With the Walthers Cornerstone HO Scale Ore Dock being discontinued at Walthers, and the availabilty for sale of this kit rapidly dwindling, I need to decide quickly whether to buy the Walthers HO Ore Dock or not to kitbash it into Coal dock.  I realize the spacing for the ore dock is different than the coal dock, but I was thinking of using the various pieces, like the chutes and super-structure to make a coal dock out of it.  Or would it be simpler to scratchbuild it.  I have made 3D parts and made rubber mold and cast them using Alumilite which I have used for other projects, so there isn't as much work to make the chutes which would seem to take a long time to add syrene strips to them to make the ribs.  Any thoughts???? 

I would like to have a coal dock with many chutes, and not one with a rotary dumper, which might be an alternative, but it's one i rather not consider.
 

FOLLOW UP:

For circa 1940s, early 1950s. I’ve done Yahoo and Google image searches, and have come up with very little useable for coal docks. There were a few pics of one facility that looked like some kind of single chute where the hoppers were pushed up onto a raised platform and dumped it into a lake freighter one at a time.  I'm not sure if using a Walthers Ore Dock Kit, to kitbash into a Coal Dock would be the best option now.  because with the very little I have been able to find, it doesn’t look like Coal Docks were designed that way.  Or they might have been, I just can’t find examples of it.  If I recall correctly, many lake coal freighters in the 1950s had a single compartment that the coal was dumped into, different then ore freighters with multiple compartments and hatches.  So if I can find pictures of the kind of coal docks that might have been along say the Ohio and Allegheny River, or the Great Lakes, along with pictures of the freighters that carried them, so I can get a better idea of what I will need to build, that would be most appreciated.

Thanks Again

Ken L