File:Hydraulic platform at Paddington Station from 1878 'Railway Appliances' book.jpg

English: Movable platform at Paddington. its truck from the recess by means of a chain connected to an hydraulic apparatus, and the lower sketch shows it raised to the level of the platforms on each side. The raising is effected by continuing to haul on the chain after the truck has come out of the recess, which causes the two rollers (shaded in the sketches) to travel along the lower surfaces of the inclined planes fixed below the platform. Small rollers at the end of the platform relieve the friction between the movable platform, and the side of the central platform. By the use of this movable platform three long trains can be loaded at once, if the two trains nearest the booking offices be temporarily cut in halves. When it is necessary to despatch these trains, the movable cross platform is run back to its position beneath the main platform, the first half of the train is backed and coupled up to the second half Trains of shorter length can be loaded and despatched, when the movable platform is raised.