I've been interested in inland waterways for many years, only a few short of the years I've been interested in railways and models thereof. I had come across 'Tom Puddings' in numerous articles beforehand in various waterways magazines but never heard of them being lifted out of the water and conveyed by rail to be filled at the colliery before.
Bearing in mind that they are around 15ft wide, well over the loading gauge in the UK, I wonder if they had to rebuild the incline to accomodate the extra width?
The photo of one being moved by a loco suggests to me this is a shipyard from the surrounding scenery. The chassis carrying it looks much lighter that the one in use on the incline and I wonder if it would be able to cope with 40 tons of coal on top of the weight of the boat. The 'Tom Pudding' also looks rather new, neat and tidy!
Regards,
John Webb