Rusty Traque posted:breezinup posted:What's interesting is that any are left at all. One would think they would have been demolished by now. Apparently it varies by railroad. Historically, it's neat that some are still around, but you'd think there could be potential problems with leaving huge old concrete structures sitting in place. I remember reading that when the UP took over the SP, one of the things they did was demolish any SP coaling towers that were still in place.
Cost is the reason. As long as they're not hurting anything, it's hard to justify the cost and traffic disruption demolition would cause. Besides, where would you get all that concrete to fall without damaging the tracks underneath?
All of the external steel work has removed, which would have been an eventual problem.
These things were built to last and hold tons of coal. Empty shouldn't be an issue.
Rusty
Since only a handful of these remain, there had to be good reasons for railroads across the country to demolish 99+ percent of them. Obviously cost and traffic disruption were outweighed by other more important considerations, and potential damage issues with falling concrete, which would be minor, were easily solved.
I'm glad there are a few remaining, though.
