6 inches of water at high water ordinary spring tides.

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4

Plan of No. 1 Deck.

=f&+dliSqV& Scale, 18 feet to 1 inch.

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E. Ejector Suction Valve. I. Inlet Valvc. R. Ram. S. Scupper Valve. T. Trunk.

Notes. W k eJ No. 1. Ejector Suction Valve draws from No. 5 Tank. No. 2. Ejector Suction Valve draws from No. 3 Tank (RaiqRoom). 4! 1. 3. 1, ,, ,, ,, ,, 3 ,, (Ram Room). ,, 4. ,, ,, 11 11 ,I 2 ,, z To Flood No. 5 Tank, open Inlet Valves No. 1 and No. 2. To Flood No. 2 Tank, open Inlet Valves No. 3 and No. 4. i-4 ,, ,, ,, 3 ,, ,, either Ejector Suction Valves Nos. 1 and 2 and Inlet Valves Nos. 1 and 2. m or ,, ,, Nos. 3and4 ,, ,, ,, Noa.3and4. Depth of Water in No, 2 Tank not to be less than 9 ft. 0 in. nor more than 9 ft. 1 in. ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 5. ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, 9ft.3in. ,, ,, ,, 9ft.4in. Tanks Nos. 1, 3 (Ram Room), and 6 to be kept dry. Scupper Valves to Tank No. 4 on Dock side of Caisson will always be left open except at high spring tides. When water in lock rises above level of water in dock, the valves on dock side must be closed and those on lock side opened, reversing them apain as soon as tides fall to dock level. All sluices open by moving levers over to south side. All valves npen with a left-hand en CD potion and close with 8 right-hand rqotion. All valves except the scuppers to be kept cloged cg

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To the north of this entrance a quay wall has been built, having a depth of water varying from 12 feet 6 inches to 20 feet at low water ordinary sphg tides, fitted with hydraulic cranes, sheds, etc., and behind which is the Ramsden Dock Railway Station, fropl which passengers embark for Belfast and the Isle of Man, the former boats sailing nightly throughout the year, the latter sailing daily from Whitsuntide to the end of September. The station is provided with two passenger subways, the larger one, for the Isle of Man service, haviug a hydraulic lift with an :approach which at high water is level, at half tide assumes an incline, while at low water it is in the form of steps. The dock entrance basin is 900 feet long, and has four berths fitted with twelve hydraulic cranes. Where the foundations have been found good at a reasonable depth, concrete walls have been .constructed in sit&, where there are poor foundations, and at a .considerable depth open timber quays have been built, the piles of which, and the under-water timbers, are of Karri wood. The gravel .of which the concrete is made comes from the south end of Walney, and is of the very best description. The lock, 100 feet in width, is fitted with two pair of gates, and 8 sliding caisson-the caisson having taken the place of one pair of gates, which were originally erected there previous to the cill; a portion of the invert of the lock at this point having been recently lowered 6 feet, makes it uniform with the cills at the entranco to $hew docks, and at the western end of the lock. The necessity for lowering this cill was due to the heavy draught of the men-of-war, ,cruisers, and other large vessels that have been, and are being built at the Naval Construction Works of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim. ‘The work of lowering the Gill was completed in the present year, and the appesrance of the invert before and after this lowering is sespectively shown in Plate 109. This lowering will permit of the railway company, when trade demands it, constructing any new queys that may be required to such a depth thai they will be .capable of accommodating vessels drawing 30 feet of water. The caisson, shown in diagrammatic form (pages 598-9), is tank-shaped, 103 feet long by 12 feet wide, and 39 feet 6 inches in depth. It is

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 JULY 1901. BARROW DOCKS. GO1 worked by means of chains and hauling bow actuated by small hydraulic engines, placed at the head of the caisson recess, to reduce the resistance when hauling the caisson ; the bottom and lower parts of the ends have been left open, so enabling the water to flow freely through longitudinally, the water ballast can at the same time be reduced by means of hydraulic ejectors, the ejected water being readmitted when the caisson is at rest. Four sluices each 6 feet by G feet go through the caisson, and are opened and closed by double- acting hydraulic lifting cylinders. The sluices have been made of large dimensions in order to equalise rapidly the head of water between the lock and the dock, so enabling vessels to pass eithelr way without loss of time. To the north of the lock and basin is a steamer dock with quay walls 3,000 feet in length, provided on the south side with grain sheds, etc., the north side being used almost entirely for the shipment of pig-iron, rails, or the unloading of iron ore.

