Thanks Ed and all you other folks... that helps a bit. The chute-alone instructions only showed how the part went together, not how they looked on the tower. Your instruction sheet answered my questions. I'd post a pic of my tower but I see no "attachment" icon on the reply icons.
And here are the complete plans which show the location of the parts:
https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Portals/0/Instructions/7010.pdf?ver=2013-02-11-235014-000
If you only bought the coal chute as an individual part they may not have any instructions included, as I recall.
Good Luck, Ed
mlehman....generally from what I recall looking at lots of these is that the big wheel just has a loop of chain over it. The fireman or hostler grabs the continuous chain and turns the wheel one way to open the chute gate, then reverses the direction of the pull to close it.
Here's a closer view of the mechanism on a Tichy coaling tower:
Wayne
I can show you how I built the chute mechanism on my Tichy tower if that would help.
Somewhere around here I have drawings of the coal chute construction of a Fairbanks-Morse tower being built by the B&O. IF I come across it, I'll post it.
Regards, Ed
Depends on the prototype...generally from what I recall looking at lots of these is that the big wheel just has a loop of chain over it. The fireman or hostler grabs the continuous chain and turns the wheel one way to open the chute gate, then reverses the direction of the pull to close it. So it's really simple, just a loop of chain that hangs over the outer rim of the big wheel within easy reach of someone on top of the tender.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
HELP. I just built and weathered an inexpensive Bachmann/Plasticville coal tower that improved the thing considerably. I also built a Tichy coal chute with pulleys for it and ditched the way out of scale chute that came with the tower. I glued the chute in place and also installed the pulley system above. I understand the method of raising and lowering the chute with chains that go over the small pulleys at the top and that weights were on the other end of the chain, but I'm stumped at the configuration of the chain for the big spoked pulleys (which I'm guessing opened and closed the coal door). Does anyone have access to a period photo that would help me out?