Coaling tower

A steel coal tower at Grosmont Motive Power Depot

A coaling tower or coal stage is a facility used to load coal into railway steam locomotives, usually provided at motive power depots.^[1]

In almost all cases coaling stations used a gravity fed method that allowed coal to slide down a chute into the waiting locomotives coal storage area. The method of elevating the bulk coal above the locomotive varied, in some cases facilities were provided for raising coal trucks or wagons above the height of the locomotive tender or the bunker to facilitate re-fuelling, this was either done by means of a 'coal stage' or a 'coaling tower'.

With dieselisation of railway locomotive, the need for coaling towers ended, but many remain in place today due to the high cost of demolition incurred with these massive structures.^[2]

Gallery

• 

  A disused concrete tower at Carnforth Motive Power Depot

• 

  Locomotive 2576 over ash pit at the roundhouse and coaling station at the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yards, Chicago, Illinois

• 

  Social Circle rail yard

See also

• Motive power depot
• Train Tower

References