very frustrating friends. published drawings and their measurements are highly suspicious. first many of the drawings switch back and forth between scale and literal measures. One part is drawn in real inches and another in scale feet.
if using the scale information items like the door of the tool shed measure out to barely 5 feet high from the base to the peak of the roof is clearly marked as 6.5 feet. seems unlikely.
total height just under 40' or 10" in O
The problem is I have never seen the real structure. It may be that it does have strange proportions.
I need to poll the experts. I need a consensus on the following dimensions. I don't trust the drawings.

1) overall height from the ground to the peak of the pully house.
2)average beam width, 6", 8", 12"?
3) tool house, ground to peak? door and window?
4) planking, 8" ? 6"? Shiplap?

I'll go with what ever the group decides
Thom

Thom,

I have seen the Chama coaling tower a number of times and it is almost unrealistically tall. As far as I can tell from the various drawings I have, the height of the structure is around 40+ feet (10 inches or more in O scale). The hoist house is roughly 16' x 18' with a 7.5' door and doulble-hung sash windows. It's a pretty tall building at about 16' from ground to peak. As far as I can tell, the sides of the hoist house are clapboard. The coal pocket, itself is shiplap [if I built it out of wood (and I have)], I would use scribed siding of about scale 10" spacing. Most of the beams are either 8x8 or 6x8 on the superstructure that supports the coal pocket. However, the large beams that extends from the coal pit all the way to the hoist house (from the bottom of the coal pit, add another 4.5') are 12 x 12 [they look like square telephone poles].

Well there's my two-cents worth. I am sure that others will have other opinions. I have seen drawings of the building that indicate that the structure is a short 36' high to an incredibly high 58'. I think that 40', more or less, is not unreasonable.

JIm

I'm sure you've seen this:
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10613&whichpage=1
But since I had no idea of what "Chama" was, I had to Google. Seems you could pick up some "data" from this thread. In any event, whether the door is 5 feet or 6 1/2 feet, I would NOT want to walk through it. Looks like a disaster in the making!!

Are you REALLY thinking of modeling this in cardstock?! [Rhetorical]

The whole Chama yard area is a fascinating place to be and a great ending to the ride on the Cumbres & Toltec. after going over Lobato Trestle (before it burned down and is now being repaired), the Chama yard suddently appears out of the trees that line the right of way and the coaling tower is the first thing that you see. Can't wait to have crack at the entire series.

Jim

The Chama Yard is Meca to Narrow Gauge folks. I really enjoy taking the train from Chama up the 4% grade over Cumbres Pass and on to Antonito. Do it standing in the open air gondola in the fall with the Aspen in full color and there is no better day in your life. A big advantage of taking the train from Chama, in addition to riding behind doubleheaded K36's as they assult Cumbres, is that you can arrive in Chama a couple of hours before train time and have full, unimpeaded access to the yard. You can wander all over the place and take photos, measurements, and notes on all types of rolling stock and buildings. By the way, repairs were completed on the Laboto trestle last year before the C&TS season began.

Thom, if possible try and get ahold of drawings of Chama structures from the John Maxwell Collection. These are original D&RG scale drawings with dimensions from the engineering department. Previously, these were available on line, but unfortunately due to the death a couple of years ago of the individual running the web site, they are no longer available through that source. Perhaps an appeal to your customers would turn up drawings that could be borrowed. I have the drawings of the oil loading rack at Chama. I built an O scale model for an On30 module. I doubt that you will be doing the oil loading rack in paper, but if you do, I would be happy to loan you the drawings.

Thom,
I built the Chama coaling facility in 1/4 " some years ago for someone who never took the model. I have it stored and I have all the correct measurements. Just let me know what you need. I built this in the seventies and took many measurements at the coal tower. Such was life as a fanatic narrow gauger.

Wes( Miller welding)

Thom,
1. 59'-6", 2.and3 19' wide x 16'-6" deep and 16'-3" high, hoist house, 4. 7' 6" door.
I also have all the timber sizes, clapboard sizes, etc.. Depending how detailed you go, I suggest you have the building plans. Let me know.

Wes

Thanks Wes, I applied the dimensions you supplied to the drawings I'm using and wile there are still some discrepancies, it did help me make some intelligent decisions. I do have some good photographs that I could also match to drawings. some of the pix of kits are nice and clear but I found quite a bit that didn't jive with the actual photos. for what ever reason there is one round vertical beam in a corner just to the first cross support and most of the kits seem to be simulating tenon joints but that's not how its shown in photos.
I'm going as close to the real tipple as possible.
any way I made good progress tonight. All the lumber is finished the tool shed is about 90%, the pully house is done but for the roof.
gotta stop there.