Extreme modeling

[FJ and G]

On the history channel yesterday evening was a 2 hour special segment; (actually they're all called "special"). The first hour was about gold mining and the second silver mining.

They showed some really neat clips of Virginia City and some railroad stuff. It was somewhat disappointing because when they got to the modern era, there were only monster trucks in the open pits; nary a train or track in sight.

The weirdest thing they showed that would make a pretty cool model, was that of a railroad five miles below the earth in a S. African gold mine, where temps are higher than 120F and where each worker receives 65 pounds of ice a day just to stay cool (well, not cool but less hot, I should say).

Such extreme mining would make for an extreme model for the extreme RR enthusiast.

THere are discussions about going 12 miles down and using remote trains and machinery, so big is our appetite for gold.

Dave Vergun