# Coaling tower hoist engine



## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

I have started construction of the Life Like coaling tower I picked up last Halloween at the Omaha, Ne. train show.


The small shed on the left is the hoist engine shed. It's a bit obscured in this shot, but the hoist drive shaft exits the wall of the shed at about the level of the eaves. There will be a window, and I plan to have a figure standing in front of the window. My question though is what type of engine/motor arrangement would have driven that shaft. That's an interior detail I'd like to model. I can't seem to find any pics online of what it may have been. I found some for a cable driven hoist setup, but not a shaft setup.
I'm thinking maybe diesel engine or large electric motor driving a chain and sprocket set up. The shaft seem pretty high up the wall for a direct drive setup.
Any ideas?


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## santafe158 (Jul 14, 2010)

The coaling tower we have was built with an electric winch which pulls on the cable run up over pulleys on top of the tower and back down to the skip, but traditionally it probably would have been a stationary internal combustion engine of some sort. The original plan when our tower was built a few years ago was to use a John Deere stationary engine.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

That's pretty much what I was thinking. I'm thinking maybe find an HO scale diesel engine, make up a mount for it, and come up with a drive system. Maybe chain or belt drive.


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## mike kennedy (Sep 30, 2013)

I would think a small stationary steam engine fired with a vertical boiler.


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