I am hoping I can see some pictures of my fellow modelers industrial endeavor's. I am looking to model a coal mine on my layout, since it will be the main source of income for the townsfolk nearby. How elaborate of a coal mine do you have? What other industries do you have that are interesting for your line? I am looking at getting the New River Mining Company from Walthers, so that is my basis right now. I am trying have a nice balance between the scenery, buildings and trackage. I do not want to have too big of a behemoth that just over powers the trains.
Coal Mine Hello Strasburg! The New River Mining is a very nice kit I'm told, although I have no direct experience with it. It's made by Heljan in Denmark for Walthers, as are the majority of Walthers kits. I'm just starting my coal mine, but since I'm modeling the European prototype, my layout will have its coal mine based on the Zollverein in the Ruhr. Here's a picture of what it will look like; the prototype is still standing about 75% complete as a site of the Route of European Industrial Heritage. David
Good luck with your modeling. Rather interesting set up. Nice to see how fols around the world do the same thing. Thanks.
What era and place are you modeling? Equally big industries replaced coal mines all through the 50s, as the nation looked for aluminum for the aerospace industries rather than coal for railroads, power, and home heating. It was an interesting change sociologically, that happen really fast.
Fictionional shortline, just off the Pennsylvania RR. The era is "Loose Transitional". So you will see Pennsy, Erie & Lackawanna, Reading, Peabody, Pittsburg & Lake Erie, Boston & Maine and other local road names. I do not want anything that says "corporate" when you look at it. I want a coal mining operation that gives a small town look if I can do it properly. If not, I will bend and go "corporate". I think New River Mining Copmany is in between the two.
I've been working on an N Track module set, that is based on mining operations. Need to edit and upload photos, from the last month or so, showing work completed to date. If all goes well, it'll be set up at the Feb '09 GTE show in Denver.
I've got this old Vollmer working flood loader. I put this kit together back in the early 1960's. The chute doors are controlled by solenoids, and the structure will hold 2 hopper cars worth of coal. The cars are old Mantua operating hoppers with "clamshell" doors. A special actuator gadget between the rails spreads the doors and opens them as the car passes over. Here, the coal dumps into a bin below the layout, and then I can manually re-load the Vollmer loader for another pass.
Loads In; Empties Out I would tell you more about that if I knew it. It is only for modeling, but somehow you have hopper cars that come loaded in one side of the mountain and exit the other side of the mountain empty. (They may be different sets of hopper cars.) There are different industries on each side of the mountain and this does not require any mechanization like MisterBeasley's setup. MisterBeasley's mechanism concept is ideal but more difficult. I have seen pictures where the hopper cars dump the loads into a ship at a pier; then the ship load is transferred manually to a coal mine for loading into hopper cars. Those cars return to the pier, etc. Let us know what you decide.
I am considering all options at this point. I was playing aqround with the Atlas RTS 8.0 last night. Since the shape of the layout will be an L-Shaped dogbone, I think I will need to have the coal mine in one of the loops or on top of the loop. So, on the short leg of the L, the loop (using 12.5" radius curves) seems too tight to include anything within it if I keep it on the same level. I think I will need to have the loop under where the coal mine will be. But my issue is accessing that loop if I need to work on it or access a derailed car. Is this a spot for the cookie cutter benchwork design? Since the bottom of the top level has to be at a minimum of 2" from the top rail of the bottom level, 2" is barely enough to get 3 fingers of my paws in there.
I've been very pleased with the quality of the New River Mining kit. I'm using that kit and the Glacier Gravel kit for kitbashing components to make two tipples and one coal washer plant. The bins and conveyors in this photo come from the New River Mining kit. The rest is scratchbuilt. Another view: This coal washer uses part of the main building from New River and the bins and conveyors from Glacier Gravel. The brick power plant is made of Walthers modular parts. The remainder is scratchbuilt. Another view: These scenes are still in progress. Both locations need truck scales, car scales, utility poles, piping, related equipment, et cetera. I have not yet started the second of two tipples. It will use part of the main Glacier Gravel building. I would welcome your suggestions for details to complete these scenes.
Todd, That is a good idea. Make the building work for your space available. Having one track to load (like your picture shows), then maybe one track for empties and another for ready to roll loads might work better for me. Thanks for the idea. Keep us updated on your progress, which looks good so far!
walthers mine kit I have assembled the new river mine kit, easy and very customizable. The conveyors are way out of scale though. I have some newer photos some where.
