GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bordesley Station: gwrbg2272

A photograph from Mr G Buckeley's book on Mechanical Appliances for Handling Railway Traffic. It shows a comprehensive Overhead Runway System installed in a Goods Shed. It is known that Messrs Herbert Morris of Loughborough supplied the Overhead Runway System for the warehouse at Bordesley and from the description in the GWR Magazine articles it is expected that the arrangement there would be similar to the one in this photograph.

On either side of the central runway there are travelling runway bridges supported by pairs of parallel steel joist tracks running the length of the shed. These travelling runway bridges can transverse the bays on each side of the shed independent of the main runway system and either be operated independently or be linked via any of the stub junctions to the main runway. They enable the lifting hoist trolley to be positioned directly over any load to be lifted, resulting in safer operation and more efficient use of the storage areas. The construction principle is the same as a travelling crane, but automatic stops are incorporated to prevent hoist trolleys overrunning when the travelling runway bridges are not aligned with one of the stub junctions of the main runway system.

Robert Ferris

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