Looking for a 1950 Skip loader

[SpaceMouse]

Or earlier. Frankly I don't know what one would look like, but I need it to be able to move coal around a depost it in trucks.

Any ideas for a source?

 

[UP2CSX]

Chip, I could be way off on this but front end loaders are fairly recent in coal history. I think you'd be looking at dump trucks and portable conveyors to move coal around in 1950. The dump truck would fill up at a tipple, carry it to the conveyor site, dump it on the ground, and the conveyor would be hand loaded by guys with shovels. I'll be interested to see if someone else with more experience comes up with another answer but the coal yards of my childhood in the mid-50's all used this method to move coal around the yard.

 

[SpaceMouse]

I am a late comer to coal country. Here is the way it looked in 1950.

I don't have a photo, but the area is a raised track on a trestle. (See #9) The coal was dumped then somehow loaded into trucks and small trailers.

 

[UP2CSX]

The coal yard near my house had a coal trestle very much like the one you have. They did loading in two ways. The trestle was high enough that a dump truck could be driven under one of the bays and a hopper could open on hatch and fill the truck. For bagged coal and smaller loads, the hopper just dumped in the spaces between the trestle bents and it was still guys with shovels loading a portable conveyor belt into either smaller trucks or 50 lb. bags. This was a pretty good size coal yard and I never saw any kind of front end loader in use. They did have a Burro crane they used to unload coal directly into trucks that were too large to fit under the trestle. That was about it when it came to mechanical equipment.

 

[CP9302]

Would something like this work for you?

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3520

Walthers has another similar kit with a fixed position conveyor that swings around, but it looks too modern I think.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3519

 

[SpaceMouse]

Thanks Fred. The first one looks better.