I don’t have room for a big sprawling coal mine. I want more than a Blair Line truck dump but nothing that is currently manufactured fits my bill.
This is close 
But I don’t want a kit.
This is also close: https://tinyurl.com/y242egs2
Has anyone else built something of similar size?
Yes I’ve looked on Google and various state coal mine sites. I can find lots of coal miners and giant structures. The small one have one pic, taken from a long distance away.
Thanks
Henry
That’s a good looking mine.
I wanted a small mine for my layout and settled for the Campbell Silver Spur Mine Kit. It has a relatively small footprint and came out pretty nice.
The kit came with a generator building and I made room for it too.
This was the original location. Later I decided to make a model of the Mabry Mill and moved the mine across the road.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Hello Henry.
In the past year I completed this kit from BTS. The result was very rewarding. (I’d post photos but I don’t have a compliant photo hosting service.)
Dwayne A
I’ve seen the BTS kits and they are nice, just bigger than I am looking for. If this sells them some kits, I’m sure they won’t mind the link
Henry, why couldn’t you take something like the BTS kit, or even the Walthers thing, and down size/ kitbash your own?
Mike.
Hi Henry,
This is a small mine that I built several years ago for my first attempt at a layout. The long trestle is for tailings. The ore goes out of the mine through the chute on the upper right. The building on the left houses the cable drive motor and the power generator:
I’m going to send you a PM.
Dave
We are brainstorming Mike.
And truth be told, a friend offered to build me a structure. I have to come up with and idea.
My friend’s niche in model railroading is scratch building. He would no more kitbash than Baltimorean Tom Clancy would root for the former Washington Redskins. As Clancy once said: “I would rather sell my children to gypsies than have them root for the Redskins.” [:D] Yes PC incorrect in 2021, but Clancy said it in 1997.
I have nothing against kitbashing but I also don’t have the skill set of my friend. In his 80’s he still works part time. The longer it takes, the more challenging; it his satisfies his needs.
I don’t know in which timeframe you’re modelling, but if it’s, f’rinstance, in 2012, then this prototype operation would allow you to make a very compact coal operation, as the loader is pretty-well all that’s needed…
as the rest doesn’t need to be in-view.
While it’s currently closed due to an embargo on a bridge, at this time it was doing continuous loading of 130 car trains at a rate of 3000 tons/hour.
Wayne
Gidday Henry, not sure what access you have but there is an article with plans, in the July 1955 Model Railroader of a small mine building. I am embarrassed to say that this is in my many uncompleted things to be done cupboard.[sigh]
The width as I’ve built it is 7”, depth 9” and the bin will load into hoppers on a single track.
mine1 by Bear, on Flickr
mine2 by Bear, on Flickr
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
So what you are telling us, Bear, is that you have been sitting on this uncompleted project for 65 years??? [*-)][%-)]
Rich
This is the case where they say ‘Railroad modeling is not a race.’ [:D]
David
Thanks Bear, is this the one from the 1955 issue? I don’t have access to the archives.
I model the transition era, for those who asked.
I sent a PM Henry, see if it works.
Mike.
Yes Henry, I used the plans from the article. Have sent you a PM.
Rich, if I sat on it, it would be squished!! Actually I started it over 5 years ago. The Bear hasn’t been around for 65 years.[swg]
I’m not sure that crawling along at a less than a snail’s pace could be considered as racing, David. [sigh][(-D][(-D]
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Hello All,
What a great project!
Have you looked at Suydam kits for inspiration?
No longer in production but available on eBay.
There are several mine kits made of corrugated metal:
I have all four kits including the plans.
My entire freelance 4’x8’ pike is based on a coal branch-loop using Tyco 34-foot operating hoppers with live loads.
These cars require an elevated track section for discharging which is “shove-through” only. Locomotives can not pass over the Tyco unloading section of track.
The unloading shed from the mine is a kit-bashed #24- -Wyoming Coal Mine.
I used the Suydam kit and traced the walls on graph paper.
From there I modified the doors to accommodate the Tyco hoppers on the unloading siding and the locomotives on the through track.
Then I transferred the modified plan to styrene sheet, much easier to work with than the original corrugated metal.
This structure fits over both the unloading siding and the through track.
A siding below “captures” the live loads into another set of Tyco operating hoppers.
Take a look at the different Suydam kits.
P.M. me your e-mail address so I can send you copies of the plans.
I won’t be able to respond to your P.M. directly due to glitches in the MRR messaging system.
Hope this helps.
I didn’t think of Suydam. The Black Bart seems closest tow what I want.
Does the hoist, a conveyor?, go directly into the ground and down into the mine?
Thanks to all who sent me pm’s.
Hello All,
The original plans that came with the kit I have for the Black Bart Mine show the finished building with a covered “chute” that connects the building to an audit (horizontal shaft) and not a stope (vertical shaft) at an angle. (As is shown in the pictures you posted.)
The angle of the “chute” of this kit is not fixed and could be built to any angle by altering the height of the bents.
If you are modeling a stope, a headframe could be added adjacent to the main building.
The covered “chute” from the headframe to the building could be modeled as a trestle with smaller scale track and ore cars from the headframe to the building.
Hope this helps.
BigDaddy: That’s a great work of design!
Because it’s V-day, this discussion caused me to ask my wife: would you be-mine?
I would say yes, it goes to where ever the mine carts would dump into it. This is strictly the load out point for the raw material.
Kind of like the truck dump site that MRR used on the Virginian layout.
Mike.
Sounds like a great project Henry[Y]
I have future plans for an ore mine operation being a big part of my layout. I know that’s not coal but both are very similar for modeling.
It is my idea to have a few tipples coming out of the mountains starting out with small carts pulled by donkeys. Then transferring to a little larger but still small ore cars pulled by a shay.
Then the Shay will pull those ore cars to a drop tipple with a big bin angling down the hill to a chute conveyor. Then I will have the chute conveyor angling down to an ore loader that fills 40 ton ore cars. At the rate I’m going this little brainstorm won’t take place for quite a few years yet[:-^]
I know Mike just mentioned the truck dump site from the Virginian layout in MRR. I got my inspiration from Sewell in Mann’s Creek West Virginia. That modeling was featured in MRR quite a few times through the years. That was the Railroad owned town with a lot of history that had a couple hundred beehive coke ovens. I could be mistaking but I do believe John Allen did a mountainous layout like that.
I have pictures in my railroad files from MRR but I don’t know if I’m allowed to post those or I would.
Even though you only have the room to build a small coal mine operation model, it sounds like a fun project you have ahead of you. Please keep your progress posted as I look forward to seeing it[Y]
TF
