Sand house operarion

[Anonymous]

In my diesel service area I have a sandtower and
sandhouse but I am not really happy with the way the
sandhouse looks and am planning to change it.
What were they generally built of (wood or metal or
didn't it matter)?
How was sand loaded into the sandhouse and how was
sand transfered to the sandtower?
Thanks for any help. Bob

[Sperandeo]

Hi Bob,

Sand houses could be built of any material – wood was common for older buildings, and concrete and metal were more common for newer ones. Sand could be delivered by open gondolas if the sandhouse had its own drier, or dry sand could be delivered in covered hoppers. compressed air is used to blow dry sand into elevated loading bins, and it's now pretty common to unload covered hoppers through a pipe, either air-assisted or just by gravity. west sand could either be dumped from drop-bottom gons on an elevated trestle or shoveled out of a gon using a clamshell crane. At a smaller engine terminal I've even seen dry sand delivered in bags in a boxcar.

See Marty McGuirk's book, "The Model Railroader's Guide to Locomotive Servicing Terminals," for more information.

So long,

Andy

Andy Sperandeo
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine

[Anonymous]

Andy- Thanks for the reply and great info. In my
haste to get this posred I omitted some info about
my layout. It is a small (2'x 5') switching diorama.
The diesel service area is small and tucked back in
part of the industrial area and services only one
engine. I built my sandhouse out of wood with a metal roof . I installed a roof hatch so that sand can be loaded from a conveyor and dumptruck. I also installed some external extras to the structure such as compressor,dryer etc. All in all I think it came out rather well.
Thanks again for the information. Bob

[Sperandeo]

You're welcome, Bob - Andy