I am planing on scratch building a coal trestle. I know I can look it up, but being the lazy man that I am, I figure I can get information a lot quicker from all you fine folks here on the forum, as usual. A few questions I need to know before I start the build are; (1) where are they most used? (2) how are they used? (3) does a 3 bay or 2 bay coal hopper drop a load of coal down on the ground, or into some kind of conveyor?. I will do some research on my own. I would like to know as much as possible about them, but I hope to get some good info from any of you.
Coal was most commonly unloaded from hoppers east of the Mississippi.
Cars are spotted on the trestle and coal is dumped to the area below.
There is every concieveable arrangement. Most tend to drop coal into some sort of bunker or pile below the tracks and is either shoveled or conveyored into trucks or wagons or onto a coneyor to a furnace or boiler.
They can be high 15-20 ft above the storage area or low 3-5 ft above the storage area. They can be made of wood or have stone piers with steel girders under the tracks.
I just read an article a few weeks ago about just that. I think it was in a recent MR, but it might have been RMC. Besides the photo-essay on scratchbuilding the trestle itself, there were quite a few prototype pictures showing various possible installations.
I built this one using old Life-Like trestle bents:
I made the walls with a cut stone wall hydrocal casting. Since this is for an operating Mantua hopper car, the coal falls through the “coal volcano” at the bottom of the picture and into a box under the layout.
I guess that a lot of folks here don’t bother to read our host’s publication. The December 2012 issue of MR has an article on how to model the coal business by Paul Dolkos, an article on scratchbuilding a wood coal trestle by Steven Otte, and drawings of a compact coal trestle you can build by Harold Russell. This last article is also available on line if you are a subscriber: http://mrr.trains.com/en/How%20To/Articles/Modeling%20Projects/2012/10/Build%20a%20compact%20coal%20trestle.aspx. From this link there is a link to downloadable plans.
I think the Walthers coal trestle was from the O.L. King & Sons Coal Co. kit.
FWIW a lot of smaller coal dealers, who didn’t have a trestle, preferred to get coal in drop-bottom gondolas. The coal from a regular hopper car dumped down onto the tracks below the car, where the gondola’s floor hatches were hinged along the middle part of the car, so the coal dumped out to the sides of the car. Then the company’s employees could shovel or use some type of conveyor to move the coal to where they wanted it.
I free-lanced mine, and used Central Valley latticed columns to support the track and storage bunkers, some .060" sheet styrene for the bunkers, and Evergreen strips and shapes for the platforms, railings, bunker detail, and structure framing. The stairs are from Central Valley, while the roof trusses were built-up using Evergreen angle iron, and the siding is from Campbell:
The front of the sales office is a sheet of Walthers brick, with doors and windows from the scrap box, while the roof and unseen walls are .060" sheet styrene:
Here is my scratch built trestle. I am not sure of the type of wood used because it came as part of a bulk lot purchased from the estate of a gentleman who was into ship building. It is very fine grained.
I did not use any specific plan. The only concerns were height and length so it would fit where I wanted it. The boardwalk between the rails is located so it falls between the ends of 34’ two bay hoppers. The NBWs are from Tichy. The railing is phosphor bronze .020.
One point worth noting: If you are only going to handle one grade of coal then you don’t need partition walls beside the bents, but if you are going to handle more than one grade of coal, or perhaps gravel and sand too, then there should be dividing walls to stop the various materials from mixing together at the edge of the piles. Here I am handling residential grade coal only so no need for walls.
Thanks guys, a lot of good information coming in, keep them coming. I believe I can only built it to about four to five ft. high, because that’s how high the ramp that goes to the coaling tower is. The grade is 3% to the deck of the tower where the coal chutes are located. The coaling tower is the Tichy Train Group kit.I plan to extend the deck about 40’ beyond the deck, and have the track stub ended at the end of the trestle. Any thoughts on that plan?
Sam, the Tichy coaling tower represents the type used to fill the tenders of steam locomotives. It would be very unusual to have a commercial coal dealer’s facility using the same track as that of an important railroad-owned structure.
In my opinion, you’d get a more prototypical installation by building one similar to the one that’s shown in Dave’s post, and put it on its own siding in your industrial or residential area.
OK, thanks Wayne, but would that mean the coal tender be pushed up the ramp or pulled up by the steam loco. Also, does it ride up one side and down the other? or does it back down after it is loaded. I’m sorry for all the questions, but I’m trying very hard to become a model railroader.
I think there might have been a bit of confusion here about what we thought you are trying to model so let’s try to answer your specific questions in order (others please chime in here because I am not an expert). You are referring to a ‘coal trestle’ but your text suggests you want a ‘coal tower’, specifically the Tichy concrete three track model. I will try to explain the difference. Here is my understanding:
A coal trestle is typically used to supply a coal retailer where the coal will be distributed by trucks. It could be going to residences, buildings like apartments or municipal offices, or small industries. All of these destinations will have one thing in common - they are too small to justify delivery by rail.
Their use is very simple. Coal cars are rolled onto the trestle where the coal is dumped into piles below the trestle. There may or may not be side walls separating the piles. Side walls are only necessary where different grades of coal or different materials like sand and gravel need to be kept separate. There will usually be a back wall of some sort to control the spread of the piles.
The coal will be dropped from the cars on the trestle to the ground. There would often be a portable conveyor to load the trucks from the piles like this: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/652-3508.
However if you are talking about a coaling tower then that is an entirely different beast. As Wayne said, coaling towers are used to supply coal to steam locomotives. In most cases the coal would arrive by hopper at ground level and it would be dropped into a below grade bin th
Dave, your explanation pretty-well covers it, although the coal delivery track (for hoppers) on the Tichy model is slightly elevated above the tracks used by locomotives. Here’s a photo which shows it more clearly:
There were coaling towers (usually wooden) where the hoppers were pushed up a considerable incline to dump their contents directly into the bins from which it was delivered into the locos’ tenders, but even facilities like that wouldn’t likely be connected to a commercial coal dealer.
The coaling tower is railroad-owned and on railroad property, and for use only by the railroad, while the dealer’s operation would be a private business, providing coal for domestic use.
The elevation of the delivery track it not easily seen in Tichy’s pictures, and I didn’t pick it up when I looked at the assembly instructions briefly, but that would certainly explain the OP’s reference to an elevated track. I will edit my post.
Thanks Wayne, That is the coaling tower I have. The problem I have is, It is all built and is next to my 130’ Walters turn table, I had placed these things on the layout before I knew better. The tower is at the edge of the layout with the ramp closest to the edge and is the main line. I felt that wasn’t right, so I extended the bench work out 8" to have the main line run around the outside of the tower. I cut the track on the left side of the loading deck. My intentions were to extend the deck out 60 or 70 scale ft. which I thought would be called a coal trestle. So I guess it would be just a longer deck to spot one or two more coal hoppers on. Here is a picture of what I have so far. Note the main line runs through the loading ramp.
