Charlottesville, VA: C&O Coaling Tower

(3D Satellite)

Street View, Jul 2019
[I tried accessing an older view that did not have the construction activity. But I could find just this 2019 view.]

C. Mark Sublette -> Abandoned Rails

C. Mark Sublette -> Abandoned Rails

Mark's comment:

Former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway coaling tower in Charlottesville, Virginia, erected in 1942 by the Ogle Construction Company, a 91 foot-tall concrete structure with a capacity of 300 tons of coal. Steam operations ended in 1956, and the C&O freight yard in Charlottesville closed in 1986. Local developer Oliver Kuttner bought the tower and ~10.7 acres of surrounding land in 1995. Two people were shot and killed in a drug-related murder early on 18 August 2001 on the grounds below the tower, lending it an ominous history. A steel staircase around the outside allowing access to the upper levels was subsequently removed.

Jamie Adams
A slightly elevated camera angle makes this image rather interesting. Chessie C&O #4280 is the focus of the shot, but the turntable, coaling tower, steam engine, other diesels to the right, and even some shop personnel, add so much more. July 1978. This one has no photographer mentioned on the slide mount. - Kodachrome slide. Collection of J.L. Adams
Randall Hampton shared

Dennis DeBruler commented on Randall's share
The yard used to go all the way to Market Street and there was no Water Street.
1925 Charlottesville And Vicinity Quad @ 31,680
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.0270584,-78.4724487,67a,35y,39.51t/data=!3m1!1e3

Marty Bernard posted three photos with the comment:

A Coaling Tower -- When and Where ??

[EDIT] This is a C&O coaling tower at Charlottesville, VA. Still exists. See: https://goo.gl/maps/8Ej5ZPwiQaN5FKtE9

These three views of this Coaling Tower were in a Duane Hall slide box labeled B&O Museum, March 1981. I don't remember a coaling tower there and can find nothing on the museum's web site about it. Maybe it is/was down the track away. How did it work. How often did somebody have to go up to that little house on the top. OR is it a coaling tower?

Darryl Van Nort: Skinny raised cylinder tank is, of course, a sanding tower.

Marty Bernard shared

Marty Bernard shared

Thomas Dorman: Charlottesville, VA, C&O, built by Ogle in 1942, 300 tons capacity. Still there, 1049 E Water St.

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Thomas Dorman posted six photos with the comment:

The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad tower along Water Street East, Charlottesville, Virginia (38.02743, -78.47241) on the east side of downtown is one of the more readily-accessible coaling towers still standing. It was built by Ogle Engineering in 1942 and had a 300-ton capacity. Similar C&O coaling towers still stand at Balcony Falls, Virginia, and West Hamlin, West Virginia. 18 September 2016.

1: Looking east along Water Street.

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4: The small SUV driving by gives a sense of how massive coaling towers are.

5: Coal would be dumped from a hopper car into a pit (now filled in) below the rectangular hopper shelter roof on the right, then hoisted to the top and dumped into the tower by a bucket hoist. The hoist enclosure can be seen rising vertically between the hopper shelter and the tower. I think chutes could fuel locomotive on two tracks, beneath the tower, and on the left.

6: Looking up at the bottom of the tower.