There is always a large proportion of traffic which can be dealt with outside the goods-sheds, either on loading-banks or cartways alongside the sidings. Outside loading-banks should be of good width, with approach roads of easy gradient. In tropical countries a light shed, open on all sides, is frequently erected over a portion of these outside banks, to protect the goods and workmen from the heat of the sun. Fixed cranes or travelling cranes will be required for lifting the large packages, heavy castings, and logs of timber. Where there is a large cattle traffic, separate sidings, loading-banks, and approach 282 roads should be set apart for the purpose, with suitable water-troughs and cleansing appliances. Horses can be unloaded at any loading-bank, but for the more valuable class of animals and for carriages it is usual to construct a special horse and carriage dock, as shown in Fig. 430, the carriages being wheeled off the end of the carriage truck, as indicated in the section. Cartways alongside the sidings are very convenient for unloading coals, stone, bricks, sand, lime, and many other materials which have to be passed out of the trucks in small quantities at a time. To encourage and facilitate traffic at roadside stations, traders are frequently allowed to stack or store large supplies of some of the above materials on ground set apart for the purpose near some convenient siding, the stock being disposed of in detail to suit the local requirements. Coal-drops are sometimes adopted where there is a large trade in that commodity. They are constructed by carrying the line of rails on strong balks of timber or small girders placed across the top of walled-in coal-yards or divided areas. The coal is thrown out of the trucks, and falls a depth of 15 or 20 feet into the yard below. In consequence of the height from rail-level to ground a large tonnage can be piled up, and stored in a small area, and the unloading of the trucks effected very rapidly, particularly so where special trucks with opening floors or hinged bottoms are used for the purpose. In many cases capacious roofed-in sheds are built for storing coals, lime, cement, grain, or other materials liable to deterioration from the weather. These sheds are built alongside a siding; the contents of the trucks are unloaded or thrown into the sheds through doors spaced to correspond to the railway-truck doors, and are carted away through doorways on the opposite side. It is customary to place _buffer-stops_ of some form at the termination of dead-end sidings in a station, to bring to a stand such carriages or waggons as may be approaching with too much speed to be stopped without the interposition of some substantial barrier.