Yes, the instructions call the roof hatches loading hatches. It really would be great to know how this building was used.
A better question is,
How do they get the sand IN the building.
There appear to be "hatches" in the roof. But is that how it go's in ? And, how is it unloaded from trucks/ railcars ?
Rust...... It's a good thing !
That doesn't look like an engine sand house at all. Engines use a couple hundred pounds of sand at most and it looks like it holds several hundred tons of sand. It looks like a sand industry not a loco servicing facility.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
It looks to me like that was a "sandhouse" that processed sand for shipment in bulk.
I'm going to guess that the spout on the end (with a cord to pull it down) was for loading sand into covered hoppers for shipment to customers. Those customers might be railroads, concrete plants, etc. ...
Here's the visible version from the link:
I'll be curious to find out as well. Cool model.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Does anyone know how this sandhouse was used in practice? There is a spout on a tower on one end of the model but it seems like it would be too short to access the top of an engine and would require the building to be too close to the rail. Or was this spout for loading sand to a truck that then moved the dried sand to some other sand loading device trackside? Thanks in advance for any insights. You can find photos of the model at:
https://hamilton-hobbies.myshopify.com/products/ho-sandhouse-laser-art
Unfortunately this beautiful model is no longer available. I have built it but need to know how to appropriately use it on my layout!