underneath the bunkers for delivering the coal from a particular
bunker through gates to the downtake hoppers in front of the boilers,
as hereafter described.

The equipment for removing ashes from the boiler room basement and for
storing and delivering the ashes to barges, comprises the following
elements: A system of tracks, 24 inches gauge, extending under the
ash-hopper gates in the boiler-house cellar and extending to an
elevated storage bunker at the water front. The rolling stock consists
of 24 steel cars of 2 tons capacity, having gable bottoms and side
dumping doors. Each car has two four-wheel pivoted trucks with
springs. Motive power is supplied by an electric storage battery
locomotive. The cars deliver the ashes to an elevating belt conveyor,
which fills the ash bunker. This will contain 1,000 tons, and is built
of steel with a suspension bottom lined with concrete. For delivering
stored ashes to barges, a collecting belt extends longitudinally under
the pocket, being fed by eight gates. It delivers ashes to a loading
belt conveyor, the outboard end of which is hinged so as to vary the
height of delivery and to fold up inside the wharf line when not in
use.

The coal handling system in question was adopted because any serious
interruption of service would be of short duration, as any belt, or
part of the belt mechanism, could quickly be repaired or replaced. The
system also possessed advantages with respect to the automatic even
distribution of coal in the bunkers, by means of the self reversing
trippers. These derive their power from the conveying belts. Each
conveyor has a rotary cleaning brush to cleanse the belt before it
reaches the driving pulley and they are all driven by induction
motors.