Modellfeldbahn GmbH i.G.

Woodtippers and wood-skips

Since when are there wood tippers?

Wood tippers came out of wood trolleys, which were already used in the mining in the 16^th century. Since there are field railways, wood tippers exist. As wood is less expensive than steel, it was clear, to build the transport wagons in wood with a little steel to make them cheap.

In the contrary to skips it was the aim to move and transport as much material as possible in a short time period and therefore the wood tippers had to be:

1. bought  very cheap
2. nearly un destroyable in heavy construction or mining site service
3. quickly reparable with a minimum out of service time
4. to make all repairs possible on site by the present personal without charging the site smiths
5. recyclable after use or big defects in an environmental friendly way. Steel parts had to be reused all time without big work
6. to take all kind of rubble and goods

Why to take a wagon made of wood and not of steel and what advantages has a wood tipper for its daily service even today?

• The wood tippers are the ideal transport wagon for rubble, debris and stones, as wood doesn’t dent, push through and is immune against wetness (it doesn’t stain)
• The charging of the wagons is less loud because of the dampening way of wood
• Charging with excavators of that time (which were much bigger than today) is normally very loud, because there is whole metre in cube (1m3 ) falling on a wagon or lorry. In there were often pointy stones, which would normally cut a hole  or make a big dent in a steel skip but doesn’t hurt a wood tipper and a wood trolley.   
• Wood trolley and tippers roll with less noise than steel wagons or skips
• On a railway construction site, when the weather was fair enough, it was worked night and day. Mostly at night it had to be as “silent as possible” which meant to take wood tippers.
• A non repairable tipper was still usable for a kitchen or heating stove (field kitchen, fire stove) as a fire reserve

What makes the difference of a wood tipper from a normal skip or trolley?

1. Wood tippers have to handle a big quantity of rubble, which normally asks for its service a engine and only as exception a horse
2. Pushing service by hand was and is not allowed. The wagons are to heavy to push them safely
3. Tipping is much more difficult than with skips and needs 3 persons, when there is no special device to unload it (piston or guiding rail).
4. Much bigger amounts of goods can be moved than with normal skips but also the loading of big rubble is easier than with skips. Skips have a V-form as container, which limits the loading space for oversized loads in contrary to the woodtippers.

Mostly woodtippers were loaded by hand pushed skips, when there was no excavator on the construction site or when the situation didn’t permit a placement (turning radius of the excavator).

Here is the model of the woodtipper in 1:87 scale and H0e gauge:

back to the 1:87 woodtipper-page, please click the picture

Here is the model of the woodtipper in 1:45 scale and 0e gauge:

back to the 1:45 woodtipper-page, please click the picture