I have some questions about having a coal scene in southern VA during the 1980s:
1. Can I have cars go under the Walthers Western Coal Flood Loader (933-3089) from two directions? The photo http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3089 shows the cars going out of the New Riving Mining Company into the loader. I don't have enough space for the Mining Company, but thought to have hoppers use the loader on the way to or from customers.
2. Is that loader something found in VA? If not, what are other suitable structures?
Best,
Lee
Lee,
You may go in either direction for the Loader.... Modern Trains move slowly thru the loader and do not stop at all... By the way the loader is not as small as you might think ... I would say for scale it's about 3 to 6 stories high.... and the feed belt to the mine is rather long .....
I wouldn't use the Walthers set up as gospel on how a mine should be arranged, Its just there as a diorama to pose their models. I would rather doubt that the mine would be using both the flood loader and the tipple building on the same track, if they were the tipple would probably be out of service as far as loading cars. The two buildings load different coal in different methods. The tipple cleans and sorts the coal and loads a different size coal into cuts of cars on each of multiple tracks, while the flood loader is designed to load mine run coal into moving unit trains on a single track.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Here's a web site I found that gives a lot of good background info on eastern coal mining.
Appalachian coal railroading
By the way, flood loaders are generally used where there is a large volume of coal to be loaded in unit trains
Concrete loading silos do exist in the Appalachian coalfields but they are not all that commom. In VA, a classic example of one would be at Neece Creek on the old Clinchfield (now CSX) Railroad up on the Nora Branch. Believe that one is still owned by Rapoca Coal Co.but may have been sold to Wellmore recently (United Coal). On the NS in VA, there are several in the Big Rocks area that were built by the Wellmore Coal Corporation. In TN, Kopper Glo operates a nice silo on the CSX Clear Creek Branch. In Kentucky, James River has taken over the former Shamrock Coal operations at Clover on the CSX Right Fork of Straight Creek Branch off the CV Sub in Harlan, Co. Clover has a loading silo and a batch loader in line with each other. West Va has several. Liberty operated by Independance Coal (AT Massey) has a dual silo version sitting on CSX south of Danville Yard on the Pond Fork Sub. Check RP.net for pics.
Robby
Robby Modeling the L&N CV Subdivision in 1978 http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd247/robby-ky/CV%20Subdivision%20Layout/
There is also a coal mine on a CSX branch in Middlesboro, KY that uses a large concrete silo style flood loader. I visited this location a few years ago and when you see it, the first thing that pops into your mind is the Walthers western coal flood loader--they look exactly alike. Before seeing this place I always assumed those types of silo loaders were just in the Powder River coal fields, but they can certainly be found across the eastern coal fields as well. Jamie
CLICK HERE FOR THE CSX DIXIE LINE BLOG
Those twin concrete silos near Middlesboro, Ky are just clean coal storage silos. They feed a typical 4-hour capacity flood loader in a unique situation where a "tunnel" sits right in front of the loadout to carry a county road over the tracks. You can go here to see both sides of the Bell County Coal operations (operated by James River Coal Corporation) known to CSX and the former L&N as "Hignite" after the nearby creek.
http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=3408&nseq=11
http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=4404&nseq=8
Although you can't see the silos in these two shots, it's clear they are not used to load hoppers. In this case, the silos do not span the tracks like the Walther's kit is intended to represent. You would need to buy three kits and use parts from one to fill in the lower pass-through of the other two to model the setup at Bell County Coal. I did this for a similiar model I built for a generic mine I built on the middle level of my layout. Shown in the background, one silo actually hides a support post holding up the upper level of the layout.
http://appalachian_railroad.tripod.com/modelphotos/lntyporv.jpg
You are right--the silos are just off the tracks near the loader almost in the side of the hill at Middlesboro:
Definitely a great coal loadout that can be modeled.
Jamie