Goods shed

A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door.

Inside the shed will generally be a platform and sometimes a small crane to allow easier loading and unloading of wagons.

If one were not adjacent to the unloading platform then the method of working the second siding would be to first empty the wagons adjacent to the platform, and then open the doors on their far side to access those on the second track.

When many rural branch lines in New Zealand were closed, goods sheds along the closed branches often formed integral parts of the depots of road freight companies that replaced the railway.

The term can also be applied to a shed on a pier in a harbour where cargo is/was transferred from rail cars or trucks to ships and vice versa.

The old goods shed at the former Axbridge railway station . The tracks through the station were where the road can now be seen; the grey doors allowed railway wagons to be taken inside the shed and road vehicles could be brought alongside doors on the opposite side of the building.
Former goods shed at Stroud , Gloucestershire designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel