coal and water towers for steam engines - real life MOCs with LDD file

[Murdoch17]

These are typical "concrete" steam locomotive coaling and water towers of the mid-1900's for North America.

Both models feature lowering chutes / spouts, for the imaginary fuel to flow down into the waiting engine below. (Which in this case is a 0-6-0ST switcher locomotive that has been built for some time. You can see it in it's own thread here.)

For the coal tower, I was inspired by the website LGauge. However, unlike my more recent smaller versions of said tower, I have gone back to the larger 2014 version with it's odd-stud dimensions. This means it's a lot taller, wider and has a ton more pieces than before. It also has two chains to hold the new chute at the optimum height to clear the roof-top's of locomotives, while not being to high to look silly.

The rear of the coal tower. The girders in the rear are supposed to "hold" a conveyor bucket system to get coal to the top of the tower to replenish the supply inside the structure. Of course, since it's Lego, this system is imaginary.

With the brand-new water tower design, however, I was inspired by my Father's work with a smaller version of the same basic idea. I enlarged the basic dimensions dramatically and used castle wall-top pieces to boost the structural integrity of the now 14 stud-wide model.

The rear of the water tower.

What you see above is what you will get in the ldd file, which is available here at Bricksafe. It's a slightly older model, but all it's missing is the two 16-L chains and the two 32 x 16 base plates.

Enjoy the file, and as usual: comments, questions or complaints are always welcome!

Edited June 3, 2019 by Murdoch17