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DURANGO'S COALING TOWER:
Our newest O-scale kit is truly a "super kit".
Rising 15-inches from the roadbed and with a pit that falls more
than 2-inches below, the structure is nearly 1 1/2-feet tall,
top to bottom. The kit includes all the details you've come to
expect, including operating lights, a movable chute, brass
H-beams, and dozens of Grandt Line detail parts. |
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Once
assembled, the parts look like this:
The
kit also includes a number of peel-and-stick parts.
Among these are the "metal" components, some of which
are shown on the chute during a test build:
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Durango
coaling tower was erected between 1923 and 1924, and served
until 1967 or 1968. That's nearly 45 years of service by a
wooden structure handling up to 75-tons of tumbling, rumbling,
dusty coal. Yes, the tower required a bit of strengthening over
the years, but it served well. The kit is designed based on
photos found in at least a dozen books, plus the drawings from
both the John Maxwell Collection and Mike Blazek. The Maxwell
drawings represent the D&RGW's 75-ton standard design coaling
tower. Blazek's drawings represent more of an "as built"
Durango tower. There are definitely distinct differences
between the two sets of drawings, as well as differences that
made the tower distinct from those at other locations.
The tower was an "oddball" for the railroad as it was painted a
solid black. At first I thought the darkness of the published
black and white photos could be attributed to aging film or
simply coal dust, but more recent color photos clearly indicate
the tower was painted black. This actually is a help to us
modelers, as it is a VERY difficult structure to construct and
the black paint helps hide a number of areas where, let's just
say, I would have liked things to come out neater.
Lasting as long as it did, I still found it difficult to locate
information for certain specific locations. The part of the kit
I found most difficult to design was around the coal gate and
chute. Major differences exist between photos and both sets of
drawings. According to observers, the coal gate was fitted with
counterweights, although not shown in any photos or the
drawings, but I could find no way to include these weights
without having them interfere with the bin floor. More
questions rose as to how the chute actually allowed the gate to
drop down to open. According to Blazek's drawings, the upper
end of the chute rested on the bottom of the bin floor, yet the
gate opens by swiveling downward. The kit solves these problems
in a fairly straightforward method, although not prototypic.
The kit was designed to make construction as simple as
possible. This is not to say construction IS simple. It is
NOT!!! It is VERY involved and will require reading (and
re-reading!!) the instructions, along with many hours of focused
concentration and patience. The box is NOT filled with a pile
of stripwood. The photo below illustrates the 5 main pieces the
exterior framework is made from. Each piece is laser-cut from a
solid piece basswood. At this point, the parts are VERY
delicate and must be handled with care.
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