Small branch line in need of coal

[sparkyjay31]

I'm modeling a small obscure branch line of the B&M, somewhat fictional. The time is the 1920's. And here is my question. I'm missing a coaling station. Now my first thought was a nice big tall coal station. But I think it would look huge and out of "touch" with my small line. The largest loco is a 2-8-0 Consolidation. So I am leaning toward Woodland Scenics Otis Coal Co. or another small trestle. Does this sound right?

[CNJ831]

For a coaling station on a small, obscure, 1920's branchline, WS's Otis Coal Co. generally wouldn't be very appropriate. Otis is meant as a small commercial coal dealer, rather than a RR facility.

More typically, a small branchline coaling facility might simply consist of a spur track for holding a coal-filled hopper adjacent to the engine servicing track, where the loco was brought up parallel to the hopper and personnel simply shoveled the coal from the hopper to the tender. Given your modeled region of the country, this and the next option might also include some sort of a ramshakle, three-sided, shed covering the hopper to keep out the heavy snows...it would make for a really good point-of-interest feature.

Alternately, one might have simply a small pit under the hopper track in which to drop coal, which would then be moved by via a mobile coal conveyor (Walthers 2009 catalog pg 438) up from the pit and into the tender.

A third, more elaborate, option is a bucket coaling station; a shed between the hopper track and the engine servicing track. Here a coal filled hopper is spotted at the rear of the shed and coal hand shoveled through an opening in the back wall into coal bins in the shed. A small hand operated crane on the opposite, open side of the shed, moves buckets of coal up and into the tender (see image below).

CNJ831

[Dean-58]

Ah, here's where an extensive library of Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman comes in very handy!  One of the two had just the article you're looking for, Sparky, back in the '50s.  The prototype B&M used open-air bucket coaling stations on several of their branches.  These were simple gallows frames, well-braced in all directions, between an unloading track and the track serving the locos.  In the center of the gallows frame was a jib crane to move the big iron buckets around and hoist them up for the firemen or hostlers to dump into tender bunkers.  Someone did an article, including photos of the setup next to the Concord 3-stall engine house that was the subject of one of Eric Stevens' excellent articles, back in '53 or '54. 

Bucket coaling stations were quite prevalent in the 1890s on big roads and small.  The one shown in the other reply is a Milwaukee Road prototype, also done in an excellent article by the late Paul Larson in the mid-'50s.  The Northern Pacific had elaborate ones, with coal handling sheds flanking the central tall structures containing the cranes--several locations had a coaling station on each side of the servicing track!  Use the MR "Model Train Index" to locate articles and I believe Readers' Services can make you photocopies of them.  Since your RR will be what Tony Koester called "Prototype Freelanced" you can suit yourself on how elaborate you want to go with yours.  My personal preference would be for a simple bucket coaling station covered by a simple shed, like the one in the photo in that other reply.

Incidentally, may I also suggest that you join the B&M RR Historical Society?  I think historical societies are often overlooked by modelers, but anyone who belongs to them will tell you they are a great source of information and satisfaction.  I belong to three of 'em--the Chicago NorthWestern Historical Society, The Milwaukee Road Historical Association and the Burlington Route Historical Society--and wish I could afford to join several others!  As I've said many times in the past and present, research can be fun and satisfying for a model railroader who's eager to model his chosen era as realistically as possible.

[Last Chance]

Some lines simply conveyored coal into the tender with a dump truck or gondola and manual labor.

Other lines had a half bridge that trucks backed and dumped into the tender.

Finally some lines just dumped it onto a elevated pile of rock next to the track and used heavy equiptment to load the tender.

[BRAKIE]

Long forgotten in the archives of railroading is a conveyor could have been used between the hopper car and tender.

Much like this:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3520

Of course the conveyor would be tall enough to reach the coal bunker of the tender.

[Guilford Guy]

I've seen pictures of old wooden gondola's on a siding beside the engine tracks, where they would use a small crane to load the coal into the tender. I'm positive this was a B&M pic. I think Funaro & Camerlengo makes a model of a wooden B&M gon too.

