Check this out. Play the video to see the coal being loaded. Might even fit on a 4 X 8.[:-^]
in Z scale in might fit in 4 x 8 meters…
Thanks for the heads-up. Definitely useful for someone who wants to model present-day unit train coal operations - and no resemblance whatsoever to the New River Mine or the operations that I model.
Today’s systems are far more efficient, but the older style generate more interesting operation on a model railroad.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with two coal mines)
You wanna see a coal hauling railroad check out Jim Hertzogs Shamokin Divison
Man o Man that is sweet. My “unit” coal trains in N scale are 30 cars long and that still works out to be about 10’ without any power attached. A 115 car train would be almost 40 feet in N scale !!! I’m not sure a pair of Kato BNSF -9’s would haul it though.
I need to hit the lottery.
THAT was cool! I have a friend who works at a coal-fired power plant that uses a rotary car dumper. It was fun watching him turn coal hoppers over to dump them. I never thought about how they filled the cars, until now.
A couple of years or so ago, someone here on the forum had what I thought was a very clever idea of modeling a mine operation. They used a side cutaway view (beneath the surface of their layout) so that you could actually see the work being done underground and follow the cars moving in, through, and out of the mine. (Sorta reminiscent of the ant farms that some of us had as kids.) The logical use of foam insulation made the task seem easier to construct, too.
Tom