I was surprised to find out that the original Coaling Station from the 10 1/2 Electric Train Set only had a belt that went up and down and did not transfer coal to the other side of the model where the coal chute was. It also had no buckets that could hold the coal.
This Coaling Station doesn’t look much different from the original. However, a number of changes were made. The chute side was open up to allow the buckets to enter that area and a platform was taken out so that coal could enter the chute. The chute was modified so that it can be raised or lowered with a crank.
All this is under the roof which has been removed so things can be seen. The belt is two loops of string that go over pairs of Z flanged wheels with W stacks between them. Strips of cardboard glued at intervals on the string, keep the string properly spaced apart. A cardboard bucket is glued to one of the strips. At the bottom, “coal” (a ball bearing) is loaded into the bucket. As the belt moves, the bucket rises to the top as before.
Instead of going back down, it crosses over to the other side, where the “coal” is dumped onto the chute. The bucket returns to the other side and down to the start. At one point the W stack is missing to let the bucket pass through the Z’s.