Petroleum Storage Tanks.-On the west side of the Ramsdeb Dock are two petroleum storage installations, Plate 110 ; the smaller one consists of two tanks with a capacity of 2,500 tons, while the other consists of six large tanks, two small ones, and a settling tank, having a total storage capacity of 16,360 tons. Large barrelling sheds and cooperage have also been provided. The author believes this storage to have been the first erected in , and it has been so laid out that, when the oil has beela pumped from the steamer into the tanks, the remainder of the work, such as barrelling the oil or loading the oil into tank wagons, is done by gravitation. The barrels, either loaded or empty, are, when required, 'run on slightly elevated railways, Plate 110, either to or from the ship. These gangways are constructed of angle-irons, and notwithstanding the speed at which these barrels sometimes run, they never come oE, this being due to the bilge of the barrels. The tanks, Plates 111, 112, and 113, are constructed of wrought- iron, the bottom plates being $" inch thick, fitted with an angle-iron 43 inches by 43 inches by ?J inch, and are varnished black underneath. The side plates are eight in number, their dimensions

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 602 BARROW DOCKS. JULY 1901. being 13 feet in length and 4 feet 13 inches in width, varying in thickness from &the to 2 inch. The dimensions of the top angle-irons .are 3 inches by 3 inches by gths. The roof, Plates 112 and 113, is aonical in shape, stayed from the sides by T-irons, and its plates are +inch thick. Each tank is provided with a ventilator, man-hole, and dip-hole. The bottom plates, Plate 112, are double riveted throughout, the side plates having the vertical seams double riveted, and the horizontal seams single riveted, the pitch of the rivets in all cams being 2 inches. All joints are caulked inside. There is a centre pillar in each tank composed of four angle-irons 4 inches by 43inches by *inch to prevent any risk of the roof settling by being overweighted by snow. The valves and discharge pipes have been provided with folding joints inside the tanks, and a light chain is fixed to the pipes to which a small buoy is attached, for the purpose of keeping the pipe above the oil to prevent any of the latter escaping in tho event of the valves being left open. To lift the internal pipes, a small winch is provided outside each tank. The author has found some difficulty in lowering tank-bottoms at other places when the dimensions have considerably exceeded the above, end has found it advantageous to erect a sand cylinder at the centre of the tanks, below the bottom, in which was erected a pole with attachments to several portions of the tank bottom. On the completion of the testing of the tank bottom the sand was gradually let out till the bottom rested on its foundations when the sand cylinder was removed through a man-hole in the bottom of the tank provided for that purpose.

Buccleuch Dock.-The passage way between the ltamsden and Buccleuch Docks is 80 feet wide, and is spanned by a railway and road bridge, which was described and illustrated in a Paper by the author’s late father, Mr. F. C. Stileman, on the occasion of the last visit of the Institution to Barrow in 1880. The north side of the Buccleuch Dock is occupied by a small timber yard, the remainder having been originally used for the loading into ships of the local iron ore, and now used for general traffic. The south side is occupied by timber yards and saw mills belonging to Messrs. Crossfield and Co.

