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Backwoods coaling tower

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  • Member since
    February 2009
  • From: Oreland PA
  • 986 posts
Posted by UncBob on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 6:39 AM

UncBob

Ballast is down so no more sidings

The dump pit will be on the mainline with an underground chute to the bucket tower. Sort of like it would  be if the dump pit was under the main tower

Instead of in the backwoods I will set  it up with the  water tower and my sanding house like  I originally had (see the photo several posts up )but without the engine house, ash pit (anybody want them? FREE just shipping)  and  sidings but add a freight station and access road

 

Like this but with a freight station added on the left and access roads

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

  • Member since
    February 2009
  • From: Oreland PA
  • 986 posts
Posted by UncBob on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 6:19 AM

Ballast is down so no more sidings

The dump pit will be on the mainline with an underground chute to the bucket tower. Sort of like it would  be if the dump pit was under the main tower

Instead of in the backwoods I will set  it up with the  water tower and my sanding house like  I originally had (see the photo several posts up )but without the engine house, ash pit (anybody want them? FREE just shipping)  and  sidings but add a freight station and access road

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Knoxville, TN
  • 2,055 posts
Posted by farrellaa on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 11:45 PM

Just put one turnout with a siding to the rear or under the coal tower. If you have a lot of trouble with turnouts, this could just be a dummy with a couple of hoppers on the siding. Would make more sense with your layout.

    - Bob

Life is what happens while you are making other plans!

  • Member since
    February 2009
  • From: Oreland PA
  • 986 posts
Posted by UncBob on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 10:42 PM

How about a dump pit right on the main line in the area under the chute and a trench back under the tower to the lift tower

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

  • Member since
    February 2009
  • From: Oreland PA
  • 986 posts
Posted by UncBob on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 10:10 PM

Maybe Backwoods was not the right term to use

I meant not a major service area but something out on the line

 

Her is how I wanted to use it but with the ballast down and things moving along I don't want to put in a spur since I got rid of them as in the above post

 

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

  • Member since
    February 2009
  • From: Oreland PA
  • 986 posts
Posted by UncBob on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 9:49 PM

And here I thought that tower was bottom of the barrel compared to other towers I have seen which have multiple chutes etc and could be used out in the backwoods

 

BTW I originally had it as part of a service yard but decided that the problems with my turnouts and derailments wasn't worth it so I took them out before I ballasted and have a simple two oval set up and wanted to use the water tower and coal tower as a remote type service but without a turnout

 

Here was the service yard

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

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    July 2006
  • 3,312 posts
Posted by locoi1sa on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:48 PM

  No I'm sorry. A backwoods coaling facility would be a pile of coal and a couple guys with shovels and buckets to load tenders. The tower pictured would be at a major facility where several locomotives would be loaded in a four hour period. Perhaps the end of a branch line.

      Pete

 I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!

 I started with nothing and still have most of it left!

  • Member since
    June 2010
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Posted by Forty Niner on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 3:27 PM

How about a ramp built out from a hillside where a dump truck would back up and dump coal into the tender, now that's a "backwoods" coal facility.

Mark

WGAS

  • Member since
    May 2007
  • From: North Myrtle Beach, SC
  • 995 posts
Posted by Beach Bill on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 1:30 PM

That is an expensive structure for a "backwoods/boondock" railroad.  A line meeting that description would be more likely to have a coaling platform operated by men with scoop shovels and perhaps a wheelbarrow.  A hoist arrangement with large buckets for the coal was another low-cost method of coaling locomotives.  Another example, as still in use at the Cass Scenic Ry, would be to have a spur elevated some, so that coal could be emptied from hoppers by gravity and then loaded into the tenders by hand.

That being said, my "backwoods" shortline also has a coaling tower and a roundhouse, as the engine servicing area is a great place to see trains.

Bill

With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost. William Lloyd Garrison
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: SE Minnesota
  • 6,845 posts
Posted by jrbernier on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 12:01 PM

That vertical wood tower along the rear of the coaling tower is where the skip bucket raises the coal to the main tower.  The spur with the dump pocket can be to the rear or under the tower.  I suppose you could have it right in the mainline, but it can take several hours to dump the coal and lift it with the skip bucket.  Think of it as another 'industry'!

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

  • Member since
    February 2009
  • From: Oreland PA
  • 986 posts
Backwoods coaling tower
Posted by UncBob on Tuesday, March 22, 2011 11:55 AM

Would backwoods/ boondock type coaling towers always have a track for the delivery hopper

If not how would the coal get loaded into the tower

 

Like this tower ( not finalized )

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

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