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 Post subject: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 1:18 am 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6400
There are a number of concrete coal docks still in existence today, although their number continues to get smaller all the time. Unfortunately, the coal towers that do survive today, lack the steel parts that made them operable, as those parts were long ago cut off and the steel sent to scrap merchants. However, there apparently is one example that still appears to be complete. Oren B. Helbok has a number of photos on the Ahead of the Torch (AOTT) website that documents the Baltimore & Ohio concrete coal tower in Akron, Ohio. Yes, some of the original steel is rusty, and the site is grown over with weeds and trees, but the "bones" that made the structure operable appear to still be there. Would be nice if some organization would save this very last intact CONCRETE coal dock. Certainly a unique rail preservation project!

Les


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:09 am 

Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 11:23 am
Posts: 436
Location: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Thank you Les, you have a knack for finding the most interesting subjects.
I hope that something positive comes to this one.


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:30 am 

Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 7:16 pm
Posts: 41
There is a completely intact coaling tower in the old PRR yard in Renovo, PA. Google it.
Site has been taken over by a preservation authority.
Not much else left, few maintenance buildings


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:23 am 

Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:54 am
Posts: 1773
Location: New Franklin, OH
That coaling tower is a local monument around here. A bit of a correction may be needed To the AoTT post for the nitpickers. Briefly:There was a small locomotive servicing facility and engine house located there which was the junction of the B&O’s east-west Newcastle and north-south Valley subs. The Valley Sub has it’s own history and part of it is where the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic now runs. PRR’s CA&C Line from Hudson to Columbus was adjacent to the B&O through Akron. Our - ORHS - rail property was part of this line as was our Union Depot. The Erie’s Chicago Line, now a trail, came through at that spot to also parallel the B&O into Akron. In the mix was the AC&Y, now W&LE, which interchanged with everybody. Indeed, that spot was quite the spaghetti bowl. The PRR and Erie lines are long gone and the CVSR no longer uses the interchange wye at the junction with CSX.

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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:51 am 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6400
leward wrote:
There is a completely intact coaling tower in the old PRR yard in Renovo, PA. Google it.
Site has been taken over by a preservation authority.
Not much else left, few maintenance buildings


leeward -

Thanks. At your suggestion, I checked on line and was able to find this photo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/planestra ... 009381279/

Good to know that there is another concrete tower still intact besides the one there at Akron.


Les


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:35 am 

Joined: Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:02 pm
Posts: 1742
Location: Back in NE Ohio
Eric is being generous in his description of Akron Junction to say the least. Of all of the trackage that used to be around Eastwood Av., the only part left is the through track of the former CT&V Sub, nominally part of the CVSR, but owned by Akron Metro Regional Transit and used by the Akron-Barberton Cluster of the Wheeling to switch local industry and interchange with CSX. No tracks cross Eastwood Av. anymore. There was an islolated gondola sitting on a short piece of track by the crossing, but I haven't been by there in awhile and don't know if that is still there. "Back in the day", former Grand Trunk Mike #4070 used to pass by the coaling tower when it was being turned on the wye for servicing there, so lots of us have photos of it passing the tower. Also C&O 614 was down there when it ran out of Akron in 1981 on the Chessie Safety Express, and I have a few images of it at the tower.

If you look at articles and images from B&O HS publications, you will find that at one time there was a balloon track that came off of the Valley sub in the middle of the wye, crossed the East leg of the wye on a diamond (also where both tracks crossed the Little Cuyahoga River), climbed steeply out of the valley, crossed the small yard towards the Evans Av. connection with the main on a trestle, and joined the main next to the coaling tower. This connection enabled trains to go from Southbound in the valley to westbound on the main, and was removed after the Cleveland-Wheeling local was discontinued in the early 1950's.

When all five local Akron railroads were active, the north end of Arlington St. in the Little Cuyahoga Valley was quite a railroad hot spot. In about 1/8 of a mile, every railroad that served Akron, except the Akron & Barberton Beltline, passed through there, either at-grade (Erie, B&O main/PRR CA&C), or under under it (CT&V sub and AC&Y). Now all that is left are the two CSX mains, the former AC&Y/Wheeling & Lake Erie line, and the Akron Metro/CVSR line (currently not being used by the CVSR; ownership of the line changes from the Park Service to Akron Metro on the south end of the Howard St. trestle - the Park Service owns the bridge). I'm not sure who owns the CVSR Akron Northside station, my guess would be the city owns the land it sits on, but I'm not sure, could be Metro RTA.

As to the future of the coaling tower, I would say it's not bright. I think it's lasted this long because it didn't interfere with railroad operations, and taking it down would have disrupted the lower yard, but since there are no longer any tracks on the lower level, nothing would be disrupted by toppling it over in that direction and removing it. However, the hopper unloading pit and coal conveyor to the top of the tower are on the upper level by the CSX main, which might be a hindrance to removing it. I think as long as it's structurally sound it will probably be around for awhile - unless some idiot gets hurt climbing around on it. There are two other steam-era railroad artifacts in Akron, the AC&Y turntable in the now Wheeling & Lake Erie Brittain Rd. yard, and a former Erie RR concrete water tower base, next to Kenmore Blvd. at the Barberton city line, adjacent to CP Lambert on CSX, where I-277/U. S. 224 crosses the tracks. It's very overgrown, but can be seen this time of year, behind a small brick building if you are crossing the bridge over the tracks westbound and look back as you cross. Akron's done a great job of generally erasing it's railroad heritage over the years.


