Rankin Coaling Tower – A Memory of the Steam Era.

I visited this site several years ago but just tripped across it while trying to recatagorize my images. I first saw it standing in the background of a video clip on a commercial for the “Heartland Series”, a show on WBIR TV that showcases local history and people. I knew instantly that it looked like a railroad coaling tower but I was only aware of one other standing in east TN located along the CSX KD Sub. in Chaska, TN. This was obviously not that one as there was a lake in the foreground so I did some research and determined it was located near Newport along Douglass Lake (French Broad River) on a piece of bottom land sometimes inundated with water. With this knowledge I knew I would have to visit sometime in the winter when the lake levels were lowered.

One winter day while on the way to NC to check on dad’s farm we took a side trip to locate this structure. After following a plethora of winding back roads we came to a gravel road that led out into the Rankin Wildlife Area which was the home of this tower. It was obvious that most of this area is flooded a good part of the year ever since Dougless Dam was finished in 1943 to help supply power to Alcoa Aluminum and the Manhattan Project facilities in Oak Ridge. The current railroad grade runs several hundred feet west of the tower but originally ran under it until the line had to be raised due to the dam. A new bridge was also constructed higher up and the old one was torn down. The tower itself however is on higher ground and I don’t think the water ever touches it.

Southern RR Seal and date.

Few of these old towers remain as they had no function to the railroads after dieselization in the mid 20th century. This tower has a sign at the top that says it was built by the Roberts and Schaefer Company of Chicago who apparently built large numbers of these across the US in the early 1900’s. Of course the plate has been shot full of holes by bored rednecks.

Builder’s Plate

It appears that there was originally a conveyor running up the west side to the top to fill it with coal. A small building also stands on the west side at the base which could have housed machinery related to the function of the tower or have been an office, I’m not sure. Other than that the structure stands alone along the lake as a reminder of the romantic era of train travel when they were the only reliable was to travel long distances, breathed steam, and ate a steady diet of black diamonds.