File:Blueprint diagrams of coaling docktrestle, DL&W Railroad yard, Scranton, 1900-1906. "Elevation of Walls," "Plan of Walls (8d8b9af7-8899-4464-8636-b7dcdf7910d1).jpg

Blueprint diagrams of coaling dock/trestle, DL&W Railroad yard, Scranton, 1900-1906. "Elevation of Walls," "Plan of Walls," "Section at 0+77." Diagram of first 128 ft. of structure. Shows relationship to engine coaling, drill, storage tracks. Details of construction, specifications of concrete foundation walls.

From the Museum Collection: Blueprints. Blueprint diagrams of coaling dock/trestle, DL&W Railroad yard, Scranton, 1900-1906. 1) "Elevation of Walls," "Plan of Walls," "Section at 0+77." Diagram of first 128 ft. of structure. Shows relationship to engine coaling, drill, storage tracks. Details of construction, specifications of concrete foundation walls. 2) "Bent 22." "Section," "Front Elevation." Diagrams of coal bunkers. Construction details, Specifications for concrete foundations, wooden superstructure. Gives position of coaling, other tracks. 3) "Elevation on Approach." "Bent 1." "Bent 8." "Bent 16." "Bent 30." Construction details, specifications of foundation and superstructure of several sections of structure. "Scranton/Plans for Coal/Trestle" in marking pen on back. 4) "Elevation on Coal Chute and/Sand Chute Track." 4 views, front & side elevations, showing construction details, specifications of shed and spout near east end of structure. "s/26" on attached linen tape. 5) Construction details, specifications of coal chute sliding doors, steaves (sic), aprons at coaling point locations. On reverse, "Washington Co/Old Slan…/Col..." "DL&W/S#6" Bottom portion torn off. A coaling tower is a facility used to load coal as fuel into railway steam locomotives. Coaling towers were often sited at motive power depots or locomotive maintenance shops. The coaling station dates to the late 1800s. Some of the first coaling towers were only a few stories tall and held less than 100 tons and usually serving just one track. However, as larger locomotives like 4-6-2 Pacifics, 2-8-4 Berkshires and 4-8-4 Northerns were introduced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was necessary to increase the tower's size. Some of the last towers ever built were from reinforced concrete and stood hundreds of feet tall. The workings of a coaling tower are relatively simple. They were gravity fed with the steam locomotive sitting below or nearby (if the tower employed chutes) and an operator would feed coal into the tender until it was topped off. To refill the towers, they had a staging track or an area where loaded hopper cars could be unloaded, and a pulley/belt driven system would pick up the coal and load the bin. Early systems were rudimentary using straight chain and pulley buckets, but later systems used conveyor belts to efficiently load the coaling towers.

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