# coaling tower



## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

Back in the early days of "G" scale Bachmann brought out a remote control battery powered 4-6-0 with plastic track and one of the want to be big box stores had about 30 of the sets left over after Christmas, the word was out, don't waste your money. So they were given a stiff discount and the feeding frenzy began, I got 2 of the sets, included track (junk) engine/tender, box car, flat car, wood sided gondola and caboose, kit bash heaven. At that time Bachmann decided that they weren't selling because there was no buildings, so in some of the sets they packed one of their O scale coaling towers and resampled the instructions with "G" over the "O". Barely tall enough to drop coal in a short tender, walk ways too narrow and mini stairs. I finally dug it out of the kit that I had and checked around to see if anyone else had any experience with them, a few had and sent pictures, so I set forth on my own build. I added a upper floor to the bin for height and beefed up the beams with styrene strips to add bulk, adding bolt castings to the beams and made a building for it to sit on much like pictures I had seen. The building was made out of part of a Pola building that had been broken in a storm, made 4 buildings out of 1. Adding proper size walk ways and ladders, using plastruct parts and floors out of old flat cars for walk ways, the upper door is from a LGB European 2 axle coach, extended the chute and made pulleys out of buttons, cable from wire strands and fishing weights to hold the cables down. Added a couple of outside lamps to enhance the over all look and powered them using 2AAA battery pack with switch which is accessed by picking the tower roof up. Extended the roof of the building to 1 side and placed a hand operated gandy dance under it with plastic rail and ties, It's actually a pencil sharper and was almost 45mm track width so hence to plastic stuff, was hard to pass up for $4.95 and free shipping. The tower now stands at about 18" tall where originally it was about 10". Had a guest say he didn't think it would hold much coal, my answer was, my layout is only 20' long how much coal do you think I need? Incorporated a pull down ladder with a cage parts from plastruct to minimize width as the stairs version would have made it an extra12" wide. The figure that is the on that ladder is a old monogram auto mechanics figure, been cut, heated, twisted and glued. His name is Giuseppe, he's Italian and is from the old country. Says the he likes the work on the coaling tower even though it is dirty as it makes his white hair black and and the girls like him better. The building is lit with outdoor pathway light with the solar panel in the roof of the building. The building and tower were spray painted with Krylon rattle can and weathering was done with outside acrylics.


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## Nick Jr (Jan 2, 2008)

willy, beautifully detailed, will enhance any diorama. LiG


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

Nick Jr said:


> willy, beautifully detailed, will enhance any diorama. LiG


 Thanks, Bill


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Willy;

Nice coaling tower. Used an O gauge/scale Bachmann (Plasticville) coaling tower from my American Flyer days to make a G rock bin. I addressed the step problem by removing every other step from the stairs ( O = 1:48, G is roughly 1:24, figured that was close enough). My photos of it were lost in the MLS photo database SNAFU a couple of years ago. Someday I will take some new photos, as I still have the rock bin.

Best wishes,
David Meashey


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

Dave Meashey said:


> Willy;
> 
> Nice coaling tower. Used an O gauge/scale Bachmann (Plasticville) coaling tower from my American Flyer days to make a G rock bin. I addressed the step problem by removing every other step from the stairs ( O = 1:48, G is roughly 1:24, figured that was close enough). My photos of it were lost in the MLS photo database SNAFU a couple of years ago. Someday I will take some new photos, as I still have the rock bin.
> 
> ...


 Please do I would love to see it, Bill


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## bdp3wsy (Mar 14, 2008)

A neat trick in creating a G scale buildings, tower's or what ever. Since not allot of g scale buildings exist. Do what lewis from Aristo did. Rather than re-engineer a building or car in 1/29th. Just take a HO kit put the parts on a scanner and increase to 300% and you have perfect 1/29th scale parts. Has worked for me for years. Jack


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