Coaling tower

The first attempt in Britain to replace manual labour by gravity in the refuelling process was at Shildon, County Durham, where coal drops were built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1847.

[2] In time, railway companies constructed more elaborate coaling towers, made from wood, steel, or reinforced concrete (ferroconcrete).

From the pit a conveyor-type system used a chain of motor-driven buckets to raise the coal to the top of the tower where it would be dumped into the storage bin.

During the 1950s and 1960s, as railways in many countries replaced steam with diesel and electric traction, the need for coaling towers declined, and eventually vanished completely.

[8] In the United States, many reinforced concrete towers remain[needs update] in place if they do not interfere with operations, due to the high cost of demolition incurred with such massive structures.