Coal silos and unloading into them

[CNWman]

Hello all,

I am scratch-building a 4 stack coal silo and in doing research, I can find no views of how coal was unloaded from the hopper cars into the silo. I am modeling Iron Mountain MI in the mid to late 1950's and the only local photo I have does not show this, only the top half of the silos and barn-like structure perched above it (it was torn down in the early 1960's I think). How did they get the coal from the hopper into the silos? Any photos would be appreciated.

[mbinsewi]

The hoppers would dump into a pit, where it would be scooped up by a bucket conveyor, which would haul the coal up to the "barn-like" structure where the coal would be directed to silo they were filling.

Mike.

EDIT:  Actually, I think they are called bucket elevators.

[doctorwayne]

There's a discussion on this subject, with pictures, HERE.

Wayne

[HObbyguy]

Here are a couple of pics that I took visting the Nevada Northern RR a few years ago.  Maybe they will help.

First the coaling tower.  You can see that it is built up against a bank and there is elevated track right up against it at the rear.

And here is the dump grate for unloading the coal.  We didn't go inside but it seems obvious that the coal went down a chute to a bucket elevator that rode to the top of the tower and then dumped into the bin.  All of this is hidden inside the structure.

The Nevada Northern now just uses a big tractor with a bucket up front to load coal into their steam loco tenders.  Not nearly as glamerous but it works.