West Virginia coal mines

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I am looking for suggestions and/or examples of coal mines in West Virginia/Virginia in the 1940’s and 50’s. I like wooden structures, but these are probably few during this era. I am looking to scratch build mines that have 2-3 tracks at the mine. Because of limited space, more tracks would “eat up” a lot of the layout. I would like to model 3 or 4 mines so that I have somewhere to run locals. Help please!

2

Craig,

Check out this site

http://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/

Chris

3

This should give you a pretty good idea of what your looking for

http://www.zanestrains.com/

4

Craig,

Here are a few more places to look:

http://www.wvepostcards.com/

http://www.wvgenweb.org/wvcoal/

http://www.coalcampusa.com/

http://community-2.webtv.net/DizHarris/SHINBRIERALMOST/page4.html

I have found a lot of good photos and information in these places.

Roger Huber

5

One more resource is the WVU online image collection:

http://images.lib.wvu.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?c=wvcp;page=search

Charles

6

I just use the Walthers Cornerstone New River mine kits. I built one as is, and the second I am going to kit-bash to make it look different. They have three tracks under the tipple. Simulated wood frame covered by corrugated metal siding.

7

I Scratch built my operating tipple On my layout Losely basied on the Star mine See it Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTBttOvnLvE&feature=youtu.be