--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Nelson Moyer" <ku0a@...> wrote:
>
> I posted five close-up photos of the sand tower in Burlington. Photos of
> the whole tower are in my Burlington Depot Album. I need to know more about
> how the tower operated, i.e. which is the fill pipe and which is the
> delivery pipe. As the tower sits now, a hose is connected to the long pipe
> extending from the tower. That pipe comes out of the center of the tank at
> the bottom with a three-way splitter, however only one of the splits is
> connected. Above the connected pipe is a cradle with another pipe that
> isn't connected to anything. What was that pipe for? Two weights are on
> slide rods and markers are on one of the two rods in the earlier photos.
> Those markers don't appear in recent photos, so apparently they were removed
> when the tower was repainted. What did the markers indicate, sand level?
> What were the pulley cables connected to besides the weights? There appears
> to be a vent in the top of the tank. How was it constructed and used? I
> assume there was s drying house and a air pressure system to deliver sand to
> the tower, but I've never seen any pictures of the drying house.
>
>
>
> I measured the tower, and I've drawn a preliminary set of HO scale plans for
> a model. Now I need to know how to make the detail parts and connect the
> pipes.
>
>
>
> Nelson Moyer
>
I had to both use and maintain both the sand tower and sandhouse while working
at Rice Yard in Denver between 1976 and the day the yard was closed. Sand was
delivered to me in the oldest, most decrepit covered hopper cars on the BN.
Most were still in "Q" gray and much of the old lettering showed through the
badly faded paint. The slide hopper jaws on the bottom of the car were
distorted and mangled beyond belief and nearly impossible to operate without 1"
thick prybars that were about 5' long, the sad part was that it took even more
work to close them since that was only way to stop the sanf from leaking out.
No matter where the waybill said the sand originated from, it was always damp
and caked to insides of the car. The hundreds of dents on the sides of the car
testified to the care and caresses applied lovingly with 5# sledge hammers
across the system. The sand spur ran over a steel hopper adjacent to the sand
storage house. The hopper led to a basement also adjacent to the storage house
in which a large bin which fed the 25 foot bucket elevator belt lay. At one
time the bin had a functioning air powered vibrator to help keep the sand
flowing (don't remember that ever happening!) but in the last years of
operation served as an easy way to knock yourself nearly unconscious when you
walked into it in the usually dark room. I also had two natural gas burners
which were supposed to be lit and directed at the bin to dry the sand before it
proceeded to take its last ride up the elevator to parts unknown. since the
only way to enter this room was through a 3'X3' mannhole and down about a 12'
ladder, the only way to light off what looked like two small jet aircraft
afterburners was leave the gas shut off at the source, position the burners, go
above ground, just crack the gas on a little, then light balled up newspapers
and hurl them into the basement somewhere close to the burners. Most of the
time this worked well but as one might imagine, the gas kept building up when
the newspaper "fuse" failed to work as intended. Luckily, yours truly had
served in Vietnam as a combat MP and was well versed in hitting the dirt and
digging in even further awaiting the main explosion as well as any secondary
eruptions. More to follow in another posting.
------------------------------------
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