The Sand House is an integral part of any railroad and it does not matter if you are running diesel or steam. A railroad runs on sand as much as water or diesel fuel. Steam and diesel engines have the ability to drop sand onto the track in front of the wheels right where they meet the rail. Engine wheels can slip from oil, water, ice on the track, or if the load is very heavy. Putting sand between the rails and the drive wheels improves traction.

A Sand House is a building used to process the sand which is used in the locomotives. Inside the sand house there is a large stove that helps the sand to heat and dry. There is a screen that lets the fine particles fall through and keeps out the larges stones and trash. The sand can be screened several times. When the train would take sand, compressed air from the locomotive would be used to move the sand into the tower, where gravity would then feed the sand into the engine. This could be a labor intensive process with the sand being moved by hand several times.

If you are going to model a Sand House area on your railroad you'll need to create a spur where a hopper car of sand can be unloaded before being shoveled into the sand house to dry. You might also consider building a fenced area next to the Sand House to hold the wet sand as it is dropped off.

The Aristo-Craft ART7212 Sand House is an 1:24 scale model of a integrated house and sand tower. Many of the sand houses I have seen have a building and separate sand tower. This unit has the tower build into the top of the house.

The unit's base is 17 3/4" x 11 7/8". The building is 12 5/8" long and 7 3/8" wide and the walls are 5 9/16" high. The removeable roof is 14 1/8" x 9" and makes the building 14 1/2" tall when placed on the walls. The door on the one end is 3 3/8" high and 1 7/16" high. There are two windows, they are 1 15/16" x 2 3/4" and 3 1/4" x 1 1/2".

The building is made of a vacuformed plastic that is U.V. treated. The thin veneer of plastic is glued over a foam sheet for support. This thin veneer allows for sharp details. If you live in a hot area I would recommend that you bring buildings with plastic veneer roofs inside as the plastic could buckle under the extreme heat of the summer.

Features:

• Opening door with knob.

• Three windows (do not open)

• Lighted interior with on/off switch (one bulb)

• The fill nozzle on the tower has a metal counter weight and will hold the nozzle in whatever position you set it.

• The inside of the Sand House is empty which will allow a lot of detailing to be done on the unit.

Over all this is another nice unit from Aristo-Craft, the building has sharp details and appears to be well made. The empty interior that is easy to get to should make bashing the unit a lot of fun.

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