where the sand comes from?

[gwgardner]

I see lots of pics and drawings for old-time and modern sanding towers/drying sheds but nothing on how the sand gets to the holding area for the drying facility. Shoveled by hand from a gondola into the holding area for the drying shed? Dropped from a gondola into an underground holding pit, then pumped into the drying shed?

[longiron]

Up until the mid-1940s, most sand was transported inside box cars with temporary door inserts (usually just wood slats), and hand shoveled into the sand bin. By the early 1950s, many RRs were converting 2 and 4 bay hoppers with roofs to transport cement and other bulk materials that should not be exposed to the weather. Covered hoppers eventually became the default transport for sand in the diesel era. This required changes to the sanding facilities to allow covered hoppers to dump the sand. It was then blown into the drying shed.
chris

[gwgardner]

Thanks for the info.

Must have been a bear of a job shoveling all that sand.

[gtrtroger]

Over the years there have been some really interesting ways to sand locomotives. Google images for "sanding locomotives". You'll get a kick out of some of them....

[Rich_S]

With Modern sanding facilities, sand is brought in by dry bulk tanker trucks. The tank is pressurized and the sand is blown into the holding hoppers that are part of the system. When I first started with the railroad. the sand was gravity fed from the holding hoppers into the locomotive sand boxes. We had pull chains to open and close the valves. Now the entire system is pressurized and the sand hoses have auto shut-off handles, how times have changed.

[RailWanderer]

but one can still get sand in the eyes, so where those safety glasses Boys..... *chuckles*