[tomikawaTT]

As recently as the late 1950s, the coaling facility at a junction station that serviced steam locos for two rather busy branch lines was a concrete platform, raised on piers, somewhat higher than the car floors of the drop-sided gons that were shoveled out to 'fill' it and somewhat lower than the bunkers of the tank locos it usually served.  Total coal moved (with long-handled coal scoops) was 30-45 tons per day.

In snow country, the same class of facility had a roof spanning the platform and the unloading track.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[richg1998]

Here are a couple suggestions.

Durango Press coal loader. www.Hobbylink.com still sells them.

 Timberline. Do not know if available.You have to figure out how to get the coal up there.

Rich

[tangerine-jack]

I would be honored if you would consider this project.  It's from May 1981 MR mag, it was the first MR I bought and the first scratchbuild project I did.  It's a neat little coal tipple and it turned out great.  I had it for years and years and I don't know what finaly became of it..

 

 

 

[richg1998]

Here is more info concernng this subject. If nothing else, some good reading.

Rich

1916 era

http://books.google.com/books?id=i4wSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217&dq=small+coaling+station

http://books.google.com/books?id=WFRDAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA260&dq=small+coaling+station&lr=#PPA277,M1

Rich

 

 

[steinjr]

 Another source that sometimes yields good prototype information:  

 The Library of Congress HABS/HAER (Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Records, URL http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/index.html) has quite a few both pictures and engineering drawings of various buildings and structures.

 Here is a picture showing the Erie Railroad Coaling ramp, Hawley, Wayne County, Pa: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa1200/pa1293/photos&topImages=141898

Smile,
Stein

 

[richg1998]

I found a 1908 article that could be a possibility. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Rwy use a mobile crane to dump ashes into ash cars and coal into tenders . The ash and coal pits where in the same general area. I think there were two or three parallel tracks. Many smaller railroads did their own thing. There were many small railroads in the early to middle 1900s.

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=rn1DAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA200&dq=locomotive+ash+pit&lr=

Rich

[spikejones52002]

Build a single car tressle next to the run through track. Then push one hopper up onto the tressle. Put some drop down shoots on it. It will empty directly into the tender. At low traffic time send out a full hopper and remove the empty.

Or place a delapacated drop bucket crane next to a run down siding. The engineer gets out starts up the crane and fills his tender.

[sparkyjay31]

All great info guys. Thanks. I found the Durango Press coal loader assembly to be very cool. Maybe that with an ash pit is the solution. Small and simple. I'll print out the info provided, give at all a good study and go from there.

[richg1998]

Durango Press has a nice ash pit also. They also sell extra coal buckets. Do a Google search for Durango Press. You will get many hits.

Rich

[Dean-58]

Here are a couple suggestions.

Durango Press coal loader. www.Hobbylink.com still sells them.

 Timberline. Do not know if available.You have to figure out how to get the coal up there.

Rich

Thanks, Rich, that Durango Press model IS the setup used by the B&M, shown in the old MR article.  It's also the one I copied for my ashpit crane on my old HO Colorado Western at the Farley, Colorado, engine facility.  I freelanced the dimensions and did an article for RMC under the name Victor D. Heywood (there was a lot of theft of model RR equipment at that time, back in the '70s, hence the pseudonym).  If you or anyone else wants to take the trouble and scratchbuild it, Sparky, look it up under that name in the MR Model Train Index (http://index.mrmag.com/) and see if RMC will photocopy the article for you.  I've often bought back issues of MR and other model magazines from www.railpub.com to save wear and tear on my wonderful old MR bound volumes and loose RMC magazines.  Please note: I do NOT receive a royalty on any such sale. LOL  Also, the Paul Larson "Bucket Coaling Station" article shows a work of art if you want to get a copy of it.

[route_rock]

  I have seen the elevated track,where a gon or hopper would be shoved up and dumped into the storage bin.My favorite is a flat type deck where guys with wheelbarrows would shuttle it to the tender.

  That to me would be the route I go. Showing a couple guys hauling coal to the loco. If its a branch like you said,then this would be more cost effective to the rail barons of the era.Plus kinda modeligenic.