I model the NH railroad and have a diesel fueling facility (similar to the one Walther’s makes and has been discussed on this forum earlier). One of the posters mentioned to not forget a sanding tower. I model the late 1950’s and wondered if my tall sanding tower is okay for that era and if so, where was the sand stored for that tall sanding tower? Do I need one of those open sand storage units with a pump house next to it like I’ve seen on steam-era layouts or is the sand stored underground. If it is stored underground, does that imply I should have a hopper come into my servicing area and “drop sand” below the track into an underground storage area to then be pumped up into that tall sanding tower?
I worked for the Union Pacific in the early 50’s where we serviced steam and diesels both. We had an uncovered sand storage bin made of ties, a sand house for storage of undried sand, an oil fired dryer on the end of the sand house, and used air to blow the dry sand up to a tank storage above the service track. The filler hose then fed the dry sand by gravity to either kind of loco. The steam engines were oil fired and the sand facility was close to the oil tank so that both jobs could be acomplished without moving the steam engine. There was also a service inspection pit for checking under the steam locos while at the same stop.
The diesel fueling stand was a hundred feet or so from the sanding facility so diesels had to be moved from one to the other. They seldom were placed over the inspection pit unless the crew noted some fault that needed looking at. Hope that helps. TARP
WP had about the same system as Tarps, but without the drier. Sand car was spotted over the sand towers underground air transfer pipe intake. There was a pipe sticking out of the upper top edge of the sand tank with a 12 in elbow pointed down. The compressed air that blew the sand from the sand car up into the storage tank escaped there. When the tank filled up, only sand came out of the pipe the laborer would turn the air off. Sand had to be kept moisture free.
Having the sand and fuel tank car close the the fueling ficility could make another switching operation for you…John
Thank you for your insight. It sounds like I could use one of those Backman sanding facilities I had on my last layout. It has an open sand bin, similar to what you described with a roofed small building attached which I believe is where the drying facility is supposed to be. Then, there is a sand “tower” above the building with a tube or hose to feed the sand into an engine. Am I correct that this will work?