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Devonshire Dock.-The passage way between the Buccleuch and Devonshire Docks has been widened since the last visit of the Institution from 40 feet to 80 feet, and is spanned by the Michaelson High-Level Bridge, which, over the opening, is constructed as two distinct bridges, each of 29 feet in width and 200 feet in length. Those opening spans are worked independently, each being raised 3 feet 6 inches by three cylinders, the two side ones being 1 foot 53 inches diameter each, and the centre one 2 feet 1 inch diameter. To each group of three cylinders a cross-head on top is provided, and cast-steel rollers attached. On raising the bridge to its required height, the lifting gear is automatically locked. The bridge is then hauled back, over live rollers fixed in the main structure, by an endless chain attached to the tail end of the bridge, and worked hydraulically. To replace the bridge a horn is provided at the nose end, which goes into a roller and lifts the bridge off the back rollers to allow the ballast-box end of the bridge to go down first, and when this end is in position, the end at the island side is lowered down. A considerable portion of the approach to the Michaelson Bridge consists of a viaduct with a roadway 60 feet wide erected on cast- iron columns. The whole of the work from Barrow Island, over the dock passage and railways as far as the Strand, was constructed by the Furness Railway Company, and the remainder by the Corporation. The north side of this dock is occupied by transit sheds, grain warehouses, corn mill, and jute sheds, the south by timber and contractors' yards, a depositing dock which is capable of lifting vessels 300 to 400 feet in length in thirty minutes ; two gridirons have been provided in connection with the depositing dock on which vessels up to the lifting capacity of the depositing dock can be placed, so providing accommodation for three vessels, and by Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim's wharf, where they engine and fit out the numerous vessels they build. The dock ia connected with the Walney Channel by a tidal basin 500 feet in length, with a 60 feet entrance, whose cill is 6 feet higher than that of the Ramsden Dock. To the north of this basin is &

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 604 BARROW DOCKS. JULY 1901.. graving dock with an entrance direct from the channel, 60 feet wide and also 500 in length. The dock is situated rather more than a mile and a half" northwards of the Ramsden Dock entrance, and a large portion of the channel frontage between these two entrances-on its eastern side- is occdpied by the works and launching ways of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim, and by the dockyard belonging to the railway- company, where all their Boating plant is repaired.

General.-The following statement shows the areas of the. docks :- Acres. Ramsden DockBasil1 ...... 8 RamsdenDockLock ...... 2 RamsdenDock ...... 60 Timber Dock (Timbcr Pond) .... . 21 Buccleuch Dock ...... 31 DevoushireDock ...... 31 Cavendish Dock (used as a reservoir at present) . . 146 -- Total ...... 299 -

All the dock gates, caissons, bridges, cranes, etc., are workeb by hydraulic power, there being two installations-one at the Ramsden Dock entrance, amd the other at the Devonshire Dock entrance. Walney Island, which is about 10 miles in length, shelters the whole of the Barrow harbour and Piel anchorage, the latter being a. harbour of refuge. The railway compatly, as the harbour authority, is entitled to levy dues from , about a mile west of , to the north end of Walney Island, and hen, jurisdiction from the entrance into the harbour at Hilpsford at the south end of Walney up the channel to somewhat seaward of the north end of Walney Island. The company has spent large sums of money in deepening and improving the channel from the sea to the docks, and in erecting leading lights on every reach of the channel, and nt all turning

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 JULY 1901. BARROW DOCKS. 605 points, putting down in some cases Pintsch‘s gas buoys, and in others Wigham’s oil buoys. A model of the latter was exhibited at the Meeting. The Paper is illustrated by Plates 108 to 113 and 3 Figs. in tho letterpress.

Discussion. The PRESIDENTthought that those members who intended taking part in the excursion to the docks would find the interest of their visit considerably enhanced if they took a copy of the author’s Paper with them. He begged to propose a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Stileman for his interesting Paper.

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 BARROW DOCKS. Plate 109. 100-ft. Lock, 18 December, 1900. Showing Old Call to be removed.

100-ft. Lock, 20 April, 1901. After lowering the Cill 6 feet.

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Mechanical Engineevs 1901. V'zeze,of Tanks from Steamer.

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Mechanical Engineers 1901. Petvolezim Tanks. Plate 111. Half Sectzoizirl Elevathoiz iiizd Uetcizls. a d Detail at a.

SeCthfb on cc. B

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 BARROW DOCKS. Plate 112. Petroleum Tanks. Half Plan of Roof Framing. Part Plan of Plates I in Floor of Tank.

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Mechanical Engineevi 1901. 5 BARROW DOCKS. Plate 113. h

uP,

‘-rc

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Mechanical Engineevs 1901.