No , it is depends on the width of the drum and the gearing of the coiling gear . The easiest way to find out would be to contact the Secretary of the Steam Plough Club , who will point you in the right direction . Unfortunately the SPC has lost too many senior members recently , but he will point you in the right direction , to someone who knows the job .
The wrong size of rope would mean that the coiling gear would attempt to lap on too many or too few turns of rope . If you look at the muff , the bottom of the rope space , where the first lap goes on , you will see that it has a shallow spiral groove turned on it for the first lap to lay on . This will show you how many laps should be there . Divide the height of the rope space by this figure and you should get a rough idea . Correctly timing the coiling gear is another job which you will need to learn , but it will only work with the correct size of rope ; it is not adjustable , save for timing .
You do need to talk to someone who knows , and who has done the job , which is why you need to talk to the SPC . Details on their web site . Good luck , it is a nice job when you get it done .

Measure the drum depth (top to bottom) and divide it by the number of grooves in the drum, this will give you the rope diameter give or take. There may well be a little wear here and there to consider. The Fowler instructions for cable tackle is available from the Steam Plough club, very useful for the initial setting up of the coiling gear.

Quite right , Proff . I was thinking also of the instructions about what NOT to do !

Now I can't speak from experience, but I'm fairly sure that somewhere I've read that rope is measured by circumference, but of course that may well be a wrong assumption.

Thanks all. Looked at the drum and the grooves are definitely 5/8 wide so we'll go for that.
Will look into the SPC instructions

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Very interesting - thanks very much for posting.

Thank you very much for sharing this. Most interesting


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The last page from the spare parts book.

Fowler referred to ropes by their construction rather than diameter: 24,30 or 36 wires, which broadly correspond to 5/8” diameter (K class engines), 3/4” diameter (BB engines) and 7/8” diameter (AA and Z classes). The Superbas and Z7 engines on very heavy work had a 15/16” rope with 36 wires.

The drum should have space for X number of coils plus a bit less than half a rope’s width, so the coils of the next layer sit in the angle between the coils already on. It spreads the load so the rope isn’t being crushed along a single point of contact, and assists good coiling as the rope naturally wants to drop into that space. The gap at the top is just less than half a rope’s width so it holds that coil out a little bit, which assists the next coil to ‘snap’ down into the right place. It’s reassuring to hear the sharp snap noise regularly as the engine is pulling, it tells you that the rope is probably coiling properly, bearing in mind you can’t see it while driving.

Mike Goodman wrote a good series of articles in the SPC journal about ropes. I’ll try to find them.