In the early days of the C&TS, and the tower was still being used, I recall that the coal trucks pulled into the yard and backed up the ramp to dump the coal into the tower loading area. Not sure how long that lasted.
When I was living in the bunk house in 1980, I would awaken to the sound of Mark Yeamans operating the buckets and loading coal into the tower. It was always a challenge. One day, Mark found a skunk that was trapped in about a foot of water in the loading pit. He managed to rig up a long pull with a rope and loop at the end and grab the little critter. It was a quick run down towards the river for him one he was able to get loose and fortunately never sprayed anyone.....whew!
MDR