04-19-2009, 01:40 PM
… along with West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and any other place where part of the real estate is made-up of coal.
In the time frame that many of us model, up to the late 1950's, commercial coal dealers were found in all large cities and most small towns, as most homes and businesses were heated by coal furnaces. Movement of this commodity was an important source of revenue for the railroads, and as such, can be an important source of traffic for our model railroads.
A coal dealer can be an operation as simple as a gas-powered elevator on a teamtrack, or as elaborate as banks of concrete siloes, either one using wagons or trucks to deliver the coal. While businesses and factories might buy their fuel by the ton or by the truckload, many home deliveries consisted of a few 100 pound bags at a time.
Here are a few photos that may give you some ideas for a way to include this common industry on your layout.
Hoffentoth Bros. Coal & Ice has an outlet in every town and city on my layout, even though not all are modelled. Because coal was in large part a seasonal commodity, most coal dealers supplemented their income by offering other products in the off-season. Ice, for home iceboxes, or even commercial uses, was a common choice, as were sand and gravel, or lumber and building supplies. Many of Hoffentoth's locations also included ice houses.
Both the coal bins and the icehouses were usually built to a common plan for small towns, while larger towns and cities would have a design appropriate to the location. In Elfrida, both are located on the same siding. In the summer, ice would arrive in ice service reefers, shipped from a central storage facility, and be transferred to the local icehouse. From here it would be delivered to customers around town by truck or horse-drawn wagon. In the winter, most of the rail traffic on this siding would be hoppers full of either Anthracite or soft coal, which would be dumped into a pit under the track. Here, the pit is covered by steel plates which are lifted out of the way before the hopper doors are opened. The coal drops into the pit, then is lifted into the storage bins by an elevator inside the bin building.
Inside the storage area are several pockets where the various types and sizes of coal are kept separate. Here's a view of the Lowbanks branch. The icehouse here is in a different part of town, as it's the main storage facility that ships ice to all of the smaller towns on the layout. The small building is the office, and the overhanging roof on the side away from the tracks is above the chutes used for loading the trucks.
The yards are fenced to keep the area secure and to prevent pilferage:
This view of the South Cayuga yard shows the truck-loading side of the building, with the chutes beneath the canopy:
And a truck leaving to make some deliveries:
Hoffentoth Bros. don't have a monopoly on the coal business around here, though. Hoffentoth's yard in Dunnville is not modelled, but that of their competitor, Creechan’s Fine Fuels, is. Here's their head office, on Liberty Street:
And a view through their main gate, into the yard:
This shot shows a couple of hoppers being spotted on the dump track, elevated and rebuilt extensively when the Grand Valley's then-parent NYC completed a grade-separation project through downtown Dunnville in the mid-20's:
A peek inside the dumpshed:
Here's an aerial view of the yard, courtesy of Barney Secord's Crop Dusting and Aerial Photography Services. The driver of the truck on the left is in the scalehouse, centre, getting his paperwork. The truck on the right is being loaded with gravel by a crew with shovels and a gas-powered elevator:
A truck, ready to take out a delivery:
And a final look:
I hope that these views of some coal dealerships on my layout will encourage you to include your own version of this interesting industry on your layout.
Wayne
In the time frame that many of us model, up to the late 1950's, commercial coal dealers were found in all large cities and most small towns, as most homes and businesses were heated by coal furnaces. Movement of this commodity was an important source of revenue for the railroads, and as such, can be an important source of traffic for our model railroads.
A coal dealer can be an operation as simple as a gas-powered elevator on a teamtrack, or as elaborate as banks of concrete siloes, either one using wagons or trucks to deliver the coal. While businesses and factories might buy their fuel by the ton or by the truckload, many home deliveries consisted of a few 100 pound bags at a time.
Here are a few photos that may give you some ideas for a way to include this common industry on your layout.
Hoffentoth Bros. Coal & Ice has an outlet in every town and city on my layout, even though not all are modelled. Because coal was in large part a seasonal commodity, most coal dealers supplemented their income by offering other products in the off-season. Ice, for home iceboxes, or even commercial uses, was a common choice, as were sand and gravel, or lumber and building supplies. Many of Hoffentoth's locations also included ice houses.
Both the coal bins and the icehouses were usually built to a common plan for small towns, while larger towns and cities would have a design appropriate to the location. In Elfrida, both are located on the same siding. In the summer, ice would arrive in ice service reefers, shipped from a central storage facility, and be transferred to the local icehouse. From here it would be delivered to customers around town by truck or horse-drawn wagon. In the winter, most of the rail traffic on this siding would be hoppers full of either Anthracite or soft coal, which would be dumped into a pit under the track. Here, the pit is covered by steel plates which are lifted out of the way before the hopper doors are opened. The coal drops into the pit, then is lifted into the storage bins by an elevator inside the bin building.
Inside the storage area are several pockets where the various types and sizes of coal are kept separate. Here's a view of the Lowbanks branch. The icehouse here is in a different part of town, as it's the main storage facility that ships ice to all of the smaller towns on the layout. The small building is the office, and the overhanging roof on the side away from the tracks is above the chutes used for loading the trucks.
The yards are fenced to keep the area secure and to prevent pilferage:
This view of the South Cayuga yard shows the truck-loading side of the building, with the chutes beneath the canopy:
And a truck leaving to make some deliveries:
Hoffentoth Bros. don't have a monopoly on the coal business around here, though. Hoffentoth's yard in Dunnville is not modelled, but that of their competitor, Creechan’s Fine Fuels, is. Here's their head office, on Liberty Street:
And a view through their main gate, into the yard:
This shot shows a couple of hoppers being spotted on the dump track, elevated and rebuilt extensively when the Grand Valley's then-parent NYC completed a grade-separation project through downtown Dunnville in the mid-20's:
A peek inside the dumpshed:
Here's an aerial view of the yard, courtesy of Barney Secord's Crop Dusting and Aerial Photography Services. The driver of the truck on the left is in the scalehouse, centre, getting his paperwork. The truck on the right is being loaded with gravel by a crew with shovels and a gas-powered elevator:
A truck, ready to take out a delivery:
And a final look:
I hope that these views of some coal dealerships on my layout will encourage you to include your own version of this interesting industry on your layout.
Wayne