Hi, I have two N scale coaling towers. I need info on the and placement ideas. They are made by Backman. How are they placed on the layout and do trucks go under them or does the tracks go under them. Thanks, Robert
Generally the location of the chute(s) from the coal bin determine where the loco service tracks go in order to fill the tender. some have chutes to the side and others have chutes both to one side and directly under the bin. But the coal has to get up into the bin and that can be done by several ways. Company service cars like a hopper or a drop bottom gondola are placed either to the opposite side of the coal bin or underneath where a pit is located. Coal dumped into that pit is then transferred by a conveyor with buckets to the top of the bin. Other systems use an elevated trestle structure to one side and the bins are gravity filled from the cars. If your coaling tower is like the one in the link http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2845 then that tower seen to the opposite side of the coal chute is the way that the coal is delivered to the top of the bin. What is missing is a concrete pit, either underneath the coaling tower, or on the same side as the tower attached to the side of it.
Thanks, I have the one that is in the picture, I will have to make up some kind of pad or something under the tower to make it look like a place where trucks can dump there loads and then move on. Thanks for the info. Robert
You can use some plain styrene strips of .0250 by say .030 on either side of a .0250 angle piece of styrene to make the chute. If you decide on rail delivery to your coal tower then simply run the tracks over the chute with some .060 X .060 styrene strip to simulate steel girders under the rails run lengthwise under the rails. Once the rail is in place you can then cut off the ties in the middle and you have a simple chute. Of course to do that you need a 2nd track if space permits for the loads and empties that are spotted at the coaling tower. Otherwise a plain chute that trucks back up to and dump their load. And with the position of that side tower you have the option to run it on the side of or under the coal tower. Another option that I have used to make a pit for a hopper car to unload in was to use the PECO inspection pit kit. The kit has slots for the rail to slide into on each side and the kit comes with about four 15 foot sections.http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/Dutchman/200731364414_InspectionPit3a.JPG and I did notice that one of our sponsors Fifer Hobby lists them. Would be enough to do two pits in one small kit.
There were a few instances were it was, mostly confined to mountain lines in narrow valleys where space was a premium, and it was generally a railroad owned mine. Generally the coaling tower was configured a little different with a ramp leading from a hillside road above to the coal bunk. Trucks generally just dumped their loads straight into the bunker. These types of bunks served dual purpose, both to fill hoppers with the small mine output for transport, and to fill loco tenders when needed on those mountain lines. Also these were not usually through lines but short branch lines with heavy grades that ate up fuel and water. In some cases these were coal fired logging lines and the coal was strictly for company use with a few truck loads a day serving to fill the bunks. Water was also handled in a departure from norm on those lines with the water supply being stored in square or rectangular wood tanks, occasionally a round tank, and fed by gravity from a spring source on the hillside thus eliminating a pump house. Sometimes no more than a pipe leading from the spring and no storage tank. So a truck operation to supply coal would not be totally out of whack and besides it is his railroad.
Not sure what you mean, you have to get the coal from some place like a mine to a railroad or a railroad to a mine, isn't this one way to do it. Robert
I believe his post was in context to a more modern operation involving excursion locos after steam servicing facilities were long gone, and in context also to a lot of the mainline operations in the steam era where with a class I road operating with plenty of real estate and budget would have had all of their coaling towers serviced by rail hoppers from the mines. Few coaling towers exist today and where excursion steam operates most are not economical to even restore or maintain. In that situation truck loaded coal is brought in to the point where the need is and usually the tender is loaded via a front end loader. Water is obtained by a tank truck or a hose hooked to a hydrant. Oil fired locos are serviced by a tank truck.
Sorry my post wasn't clear, Robert. Coal towers like your Bachmann structures were used to fuel steam locomotives. The railroads usually transported coal from the mines to the coal towers by rail in hopper cars or gondolas, not by truck. I'm sure John is right and trucks were used in some cases, but it would have been unusual.
ok, now I understand, that kind of kills my idea, I just wanted them to seam like they were filling the rail car hoppers. I guess I can still use them. Thanks Robert QUOTE=Fishplate;1017051]Sorry my post wasn't clear, Robert. Coal towers like your Bachmann structures were used to fuel steam locomotives. The railroads usually transported coal from the mines to the coal towers by rail in hopper cars or gondolas, not by truck. I'm sure John is right and trucks were used in some cases, but it would have been unusual.[/QUOTE]
Ahh now that the dust has cleared I believe I understand that you want a mine to gondola or hopper car operation and not to feed engine tenders. Using the search term coal tipple in Google would give you this type of operation. Mine to crushing/ sorting/ cleaning, then to tipple for railcar loading. Trucks can come into play in this operation. Several mines are consolidating their coal loading operations. One has the rail load site direct from its mine and crusher/sorter. the others have their coal trucked to the site to go through the crusher/sorter and then be rail loaded. Depending on where you are modeling look for Powder River coal mining or West Virginia coal mining. Two different types of mining terrain and mining techniques. The era modeled and location would set the tone for the type of operation and structures. Modeling the 1930s through the 1960s would primarily be what you found in in West VA. and Penn. Later operations would be the Powder River Basin operations, and removal of mountain tops and pit mining in West VA and steel structures and heavy use of trucks to carry coal to the rail load site. With some creative kit bashing you could come up with a structure close to the earlier years from those two coal towers.
