Wow that thing looks like it still has all of its mechanicals, from the lift house all the way to the sized coal return. Many of these coaling towers were built by Fairbanks Morse. People don't realize that before the 1920's and the advent of power stokers coal was burned in an sized raw as mined state. Once the power stokers arrived they had to crush the raw coal down to a maximum size for the power stokers to work. This is why so many of the coal towers are about the same age. I am wondering if they sized coal at the larger towers and shipped to branch line towers to eliminated the need for new towers with the crushing equipment on branch lines.
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It looks to still be in operation. Was it converted to load sand?
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| Posted by Dan I. on March 2, 2023 | |
There is one of these similar coaling towers located on the CSX KD Subdivision not too far from my house in Tennessee. I have walked to it several times over the back years but have not been there in 5 years or so. Old age is catching up with me. At least I can watch the trains from my backyard which abuts the CSX ROW.
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