Burning coal leaves ashes, and handling ashes was a major factor in steam locomotive operation. Daily locomotives were required to dump ashes in pits located between rails in locomotive servicing yards or along the right-of-way. There were several ways ashes were removed from pits. The most common was to have an electric wench that would pull bucket loads of ash from pits and dump them into a gondola spotted on a siding next to the pits. From my memory, the Ash Hoist that was located in the Greensburg Indiana NYC yard was very similar to one located in the Midland Valley Railroad yard in Wichita, Kansas. The inspiration for this project came from a photo I found in Model Railroader, HO Trackside Structures You Can Build, 1994 edition.