Coal tower capacity

[oldline1]

Does anyone know what the capacity of the new wooden tower is supposed to be? How about the other Walthers coal towers? I have one of the round concrete ones and it just seems too small but the larger concrete one seems too big. The wooden one seems to be just about right for what I need.

Thanks,
Roger

 

[Fluesheet]

Here's a bump for you Roger. I'm not familiar with the models, but generally a "medium" sized concrete coaling tower might be around 300 tons capacity. Some were built that were 500 ton - I personally don't know if that was typical, or if they got larger yet.

I seem to recall wooden towers being around 100 tons capacity.

 

[hd8091]

Roger,
I believe the Walthers one is just the old LL one reissued by them. I've got one around here somewhere. If I can locate it I'll see what it says...
Tom

 

[MasonJar]

The Walthers-LifeLike one appears to be about 50 tons.

Walthers Model Railroad Mall -- product information page for 433-1377

How big it should be depends on what it is servicing. There's no point in having a little (e.g. 40 ton) tower if you are filling 4 engines per day with 10 tons each. But if it's a little branch line with a single engine, such a tower might be ok.

Andrew