I'm sure most of us have seen plenty of examples of various freight cars being repurposed, both in prototype and model railroading. I have an idea to use the body of a hopper car as the bin for a small coaling tower on my branchline. The branchline runs a single freight each day to interchange with the mainline pulled by a 4-6-0 so a full sized coaling tower not only would be unnecessary but to me would look a little out of place. I was wondering if this would have been a practical solution in the prototype world and if there are any examples of this actually having been done.
Never heard of it for a railroad coaling facility, but it's plausible if the delivery chutes can be set up in a beliveable configuration. I am aware of open and covered hoppers being used like this for commercial operations like coal yards and gravel producers. In a case like yopu describe, the most common practice was to dump the coal on the ground and elevate it to the tender with a conveyor belt.
Tom
The conveyor belt was my original plan but then I got this idea and decided to float it to see if it was a feasible. It might make for an interesting little structure. I was hoping somebody might come up with an actual prototype example. Do you know of any pictures of a coal yard that used a hopper in this manner?
Pittsburg, Shawmut, and Northern used one in St Mary's PA - Perry Squier has modeled it on his layout. Angelica NY has an interesting coal dock with a crane. If you have MRVP, you can see it in the tour of his layout.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
There is nothing like a stimulating challenge to go with my Sunday morning coffee but unfortunately this is the best I can come up with..... http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=96375 ....and I’m not even sure if it was used for replenishing tenders.
Wow! THAT is fantastic. Kinda big and bulky for many layouts, but neat.
It says right under the photo that it's a coaling station. It must be a mainline one, though.
Ed
7j43kIt says right under the photo that it's a coaling station. It must be a mainline one, though.
For sheer massiveness, nothing beats the Pennsy's twelve track facility at Denholm, PA!
http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15017coll8/id/1870/rec/14
More photos here:
http://pennsyrr.com/index.php/photo/category/34-denholm-thorndale-coal-wharfs
The PRR was never a railroad to approach things on a small scale
Lot's of interesting options, Bear. Lots to consider. Thank you.
Here is a link to a web site covering many of Canada's railways in the steam and early diesel era. The link goes directly to a page with an appropriate picture for your question. The picture at the top shows some CPR ten-wheelers being coaled directly from a hopper car using a standard unloader, like the Walthers one.
It could be an idea.
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CPR_London/history_Woodstock.htm
Steve
GMP:
That Denholm coal wharf was massive. A very nice HO model of it resides at the RR Museum of PA in Strasburg. But I suspect it might be just a tad bigger than JEC had in mind.
It seems there are a number of interesting options with the conveyor belt loader probably being the most common. The overhead dump track looks interesting but it just won't fit in the space I have for the small engine facility. Maybe a small branchline wouldn't bother with the kind of contraption I am envisioning and just go with something simple like a conveyor or bucket loader. Not giving up on this idea just yet.
Espcially back when labor was cheap - you'd probbaly see something like the coaling station shown in an old MR article built by Paul Larson, with a shelter building, crane (originally hand cranked but maybe later having air power added), and the cast iron buckets. A gon of coal would be parked behind it, and workers would shovel the coal into the buckets. To coal the engine, the crane would lift a bucket at a time to the tender where it would be dumped in. Doesn't take much space at all. Basically, an enclosed version of the CP thing shown in one of Bear's links.
jecorbett I'm sure most of us have seen plenty of examples of various freight cars being repurposed, both in prototype and model railroading. I have an idea to use the body of a hopper car as the bin for a small coaling tower on my branchline. The branchline runs a single freight each day to interchange with the mainline pulled by a 4-6-0 so a full sized coaling tower not only would be unnecessary but to me would look a little out of place. I was wondering if this would have been a practical solution in the prototype world and if there are any examples of this actually having been done.
WC did exactly that with a couple of *sand* towers in a few places. You could do the same for coal I'm sure. You'd just have to add the proper loading chutes and of course the required equipment to move coal from a hopper dump *up* into the bin. But using an old hopper as the bin itself, instead of a custom built bin, doesn't sound at all crazy.
http://trainweb.org/algoma/Images/Locations/Sault/newsandtower.jpg
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
cv_acr jecorbett I'm sure most of us have seen plenty of examples of various freight cars being repurposed, both in prototype and model railroading. I have an idea to use the body of a hopper car as the bin for a small coaling tower on my branchline. The branchline runs a single freight each day to interchange with the mainline pulled by a 4-6-0 so a full sized coaling tower not only would be unnecessary but to me would look a little out of place. I was wondering if this would have been a practical solution in the prototype world and if there are any examples of this actually having been done. WC did exactly that with a couple of *sand* towers in a few places. You could do the same for coal I'm sure. You'd just have to add the proper loading chutes and of course the required equipment to move coal from a hopper dump *up* into the bin. But using an old hopper as the bin itself, instead of a custom built bin, doesn't sound at all crazy. http://trainweb.org/algoma/Images/Locations/Sault/newsandtower.jpg
Thanks, Chris. That's kind of what I had in mind and it tells me my idea isn't all that screwy. Since a small branchline engine terminal would be unlikely to have more then one coaling track, I hadn't decided whether to have the hopper parallel or perpendicular to the coaling track. With the hopper turned parallel to the track I could divide the hopper with sand in one bay and coal in the other. It will probably be quite a few months before I have to make the decision.
I probably go upsetting Richland residents but even having found it on a 1955 N&W route map, I’m not sure how important it was in the overall scheme of things as far as main lines go. Cheers, the Bear.
I probably go upsetting Richland residents but even having found it on a 1955 N&W route map, I’m not sure how important it was in the overall scheme of things as far as main lines go.
Hi Bear,
My wife was born and raised in Richlands. Her daddy was a coal miner. When someone mentions Richlands it makes her day!!
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
I recall seeing a picture of a small hopper car used by, I think the Wisconsin Central, as a sanding facilityh. It was set up on a framework and straddled at least one track and held the sand that was piped down to the locomotives. It was a very interesting picture and unique use for the car.
Ted
Hello All,
While on a road-trip to La Junta, CO, I found a re-purposed hopper at the La Junta Mill and Elevator CO. directly across the highway from the BNSF station; Highway 50 (East 1st between Cimaron and Smithland Avenues) use Google Earth to view.
This covered hopper was placed on a foundation made of cinder blocks approximately 20-feet tall supporting the frame. The trucks and couplers had been removed and the hopper doors were controlled via electric motors.
The product was filled from the adjacent silos and then discharged from the cars doors. From what I could tell this old hopper filled rail cars and semi truck trailers. There was an abandoned section of track directly underneath the hopper that had been covered with gravel to allow truck traffic.
I could easly see this same arrangement being used as a coal tipple.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"