Building a Coal Mine

[HoModeler]

Hello everyone... I decided to add another industry for switching on my layout I am building a Coal Mine from a kit I bought at my HS. I have already started building the add-on section to my layout & track my question is when I get that far how would I go about making a few STOCK PILES of Coal & the items to use to make the piles & where to place in accordance to the building...My Coal Mine Kit has a 2 track setup.

Any help on this will help Thanks

[tiebreaker]

Go to one of WoundedBears posts and click on his pics at the bottom. He has a great looking coal mine, although you may have a modern one it still is worth the look. Google ho coal mine pics and there is more.

[RAM]

I wouldn't think the a mine would have piles of coal. 

[Piyer]

I wouldn't think the a mine would have piles of coal. 

I am NOT an expert on the coal industry, but the short and simple answer is that yes, there are piles of mined coal that sit around on the surface. The longer answer is above my pay grade, but Kalmbach / Model Railroader has a guide book out about the coal industry for those who are curious.

Roughly, what I do know is that coal is mined, processed, and graded before it is ready to go to its end user. Sometimes the processing is done at the mine site, other times the raw coal is shipped to a central processing plant. Once the processing is done, the coal can either sit in piles at the processing plant, it can be loaded into cars for storage, it can be loaded into cars for shipment to its end user, or it can be loaded and shipped to a storage location where it is unloaded and dumped into piles to await a buyer. It can also be dumped into huge piles at its end user's facilities.

As with many aspects of railroading, the nature of the beast depends on the era in question and the nature of the commodity being shipped. You can also model an industry prototypically or with a modeler's license.

As for the OP's question about how to model the piles....

I would make the basic pile(s) from carving up pink foam, florist foam, or any other basic scenery material. Paint it a slightly muddy black (90% black, 10% brown) color. When the paint is dry, "ballast" the piles with "coal". This could be anything from black ballast to scale-sized coal to black sand. Remember, coal is both dusty and shiny. PanPastel has a color - pearl medium black coarse - that works well at making model coal pop and sparkle like real coal.

The conveyors vary in design with intended size and era. Some are a central concrete column with a rotating trim bar to keep the conical shape. Others are a simple belt conveyor that empties out above the top of the mound. In the early 1900s, the NYO&W - among other railroads -  had a series of A-frames (see below) over the elongated mound.

I hope some of the above is useful to you.

[J3a-614]

HoModeler, could you provide some details on the kit and the railroad you're building?  In particular, what era are you modeling, and what geographic area?  Although a lot of things are similar in an industry like coal mining, certain practices may vary depending on the location.

For instance, large piles of coal on the ground at a mine are rarities in West Virginia (where I'm from) because they represent inventory that isn't doing anything, and in any event, in the narrow valleys here there isn't room for them!  Most likely such coal stocks will be at an end user (such as a power plant) or at a transfer point (such as a rail-barge terminal).

[K487]

HoModeler - regarding making mounds of coal - here's what I've done:

1. Get some styrofoam (that you can scrape; the stuff I used was green, not white) at Hobby Lobby or ??

2. Get some HO coal (or if you have access to any real coal, put some in a cloth bag and beat it up with a hammer then run it through a kitchen flour sifter (if you have a wife don't let her catch you doing this!)

3. Back to the styrofoam, cut a piece out, rough-shape it, and mold/sculpt it with a hobby knife or bigger by running the knife blade at right-angles to the styrofoam, smooth it out (sand paper will work here too), coat the rounded mound on top and the rest of it with white Elmers glue, turn the mound up-side down or on its side and push it into and/or roll it around the coal.  The coal needs to hide the color of the styrofoam.  Shape, trim and tweak as needed.

Additional info:  As info I've got lots of hoppers and gons with coal loads in them.  They look realistic and don't add any weight to the railcars.  Also, if you want to have empty gons/hoppers, just gently pry the coal loads out with a hobby knife.

Lastly, with these type of coal loads in railcars, if you have them in gons or open top hoppers and you have a derailment that turns a car over or on its side...............you WON'T have any mess to clean up!

Hope this was helpful.

K487

[HoModeler]

HoModeler, could you provide some details on the kit and the railroad you're building?  In particular, what era are you modeling, and what geographic area?  Although a lot of things are similar in an industry like coal mining, certain practices may vary depending on the location.

For instance, large piles of coal on the ground at a mine are rarities in West Virginia (where I'm from) because they represent inventory that isn't doing anything, and in any event, in the narrow valleys here there isn't room for them!  Most likely such coal stocks will be at an end user (such as a power plant) or at a transfer point (such as a rail-barge terminal).

Hello & thank your for your response
My Layout is mainly 50's to late 70's I model the PRR & Lehigh Valley RR I live in Bethlehem PA & Home of the Black Diamond Passenger Route... My Layout is pretty much Freelanced & my Buildings are pretty close to ERA correct in years. But I run all PRR & LVRR rolling stock & Loco's on exception of a UP Big boy steam engine...

I am thinking of making 2 Bin's for coal piles right now my coal mine is just the building & 2 tracks... The kit coal mine is a non Bachmann kit so I do not want to get flagged so I am not going to say what kit it is..
I thank you in your post & hope this helps you help me lol