Coal Tippler

While researching the coke oven I came across a number of references to coal tipplers being used to load the coal washery ready for the coal to be added to the coke oven.

Not one to resist a challenge I decided to atttempt to make one for TS2013.

I tried to solve the problem by using a transferpoint as the tippler and an animated wagon which would tilt in time with the transferpoint. At first it wouldn't wotk, but, thanks to Dave Dewhurst, the error in my blueprint was spotted and corrected and the idea came to fruition, as seen in the video.

Still obvious problems with the animation, but it seems to work ok in principle and I need to fine tune the animation.

Ropeway

For a long time I have been contemplating how to make a ropeway for TS2013, ever since I noticed one at the St Helen Colliery, which will be part of the extension to Ben Yates' Cockermouth Keswick Penrith Route.

I eventually decided to give it a go this week with the following results.

It is essentially a road 17m in the air (the ropeway) being followed by vehicles (the buckets). It didn't prove too hard to create, however, getting the vehicles to run on the rope, instead of mid-air, was a process of trial and error. The down side is it's not possible to have one vehicle (full bucket) going in one direction and another vehicle (empty bucket) going the other way. I hope to come back to this and try to use a track loft, rather than a road, so I can have greater control over the vehicles traveling the loft.