You never know until you ask , so I was wondering if anyone has built or attempted this kit ....all styrene , 400 ton concrete coaling tower ....I'm having difficulties .





There are 4 structures ...the tower , a dump house , lift house and sand house ......my problem is all the chains and counterweight balls vs. the instructions .....afraid I don't really "get it" , particularly how they go up inside the lower part of the tower . I don't have pictures of the chains because I haven't got that far yet !

Anyone worked on this ? Anyone, anyone ? Beuler , Beuler ?



Terry

My good friend Mister Nutbar got one of these and offered me the opportunity to put it together. He was thoughtful enough to purchase one for me, too.

Like all Tichy kits, the die work on the parts is very well-done. Where this kit differs from most of their offerings is that it leaves addition and location of the details up to the modeller - there are no locator holes or pegs for the detail parts. Assembly is further complicated by the fact that many detail parts need to be pre-painted and the assembled tower (the "concrete" part) needs to be painted after it's assembled but before the details are added.
I built many of the details as sub-assemblies, then painted them. They were next held in place where they were to be installed so that I could mark the locations of their braces, brackets, and other attachment points on the pre-painted concrete. I then drilled #78 holes at appropriate spots, then used ca to install .015" piano wire, its ends protruding from the concrete like quills on a porcupine. Where the plastic detail parts touched the concrete, the paint on the tower was scribed with a sharp blade around the outline of the detail, them the paint was carefully scraped from the mating surfaces. All of the walkways, the hoist bridge and other add-on details are cemented to the tower with solvent-type cement (lacquer thinner) and their structural steelwork (usually angles) are resting on/around the steel pins, and ca'd in place at these points.
I left all of the structures not cemented to the base - if you tip the tower after all of the chains are strung, you'll need easy access to re-string them. You could, of course, cement the chains in place, too, but that would leave the coal chutes non-operational, killing a few options for photos.
I hope that you're not on dial-up, as the rest of my reply is photos. If you have any questions, though, always glad to help if I can. As you can see, mine is not yet installed on the layout (that part of the layout isn't installed yet, either). In some ways, it's a shame to have to fasten it in place, as there are so many nice parts to see.









































In some photos, you can see where I tried to add evidence of the boards used for the forms for the concrete. These were done at random, scribing first with a #11 blade, then dragging a #19 blade backwards (non-tapered edge first) along a straightedge, with the blade held perpendicular to the surface of the wall.
In the 14th and 15th photos, the piano wire pins can be seen nestled into the corner of the angle irons attaching the bucket bridge to the sloped roof. The same method was used under the walkways, and the sand pipes and ladders are also pinned in place.
Mine originally didn't have a tarred roof, but I later added this feature using PollyScale paint applied with a 3/4" flat brush.

Wayne

A wonderful model with all the details!

Very, very nice modelled. Wonderful details. Congratulation to this masterpiece !

Thanks very much for the pics ....I'll sort through them to see if I'm any clearer on the chains/weights situation .

When I googled for the model last week , this one came up and I printed it out ( I think there are 3 pics online ).....only to now find out it belongs to a Big Blue member !

I see you've taken liberties with the placement of the catwalks as compared to the pics in the "destructions" ....very nice job with the whole project . I do like the effect of the dark brown accessories ....I went black .

Much of what you have advised ....sub-assemblies etc. , I've done . I don't use acc ...prefer other glues .

Thanks very much for the help .

Terry

Thanks for the photos, and for starting the thread!
I have a card kit for a British coaling tower. I was unhappy with the lifting mechanism (rails made from cardboard) and ordered the Tichy mechanism (available separately). I realized that it wasn't the type that lifted an entire coal car to the top of the tower and thought I might modify it (but I haven't touched it yet). Last month I found a picture of a British one that lifts buckets.
(This may be worked on at the Great British Train Show. or may not.)

Hello,

I found "somewhere" mention of converting these towers to just sand, would anyone know how the finished model would look? And would all 3 tracks be used for that ?
Would the coal bunker have been filled with the sand and the delivery system have been altered?
To complicate things this will be on a traction line so overhead cat. wiring has to be considered.

Thanks Rob Wright
Smokebox

When the coaling tower was no longer required after the end of steam, many roads kept them in place solely for the integral sand delivery system. The one shown below functioned as a sanding facility, with the delivery system modified to accommodate diesels. The coal bunkers were simply left empty, and the chutes and operating mechanisms for them were removed.











Another reason for leaving them was the cost and difficulty of demolishing them but, unfortunately, this one is now gone, too.

Wayne