Recently, I was in East Dublin, GA, and happened to notice something that looked like it had been a coal chute for loading coal into the tenders of steam locomotives.

The contraption is located adjacent to the old abandoned W&T enginehouse.

If it wasn't a coal chute, then what was it used for?

Thanks for your help!

Aaron Dowling

-- Aaron Dowling (adowling@merandb.com), January 20, 2005

Answers

Andrew:

Many thanks for your response! Yes, the old enginehouse is located on the southeast side of East Dublin, just to the east of a large feed mill.

The coal chute contraption moved coal (or whatever) from ground level by means of a turning screw to an elevation for gravity dumping into the locomotive tenders. I realized that it could have been used for other purposes, but since it was adjacent to the track near the old enginehouse, I thought that it was probably used for coal loading purposes. And, I was surprised that it was still in existence!

Again, thanks for your response!

Aaron Dowling

-- Aaron Dowling (adowling@merandb.com), January 20, 2005.

The Old W&T enginhouse still exists?!?! That would be worth a trip to Dublin just to see. If it wasn't a coal chute, it could have been a sand tower. I would think you were correct, though.

-- Andrew Durden (steam@srmduluth.org), January 20, 2005.