I have my layout, with the industries/structures labeled by color. How can I improve the track plan, and what industries do you recommend to tie in with my coal mine? It is a L shaped layout, basically my old 4x8 table with a 4x4 added onto it. It is HO scale, and I already have some coal cars for the coal industry. (Coal mine ties into the mountain through some sort of mine)
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Hello All,
Question:
Is this a walk-around- -or is one side of the “L” up against a wall?
The reason I ask is…
If one of the 8-foot sections is against a wall, a four-foot reach to the track(s) is nearly impossible.
My 4’x8’ HO scale pike is based on a branch line, serving a coal mine, located on the Western Slope of Colorado in the 1970s and 80s.
A fleet of “vintage” 1970s Tyco HO 34-foot operating hoppers have been upgraded with plastic trucks, metal wheels, and Kadee couplers, which carry “live loads” of non-metallic, black ashtray urn sand.
These cars need to be shoved over the unloading platform because locomotives cannot clear the unloading mechanism to the waiting coal hoppers below.
A 3% curved grade is required to get the loaded cars up to this platform, and a 15-inch radius curved “Historic” trestle (helix) brings the empties down to the mainline.
The entire mining complex is electrified by a coal-fired power plant- -fed by a conveyor directly from the mine.
It was kitbashed from two (2) Walthers Northern Light and Power Powerhouse kits to form one (1) large structure that hides the NCE booster/command station.
A smaller N-scale engine house covers the NCE power supply at the end of a spur that runs parallel to one 8-foot side.
Because there is limited under-pike access, the NCE booster/command station and power supply for the Power Pro wireless system must sit on top of the pike.
The off-pike mine is represented by an unloading shed which the cars are shoved through on the upper level. This is also where the conveyor to the power plant originates.
It is a “vintage” Suydam & Co. HO Scale Kit; No. 24 Wyoming Coal Mine or Bulk Loading Plant, adapted to styrene from the original corrugated metal kit.
On special occasions, an “Olde Tyme” excursion train makes a run up the 3% grade, through the unloading shed, and down the historic curved trestle.
This train is powered by oil-burning steam engines: a USRA 0-6-0 with a Vanderbilt tender, and a 0-6-0 Dock Side porter- -as a helper up the 3% grade.
For this special train, a steam service facility is needed.
The steam facility is at the tail of a Wye in the center of the pike.
It is only for turning, servicing, and storing them.
The excursion train cars are “staged” off pike by “0-5-0 switching.”
Adjacent to the steam facility is the diesel servicing facility on a siding perpendicular to the steam facility.
These facilities are both fed by a single diesel oil tank farm.
Because of the remoteness of the mine, there are no roads to the facility.
That means that a doodlebug and a combine car are needed to transport the miners and small freight loads to the facility.
This line is a parallel siding with a “Y” spur that receives larger loads for the mine and power plant.
An overhead crane next to the power plant handles loading and unloading duties for the larger incoming freight loads.
The overhead crane spans both legs of the “Y” track.
Occasionally, coil cars are received and the loads need to be transferred to the mine facility from the power plant.
Rock dust is commonly used to seal the interior of coal mines.
This material is received on a separate spur line- -adjacent to the Wye- -from another fleet of “vintage” Tyco 34-foot covered hoppers, many of which have been “repurposed” from sugar or grain service.
Again, they need to be shoved, so “Special Orders” are needed to move them from the mainline to the spur.
Another common feature of industrial facilities are “bone” and scrap yards.
Surrounding every operation on my mine pike there are many layers of support to get the coal in the hopper.
Even with a single-focused small pike many support services can provide a multitude of modeling opportunities.
Hope this helps.
There will be walking space around the entire thing
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The issue for me is I want to do a 2 main line layout, so I can have a passenger line and a freight line.
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@jjdamnit I’d love to see pictures of your layout if you have them!
There could be a small coal dealer, ideally on a new sidetrack somewhere.
Simon
In many cases (I would say all but I’m sure that there’s some obscure exception), a double-track mainline isn’t separated between freight and passenger, but rather between eastbound and westbound traffic (or northbound and southbound). If you want both passenger and freight service, I’d recommend that you have at least two double-ended sidings with stations at them along the line but have just a single track.
The obvious industry would be a coal-fired power plant, but make sure to use a staging yard (essentially a bunch of sidings or the like hidden from view) to represent the rest of the railroad. Additional industries could maybe include a coal dealer, a foundry (I’m probably wrong, but I think that a foundry might receive coal and I know that it produces parts that the mine could use), or something of the sort. My layout has a coal mine, a power plant, a motor building/repair shop, and a foundry as well–or more accurately, it will have all of these if it’s ever finished! 
I think I’ll have the coal go to a steel plant, then the steel can be transported through my intermodal cars to a car manufacturing plant
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Sounds like a good operating scheme!
Hello All,
Another observation…
In your track plan, I presume the orange “T” shaped structure in the lower right is the mine.
It appears that the adit intersects with tunnels that cut through the mountain.
Train tunnels, not associated with the mining operations, would not intersect active mining operations, and probably not pass over them.
If the adit of the mine was located at “ground level,” then the tracks could pass over it on the mountainside.
To do this would require a curved grade from the crossover on the left to the “elbow” of the “L” where the triangular section is.
Another option would be to locate the mine within the circle of track as a vertical shaft mine with a head-frame, head-house, tipple, and ore house.
A conveyor could connect the “top” of the mountain to the ore house to represent mining operations further up slope from where the train tunnels cut through the mountain.
By placing the mine complex in the center of the pike, it would give some visual interest and break up the large open space.
Hope this helps.
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If you want two independent loops, putting your double crossover on greg’s plan at the point marked Capital A would give you that with, in my opinion, a more interesting plan.
Hello All,
Again, the reach question in the center of the “L” is my main concern, even with a “walk around” pike.
Hope this helps.
Hey Brandon, I’m certain this has been mentioned (maybe even by you) but a power plant is an obvious industry served by a coal mine. You mentioned a foundry. I think that’s a terrific idea. Coal is used to make coke (not Coke Cola), which is used in turn to produce iron ore for steel production. So a foundry makes perfect sense. Also, there are still many manufacturers using coal furnaces to produce products like raw materials, wire, cement and building materials. Another contributor mentioned a coal wholesaler (depending on the time frame of your layout) who would in turn sell coal to retailers to heat businesses and manufacturing plants just like the automobile industry did for many years. So, there are many possibilities and fewer places to put them all. Looks like you’ll need a bigger layout!
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it was meant to be a coal loader not mine
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