Hello all , recently I was able to get an expansion request thru the boss (wife) of my freelance HO railroad . I currently have a 4x12 HO layout. I plan to add a coal industry/yard to the current layout. I have been researching this for the past few months and would appreciate any input , suggestions , web sites and or your coal industry layout plan for me to review. Area will not be a problem (for now) because the area I will be expanding into will be approximately 24 feet by 30 feet. Thanks in advance
Hi!
Major bits of information is needed to properly answer your question - Most importantly, what is your timeframe?
And, are you looking for a coal dealer to service homes/stores of the 20s thru 50s, are you looking for a West Virginia area coal mine, or a Wyoming type modern day coal mine, or ?
Mobilman44
I placed coal dealers in all of the towns of my 1930s-era layout - this one is the largest, so far:
The rest, in smaller towns, are all built to a common plan:
Wayne
Folks:
Coincidentally, the current RMC has a nice article on building a large coal yard of the enclosed-bin type.
It seems like there was an infinite variety in coal yards - all sorts of trestles, all sorts of bins, concrete silos, wooden silos, open bins, long sheds…a big book could be written on them all.
First thanks for responding. Since I plan to use both Diesal and steam it will be in the late 40s to mid 50s. I am think of using the Southern Va area , N&W maybe .
I am also interested in the coal industry…I was thinking “N” scale, 1950’s diesel and I have enough room for a 96 X 48 in DCC and enough time to fart around with it so no really hurry, the only problem is finding a good layout…any suggestions?
Wow! 48sq.ft. to 720sq.ft, that’s a 15X expansion. Have you considered a Coke & Gas industry? Mine is the Walthers HO set of 3buildings + coal storage piles + bridge crane + gas storage tank, with three pass through railroad tracks, which has a total area of about 20"x30" Preplan, but take construction bit by bit. Bob Hahn
It has taken YEARS to get my wife to agree to this ![banghead] It first started with buying a larger house with an unfinished basement. The agreement was first that she could do with the upstairs as she wished , I get the down stairs , read LARGE TRAIN ROOM , then I finished off half of the basement with a large rec room , full bath , Kitchenette with wet sink and frig , granite countertops , large flat screen , Bose surround system etc. When finished she decided it would make a great play room ! Lost that space. So then I built a large shed 16x20 , again thinking this would be my space , Nope ! She started storing stuff in there [:(!] . So at this point I stopped building and resolved not to move forward until some type of solution could be found so that if I finished off the other half of the remaining house would not be taken over. And thus no train room. Enter Model railroad magazine. I started sharing the picture of layouts with my wife. She decided she wanted to do the houses. So I agreed to let her do this part. I get to do the train and track she gets to do the towns and rural areas [swg] So I have started plans to expand. I will have to think about the Coke/Gas thing. It is after all free lance !