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:53 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:51 pm
Posts: 2041
Location: Southern California
There is a concrete coaling tower still standing at East Ely, Nevada. I do not know how complete it is. One track goes under it and another track next to it. Looks like all the fixtures are still there for the exterior track.

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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 1:29 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:26 am
Posts: 4642
Location: Maine
And in Derby, Maine, straddling the main line.

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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 5:38 pm 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 2:28 pm
Posts: 444
One left straddling the main line in Vickers, VA (ex-N&W) and one in Gladstone VA (ex-C&O).


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 5:45 pm 

Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:27 pm
Posts: 552
Location: Milford,Mass
Hi All
I pulled this image off the internet the coal tower and roundhouse are located in Chester, Mass.
I do have the shot in my slides, but I would have to dig for it.
The coal tower and roundhouse go back to the B&A when they had they mike's
2-8-2's in the roundhouse and using them as pushers on the Hill.
The coal tower still stands today, with the roundhouse in 2020.
The photo the train is headed Eastbound to Springfield, and Boston, Mass.

Also besides this coal tower, I believe the concrete tower is still around at Cedar Hill yard on the New Haven RR at North Haven, Ct. Maybe someone can post a photo or correct me if I am wrong.
Attachment:
File comment: PHOTO IS OFF INTERNET, CHESTER, MASS
8621104 photo.jpg  JPEG Image  981 × 700 pixels    Scaled  90  .jpg #2.jpg
8621104 photo.jpg JPEG Image 981 × 700 pixels Scaled 90 .jpg #2.jpg [ 31.06 KiB | Viewed 8650 times ]


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 6:44 pm 

Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:41 am
Posts: 3911
Location: Inwood, W.Va.
Some photos from Ahead of the Torch, with captions where they exist.

Quote:
Coal came into the dock from the mainline side, to the left in the photo, well above the level of the yard in front of the dock. Some sort of barney car rode up inside the slope, pulled by a cable whose winch sat at ground level -- sits, still in place all these decades later. Another small concrete outbuilding almost directly under the dock still protects a pile of sand; the pipe that rises vertically from the bottom of the photo brought the sand up to locomotives' domes


Image

[img]Looking%20pretty%20close%20to%20straight%20west,%20with%20the%20B.%20&%20O.%20main%20just%20out%20of%20sight%20on%20the%20hillside%20to%20the%20right.[/img]

Image

Quote:
Hopper cars that delivered coal and sand, from a siding off the main line, could travel all of the way under the dock -- but no farther!


Image

Quote:
View from the southwest; the tracks in the foreground continued around the curve to a junction with the main line, a quarter of a mile to the north, and behind the camera headed south for Wheeling.


Image

And one shot I added from a rail photo site--from a happier time.

Image


Last edited by J3a-614 on Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:28 pm 

Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:34 am
Posts: 534
Location: Granby, CT but formerly Port Jefferson, NY (LIRR MP 57.5)
Pat Fahey wrote:
Also besides this coal tower, I believe the concrete tower is still around at Cedar Hill yard on the New Haven RR at North Haven, Ct. Maybe someone can post a photo or correct me if I am wrong.


Yes, the NYNH&H coaling tower at Cedar Hill yard in New Haven is still there, and is even visible in Google Streetview.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3247424,-72.8953097,3a,75y,123.59h,93.61t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s83uKOKZeWSU5J_oqVoravA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

-Philip Marshall


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:55 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:19 am
Posts: 6399
Location: southeastern USA
One very early morning about 20 years ago I was driving through rural Georgia on a foggy, misty day on the two lanes, using the time to clear my head and see new scenery and somewhere in the Sylvania Central / Louisvile and Wadley Southern territory I could swear I saw, through the mists, a concrete coal tower on the north side of the highway, as if the road I was driving on had paralleled the track of one of those shortlines. Of course, in that weather it could have been the ghost of one. Like the used car dealership in western Alabama that was being swallowed by kudzu, I wish I had taken the time to stop but I was getting cold and hungry and anxious to get to Savannah. Maybe it's still there if it ever was.

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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:53 am 

Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:41 am
Posts: 3911
Location: Inwood, W.Va.
Can anyone point out exactly where the Akron tower is? I tried looking for it on a map site with satellite images, but Akron is a big place!

And as suggested above, some of the trackage near the center of town does resemble a lot of spaghetti on the ground!!


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 Post subject: Re: Steam era artifact; the last one?
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:08 am 

Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:54 am
Posts: 1773
Location: New Franklin, OH
Akron coaling tower: If you have Google Earth, here’s the link in 3D mode. You can “fly” around the tower or switch to 2D mode for straight overhead. It almost disappears in the trees.

https://earth.app.goo.gl/pwBMT6

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