Glad to be of assistance, Larry.
The roof on my Tichy coaling tower was originally done in the same concrete colour as the rest of it, but I later went back and, using a brush and PollyScale paint, re-did it to represent one which had been tarred. This was a common practice, as was done on this one in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario:
By the time of the photo, steam was long gone, but the tower was still used for supplying sand for the diesels. It has since been demolished.
Wayne
Wayne,
Nice Photo! I really admire these old relics. Its too bad there isn’t enough money in the industry to preserve these historical structures for future generations. I understand they become a liability at some point, maybe we were born too late.
Thanks for sharing Wayne, It’s been great!
Larry
I’ve got to say it, watching along has got me wanting to build a coaling tower. Maybe down the road when I get to building my yard…
The only one that I have ever taken a good look at is the coaling tower at the Nevada Northern RR. Those things were massive!
It looks very nice Wayne, hope I can do the same when I am ready still working the bugs out of my first “big boy” layout 
Wayne,
What is the track spacing on that Tichy coal tower? Seem to be having trouble finding that and a good footprint dwg.
I’m not Wayne but I may be able to shed some light on your question:
The two tracks under the tower are on a 1.875 inch spacing and the outer track is 2.750 inches from that.
Tichy_coal by Edmund, on Flickr
Do you need the distance from Track #3 to the Hopper Track, too? I can measure that if you would like.
Tichy_coal_plan by Edmund, on Flickr
For some reason, Don Tichy has the track numbering reversed on the plan and/or the elevation. This is an excellent kit and enjoyable to build.
The instruction sheets are available for anyone to see here:
https://www.tichytraingroup.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=10WROKV5IaI%3D&tabid=87&portalid=0&mid=447
Maybe Wayne can reply with more information?
Hope that helps.
Regards, Ed
Instructions have track 1 to track 2 as 2.75". Track 2 to 3 is unmarked (if it’s to scale, call it 2"). Track 3 to hopper track is likewise unmarked.
The (2013) catalog page has it listed as being printed at 50% scale. Don’t have a rule here, but calling it a foot square is probably a safe bet, assuming the catalog is letter sized (I recall that being the case, but …).
Edit – well, Ed beat me to it as I was double-checking everything
Brian, the track through the coal/sand dump shed fits into a trough cast into the base of the kit, as do the two tracks which pass through the coaling area, as you can see in the photo below…
The two through tracks are 2"o/c, while the dump track is 3.75"o/c from the nearest through track.
The service track outside the tower legs is not fixed by the tower’s base, as the base doesn’t extend all that far beyond the legs. I simply put a locomotive on a piece of flex track in that general area, then lowered the coal chute, jockeying the track and loco until the discharge end of the chute was roughly centred, width-wise, over the tender’s coal bunker. That placed the outside service track 2.75"o/c from the nearest through track.
Since the kit allows the builder to choose chute placement, there are no locating holes or cast-on projections for any of the chutes, sand delivery pipes, ladders, walkways, stairs, or pulleys. Initially, it was a bit intimidating, but photos in the instructions and some logical thinking about placement of the various components soon sorted out any problems.
It’s not all that apparent in most of the photos that I posted originally, but before assembling the “concrete” portions of the kits, I used a modified #17 chisel-type blade and a straightedge to scribe some form-board detail into the surface…basically a drag-and-scrape operation, some of which can be seen in the photo below…
I finally got it installed on the layout’s upper level, but the scene is nowhere near finished…
[IMG]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/doctorwayne/Layout%20views%20-%20upper%20level/100_7176.jpg
Now thats a nice coal tower. Well done.
Another new guy chiming in…just started posting but I’ve been coming to theses forums on and off for years.
It’s the excellent modeling and discussion such as in this thread that have encouraged me to dive back into this hobby a few years ago. I’ve benefited so much and realize I should be contributing as well.
So a big thank you to this community!
Wow! Thanks so much to all who have posted great images and great advice on these coaling towers! I’m still so new, but I’ve saved this thread for future reference. Your time posting all of this is much appreciated from this guy.
Warren
deleted rant about forum software/program…
Sunday morning coffee
sorry that you’re steamed. hopefully better now that you released it … just like a steam engine
guessing that there’s less incentive to send an email when there’s a new comment on a thread so that you re-visit the page and see the advertising.
at the top of a forum page (e.g. Layouts and layout building), not a thread, and if you’re logged in, there a blue “Create a New Discussion Topic”.
I clicked on ‘Home’, I clicked on 'Forums". I’m not even sure what else I clicked on, but obviously I didn’t click on that one.
Thanks very much guys for all of the dimensional info and other references. I even wrote Tichy an email and did not receive a reply
I’ve found Don Tichy to be pretty good at replying to e-mails, so you may yet hear back from him.
Wayne
