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Tearing down old structures

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  • Member since
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  • From: Harrisburg, PA
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Tearing down old structures
Posted by hbgatsf on Monday, March 13, 2023 8:11 AM

I have been driving past the Rutherford Yard outside of Harrisburg since 1977.  As background this was a classification yard for The Reading RR that passed to Conrail and then NS.  This structure was very visible from the road:

These pictures are from 1970. By 1977 the yard was used mainly as a storage facility until NS converted it to an Intermodal Yard in 2000.  It was at that time that this structure was torn down.

I always thought that it was an old coaling station.  If that is correct it wouldn't have been used as such for many years in 1970.  Would they have just left it in place for all that time because it was easier to do so than tearing it down?  Was that common?

 

Rick

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, March 13, 2023 8:29 AM

In a word, yes.  In the old days if a particular structure was unneeded and on railroad property where the general public wasn't allowed the 'roads would simply padlock it and let nature take its course.  The building would be allowed to sink into decrepitude and wouldn't be removed at all until it finally collapsed.

Coaling towers were a bit different though.  Those things were built for the ages (think American pyramids) and were VERY slow to deteriorate so it was even easier just to leave it alone, even more so if they had sanding capability since diesels were sanded in the same manner as steam engines. They wouldn't be demolished until they became hazardous to operations or depending on locality were still being property taxed without providing any benefit. 

In Richmond VA the coaling tower in the old C&O Fulton Yard lasted into the 1990's before CSX finally had it demolished.  On the other hand some N&W coaling towers are still there in the western part of Virginia in the NS mainline, still solid and not going anywhere.

And you're exactly right, that's an old coaling tower in the pictures.  

  • Member since
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Posted by hbgatsf on Monday, March 13, 2023 9:43 AM

Thank you.

Flintlock76

even more so if they had sanding capability since diesels were sanded in the same manner as steam engines. 

My layout is set roughly in 1983.  While that has been stretched somewhat by rolling stock I try to hold to period relevant structures.  I do have one steam locomotive that I use for excursions and I haven't done anything about servicing it.  Knowing that coaling towers lasted that long gives me some ideas about putting one in service especially if I can say it is used for sanding the diesels. 

Rick

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Posted by mbinsewi on Monday, March 13, 2023 10:13 AM

There is a coaling tower over the tracks at Clyman, WI.  The old C&NW ( now UP) Adams Sub.

I'm sure there are many still around.

Mike

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  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
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Posted by dknelson on Monday, March 13, 2023 10:36 AM

Along the C&NW/UP east/west main in Illinois, there is a coaling tower at DeKalb (east of Rochelle) and Nelson (west of Rochelle).  Anyone visiting the Railroad Park in Rochelle should try to make the time to check them out (and while you are at it, the former CB&Q wood depot in nearby Stewart Jct).  With a good telephoto lens it is possible to get decent shots of trains running under them.  Otherwise if that's the shot you want a certain amount of tresspassing is likely involved, or so I have been told    Angel   The one at Nelson still has its Fairbanks Morse builder's plate visible, which might tell you just how dangerous if not impossible it would be to try to, ahem, "preserve" it..  

In a farm field in Montfort WI a lonely coaling tower still stands but the tracks (ex C&NW) are long gone.  Again a telephoto lens is helpful to get good photos right from Hywy 18.  

Dave Nelson

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, March 13, 2023 11:43 AM

hbgatsf
Thank you.

You're welcome!

I remember seeing that coaling tower numerous times when I moved to the Richmond area in 1987, and then one day it was gone without a trace.  Sad, it was quite a monument to the steam era.

I found this article about the Fulton Yard tower which I think all might find interesting.  If I remember correctly it was located about where the number 51 appears on the aerial photo.  On the lower left edge of the photo you can see the "ghost" of the old roundhouse.

https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2016/07/richmond-va-c-coaling-tower-and.html

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Posted by azrail on Monday, March 13, 2023 2:54 PM

The reason why these big coal towers stayed up so long is that there is often no empty space to "drop" them.

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Posted by tstage on Monday, March 13, 2023 4:01 PM

The massive concrete coaling tower in Collinwood (OH) was once used to outfit NYC steam locomotives up into the 50s.  It remained standing after steam was long gone; primarily serving as a seagull and pigeon rest area until the end of 2013, when it was completely demolished.  That was a sad day for me, as I always enjoyed seeing that monument to the "glory days of steam" whenever I accessed I-90 from E. 152nd Street...

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Monday, March 13, 2023 8:58 PM

It costs a lot of money to demolish a building, especially buildings of this nature.

Railroads were struggling in the 70's, nobody was going to tear down something that could simply be pad locked, secured, and left alone if it was not in the way of other uses for the land.

I think the Clinton Street rotary coal dump in Baltimore sat unused for a decade before a new use was found for that pier. Then it was taken down.

There are still ruins of B&O shop buildings along the tracks leading from the B&O Museum - shops that have been gone for 50-60 years, but it is railroad and/or Museum property that no one needs for anything and it would cost hundreds of thousands to tear down and clean up. So now they are effectively "part of the museum", only viewed from the train rides offered at the museum.

Trains of the Baltimore and Annapolis RR stopped crossing the Severn River into Annapolis in the early 60's. The swing span was removed, but the trestle stood across the mouth of the river until the late 1980's. In the late 70's a group of us teenagers actually walked all the way out on it to the point of the missing swing span.

In 1926 they began construction of the Conowingo Dam across the Susquehanna River in northeastern Maryland. Temporary tracks were laid along the south shore of the river from Havre de Grace to allow materials to be moved by rail to what is now the base of the dam. Significant parts of those tracks are still there and are part of a walking/biking trail on the north side of Havre de Grace.

Within a short drive of where I live in Havre de Grace I can show you lots of abandoned buildings, tracks and bridges related to the rail industry.

The examples are endless, even today.

Sheldon     

    

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Posted by MidlandMike on Monday, March 13, 2023 10:16 PM

Here is an Amtrak train running under a coaling tower in Michigan City, Ind.  Amtrak owns the line segment, so I suppose this is an example of an Antrak coaling tower.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2610312162329847&id=100000532667674

 

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Posted by hbgatsf on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 7:15 AM

MidlandMike

Here is an Amtrak train running under a coaling tower in Michigan City, Ind.  Amtrak owns the line segment, so I suppose this is an example of an Antrak coaling tower.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2610312162329847&id=100000532667674

 

Does that coaling tower span the mainline?

Rick

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Posted by AEP528 on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 8:19 AM

Search for "coaling tower over mainline" and there will be multiple examples.

This one is probably my favorite:

http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2021/10/vicker-va-n-mainline-coaling-tower.html

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Posted by MidlandMike on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 9:59 PM

hbgatsf

 

 
MidlandMike

Here is an Amtrak train running under a coaling tower in Michigan City, Ind.  Amtrak owns the line segment, so I suppose this is an example of an Antrak coaling tower.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2610312162329847&id=100000532667674

 

 

Does that coaling tower span the mainline?

 

Yes.

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