Sand tower and sand house kits

I am in the middle of building an old Gloor Craft sand house + water tower kit.  I'll have to look at home to see what the number is.  It's an easy, mostly wood kit from jsut before laser cutting became the norm, so the wood is milled.  The castings are a soft metal and easy to work with.  Comes with stipwood and good plans.  It is not a big facility operation, but for branchlines, NG, or division points on smaller roads, it works.

I plan on building a Korber's at some point.

You cannot beat Rich for service!

Peter

Weaver sold brass sand towers on the past, not sure if they still have any.

Don

Weaver Sand tower.

Korber kit is very nice and easy to assemble,

MTH makes a sanding tower (PN 30-11040).  The boom doesn't rotate.

There is a kit, not cheap, for the Chama, N.M. sandhouse, now on the Cumbres and

Toltec.  It is one I would like, but I picked up a Korber one inexpensively, made

some changes, and it looks good.  I would like so see some photos and plans of

different prototype ones.

I have built a few Korber Sandhouse kits and like them a lot. There are not many kits out there for O scale. I did find one at http://www.micromark.com/ridgw...t-o-scale,11030.html sold by Micromark have have no idea how good/bad it is.,\

There is also a kit called Durango Sand Tower - though I don't know who makes it.

Sand tower - Korber & Weaver below ( if you can find one, scratch build )

Sand house - Korber below, modified by putting a door to the sand bin

I scratch built mine; the sand house is not very clear in this photo.

jackson

Model Tech Studios had a nice craftsman kit that I built a number of years ago. I don't know if they still have any available.

Here it is installed on the new layout with lighting.

It's mostly stripwood and milled siding with some details in metal and resin (loading spout).

I have no idea if GC is still in business or not--grabbed this kit off eBay.  There are quite a few of their car kits on there right now but no other structures.  This pic is one of the box lid focusing on the photo of a built up kit.  The number is 635.

I also have an old resin Korber that I bought in pieces from a member here.  I had to build the tower holding up the sand container, but that was easy enough.  I could have bought a stand-alone tower from the new Korber, but I like the old, wooden one better.

Thanks!!

I have 2 different types/styles of wheels stops. Tomar and Custom Finishes make them. I found them on EBay but have also seen them at a few dealers at York. They work great, as long as you're going slow through the engine tracks. I've stepped on them and knocked them off, but I used a CA glue with a kicker.... so they are pretty solid

Also some scale bumpers

I built the Korber and I liked the kit. 

Any one try Cresent Locomotive Works, Dave can build any thing.

http://locomotiveworksinc.com/Home.html

Hi Gary. I have the cinder hoist in my yard photo made by Crescent. He is always at the BIG E (sorry I missed you this year).

This is a really nice sandhouse kit that was, unfortunately for us, not made in O scale.  And, the manufacturer has since left the business.

Sandhouse Link

I have this kit from days of yore when my eyesight and manual dexterity...as well as other related bodily functions!!...thought the model railroad world epicenter was HO.

Well, maybe it yet is....but, I'm not there!  Ergo, making the best of the change, I hope to use this kit's plans, parts, etc., as a half-scale basis for replicating this neat structure in O scale.  Besides, the ATSF is my favorite...as are many of the structures from the San Bernardino terminal.

This particular sandhouse lasted and was in use to the end of the steam era.  As for the transition to diesels, I cannot say to what extent this structure and its apparatus had relevance beyond the description in the link.  Which further supports my view of the hobby that....if it looks good to you, it's OK.  You know,.....'One sandhouse: Check!'

Lucas Gudinov

I loosely model the Boston & Albany. The RR's famous for it's large sand domes on it's steamers. I wanted something different and a little larger in size than some of the kit offerings. I used a Korber building. Sorry but I can't remember the kit no. . The sand bin is scratchbuilt. I bought some wood sheets from Micromark that has individual boards glued together. This worked well as it has the appearance of individual planks seeing the inside is visible. Still some work to do scenery wise and details to add.

MTH

http://mthtrains.com/search/sanding%20tower

Korber Sand House and tower

http://shop.korbermodels.com/K...e-Sand-House-305.htm

Korber Sand tower alone

http://shop.korbermodels.com/K...nding-Tower-305A.htm

I like that San Bernardino sandhouse, "dkdkrd".  It appears that the trestle runs over

the sand bunker, so sand is dumped directly into the bunker from a hopper or drop

 bottom gon?  Makes me wonder if I can add a trestle to my Korber version, for cars

to be run into dumping position.....(another switching destination)

This thread had me under the table looking for the HO kit....my dear wife eventually found it for me!

Well, it turns out that in the endeavor to make this kit wholly authentic, it has a total footprint in HO of 6" X 48".  Yo....that's 1' X 8' in O scale!!!!

The biggest piece of this enchilada is the trestle leading up to and including the sandbin.  They've provided all the graduated bents, stringers, ties, etc., etc. to construct the whole trestle, ground-to-bumper! 

Now the 'good gnus' is that the building itself would only be 12" X 8" of that footprint, with the tower portion standing 12" tall.  I suppose you could shorten the bin, even eliminate the trestle entirely to make it all fit.  Since I have deferred on the engine terminal altogether for the time being....negotiating for more space in the basement!...I'll have to consider how I'd incorporate this gorgeous monster, should I venture its 2X replication!!!

Darn.  I shouldn't have opened this kit!  Those old itchy-fingered HO passions started to return.  It sure is enticing!!

KD

DaveC,  Really nice  sand house.  Like the boiler house, especially.  I built the Korber myself.

Thanks for the comments. As you can see it's not permanently attached yet to the layout. I can remove and work on it at the workbench. The unfinished side will feature a coal bin to fuel the stove to dry the sand. I bricked out one of the windows and added doors to shovel the coal into the building. Wiseman Models shows a nice O Scale wheelborrow for the sand bin. I have plenty of workers with shovels. I wanted something different and a little larger than what was being offered kit wise. I liked the Korber kit because of the door on one end wall that could lead into the bin. I wasn't satisfied with what I used for sand in the bin. After being glued it seems on the dark side. I just picked up some white beach sand from Scenic Express. Some other projects going on right now. When I get back to it I'll shoot another pic.