Coaling Tower and Sand House - Nevada Northern Railway East Ely Yards and Shops - Ely, Nevada
Posted by: 
Volcanoguy
N 39° 15.601 W 114° 52.178
11S E 683803 N 4347794
The Nevada Northern’s Coaling Tower and Sand House in the East Ely Yards.
Waymark Code: WMTQ4B
Location: Nevada, United States
Date Posted: 12/27/2016
Views: 1
The Nevada Northern’s Coaling Tower and Sand House are located along the northern edge of the East Ely Yards. The following information comes from the NRHP files: (
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The concrete Coal Tower and Sand House was built in 1917. The 75-foot high Coaling Tower and Sand House rise high above the other buildings and structures in the district, exceeded in height only by the Water Tower, located 50 feet to the east. The coaling tower consists of both a concrete tower and bin and, on an extension of its concrete foundation to the east, a wooden bin or hopper, which apparently was built later to expand its capacity for holding and loading coal. The concrete structure houses not only the bins but elevator machinery used to lift the coal and sand into the bins. The structure has gable roofs on the concrete structure, and a shed roof over the wooden bin, with the gable roofs clad in metal. Six-light windows in the concrete portion of the structure are set in wood casings, high in the north, east and west walls of the structure, and interior access is gained through wood doors. Structurally part of the Coaling Tower is the Sand House, consisting of a concrete bin for fine, dry sand. The later coal bin addition featured heavy timbers and planks. The Coaling Tower and Sand House rests on a reinforced concrete foundation, and the later wooden coal bin to the east is attached to the concrete coaling tower. Coal was loaded into locomotive tenders through chutes in either the concrete or wooden portion. Sand was fed into locomotive sand domes through a pipe and hose. The coal, of course, fueled the locomotives, and still does; the dry sand, stored in sand domes on top of each steam locomotive, provided additional traction on slippery track when applied by the locomotive engineer using a control in the locomotive cab.
A spur track elevated on a fill runs along the north side of the structures. It was here that hopper car loads of coal were dumped through a grate into a sub-grade bin from which a bucket lift carried it up into the coal bins; sand was similarly dumped to be loaded in the sand bin. A track on the south side of the structure ran beneath the two coal chutes and a pipe which loaded sand into sand domes on locomotives. This structure was a key part of railroad operations until the advent of diesel-electric locomotives in 1952 and stands unchanged today. At one time another track, no longer present, ran directly beneath the coal bins.