The disadvantage to the modeller of the concrete coaling tower is its SIZE. They really were HUGE. Of course if you have the space, all well and good. But even if you have enough room there is still the problem of producing a reasonable working or non working representation of the wagon hoist.
Of course you also need a reasonable length of siding for the wagons to pass through the hoist arrangement. For a true representation you need to be able to feed the full ones in at one end and take the empties out of the other.
For the smaller MPD, there was an alternative design of Electric Coal Hoist built entirely in steel which was much more compact. The coal was discharged into 10 cwt tubs which were then lifted up the hoist and tippled into the loco tenders. There were a fair number of these on the Eastern Region, originally installed by the LNER. One maker was Stothert and Pitt Ltd of Bath, and there are good clear photographs of them installed at Hitchin and Hatfield in Great Northern Railway Engine Sheds Volume 1 Southern Area by Griffiths and Cooper. This book is currently on offer.
There was certainly an identical coal hoist at Retford MPD and one of a similar type at Kings X "bottom shed". Examples may have been installed by other of the "Big Four" prior to Nationalisation.
There is an etched kit for such a coal hoist supplied by Walsworth Models Tel 01952 510198 for £12.50. Walsworth state that these units were also installed at Frodingham, Marylebone, Yarmouth Beach and Parkeston Quay.
To go with the coaler, you also should have some kind of ash handling system. Whilst the LMS favoured automated systems with hoists and concrete hoppers, almost as large as concrete coaling plants, the LNER was happy with wet pits and mobile cranes with grabs to lift the wet ash into wagons on an adjacent siding, which is quite easy to replicate.
Colombo
