Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - A History of Penarth Dock by Roy Thorne . . .

In the basin four movable tips, numbers 15, 16, 17 and 18 were built of steel and installed in 1900. They were direct acting hoists whose main purpose was to deal with wagons having a gross weight of 25 tons.

The cradle was capable of travelling at 180 feet per minute. The wagons could be tipped at any height between four feet and 45 feet above the quay level. [627] [Vol.80 - p.152]

Each of these tips was controlled by one man from a high cabin. A loaded wagon when placed upon the cradle could be lifted 45 feet above the quay, returned to the quay level and run off the cradle in 30 seconds. [1174]

Each tip had a traversing turntable platform which was fitted with two turntables, one for the empty wagon and the other for the full load.

On the older tips there were four men to each tip who usually worked as a team. The wagon would move down the gradient line from the Cogan end to be weighed by "the weigher". The second man, "the cradle man", would move the wagon from the turntable to the cradle. "The topper" would raise the wagon to the top of the hoist and the coal would go down the chute into the ship ’s hold.

When the wagon descended the “empty wagon man" would use the turntable to put the empty wagon on the empty road. When all the train’s wagons had been emptied and were on the empty road then the wagons would be taken back to the colliery.

The people of the northern part of the town and of Cogan lived with the noise and coal dust, and saw the "tippers" and "trimmers" making their way to the Tipping Office near No. 8 tip.

The men who had the most dangerous and dirty work were the "trimmers" who levelled the coal in the hold of the ship when the coal came down the chute. In the early days the "trimmers" had large boards on the end of a shaft with a tallow candle fixed to the shaft. As tons of coal came tumbling down they would brace the board against their thighs and steer the coal to make an even load.