A New Coaling Tower From out of the Past

I decided to replace my old Walthers wood (plastic) coaling tower with a new scratch-built model. While researching to find a coaling tower to use as inspiration, I came across many photos of old facilities, but I needed some kind of a dimensioned drawing to go by in order to do the build. In my quest I came upon a model described in the October 1951 Model Railroader magazine.

This was part of a three-part article on building a “Roberts & Shaeffer 300 ton 2-Track Automatic Electric Shallow Pit Coaling Plant and Gravity Feed Sand Plant”. The article had dimensioned drawings and step by step instructions. Some of the materials used at that time were outdated. I used my 3D printer to make many of the components. The article described a few changes made by the author from the prototype that I corrected.

The unloading platform was raised in the prototype which I modeled, also a sand chute was used to get sand to the drying house. Sand was unloaded into the elevator like coal and diverted to the sand chute. I also added lighting in the form of a light in the tower structure, a couple of goose neck lights above the stairs, a light in the unloading shed, and some hanging lights in the dark area underneath. I’m not sure about the validity of the lighting due to the explosive nature of coal dust, but it looks good. I think it turned well, all in all, the pictures below show the finished model ready to install on my layout as soon as I can get the round house built and in place.