Anyone have a GloorCraft coaling tower?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I recently acquired one of these fine old craftsman kits. It appears to be designed to have the service track dump coal under the tower, and has two chutes on a track beside the tower. I would like to put one chute under the tower, and have the coal dump and sand service track outside the elevator - something like these two rough diagrams: (best viewed in a monospace font, e.g. Courier)

  • as designed:

elevator coal tower engine fueling track
(dump track
under tower)
| | | |

  • the modification I’d like to make:

service
track for
coal & sand elevator coal tower engine fueling track (inbound)
(coal dump)
| | | | &nbs

2

I have built a Gloor Craft Northern Pacific Caboose kit. It was a good kit and fun to build. Sorry, no opinion on how your considering laying out your coaling tower. However, I thought maybe my experience with at least having built a Gloor Craft Modelmight be helpful.

Have you built wood models before? If not, have patience, read the distructions and above all enjoy yourself!

3

I’ve looked through the instructions several times, and it seems possible, but I’ve not been able to find any photos that show what the under-bin landscape looks like. Scratch built my first board and batten small shed in 1958, and then a double decker stock car, stick by stick, so I’m not afraid of wood.

4

BF&D

First off, I haven’t had any experience with the Gloor Craft Coaling Tower so what follows is speculation.

I don’t see a huge problem here. In the original configuration there has to be an under track conveyor to move coal from the dump track to the elevator. You should be able to flip that conveyor so that it receives coal from the service track and moves it to the elevator. You may have to extend the conveyor if it has to be longer to reach from the service track to the elevator. The only other modification is to add a mechanism for dispensing coal directly from the bottom of the coal tower into the outbound engine below it. The only structural changes would be to the bottom of the coal tower to adapt it to have a chute coming out of the bottom.

Dave