Appropriate ground cover for coal region

[jkeaton]

 I use Woodland Scenics "cinders" for ballast - not that a railroad would use moisture-holding cinders as ballast, but rather that it looks more like the dark chat I have seen on railroads there (spilled coal also becomes part of the ballast).   Bill

 Well, some railroads did use cinders for ballast - not exclusively of course, but there has been mention of this in articles on a number of shortlines in Trains and elsewhere.  Seems to have been particularly common on shortlines...hmm.  I would note that not all cinders hold moisture - depends on where the coal is from.  I've certainly seen tracks in the Appalachians (and former railbeds too) that seemed to have a lot of cinders or clinker in the ballast.

 

[Robby]

 

 Can't get any closer to the heart of Appalachia than Clay County Kentucky, home of Manchester and the former L&N's C&M Branch that served dozens of coal tipples within a ten mile radius during the 1970's.  Here's some pics taken along KY80 (D'Boone Parkway) (now renamed the Hal Roger's parkway but I never voted for him so I still call it by it's God given named).  Anyway, you can see the variation and these were all shot along a 5-mile section just before the Manchester exit.  Two or three are from an actual strip mine that was tapping the Fire Clay seam.  All taken last week. 

http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd247/robby-ky/Prototype%20KY/

[gyurick]

Thanks, Bill. That's very helpful info.

G.

[richg1998]

I have driven RT 81 many times at that route passes through the area of your interest. Many of the suggestions so far seem to be good. Remember, in 1900 there would not be many trees as they were being cut down for fire wood, building etc. You could model a lot of stumps. Maybe a saw mill. Piles of rock from mines, coal piles. Kitbash Depot has a nice set of 12 ore cars for $60.00. That is about $5.00 per car not counting shipping cost. Using Google, search for the subject of interest. You could even model a narrow gauge hauler.

http://iceandcoal.org/ebt/ebtnfa.html

http://www.spikesys.com/EBT/

http://members.tripod.com/~LVRR/indext1.html

http://www.strasburgrailroadstore.com/product_p/rb0013.htm

http://www.pacoalhistory.com/things_to_do/markers.html

http://home.epix.net/~captclint/history.html

http://www.explorepahistory.com/story.php?storyId=30&chapter=2

This is a very small list of what I found by searching for pa coal railroads 1900.

Good luck.

Rich 

[dehusman]

The native rock is browns and greys.  It weathers to very dark grey, almost black.  The critical thing as far as scenery goes is the lack of trees in the mined areas.  There are huge piles of waste rock near the mines, the trees have been logged off for fuel and mine props.  The acid run off from the mines has killed of the shrubs.  Look at old pictures for the density of vegetation.  Modern pictures will have waaaaay to many trees and bushes.  Overall it was pretty dreary.

The good news is that virtually nobody alive today was alive in 1900 so nobody really knows what colors things were.  So take your best shot.  There are very few people who can prove you wrong. 8-)

Dave H.

Modeling the P&R in 1900-1905

[Beach Bill]

Another thought is to go to RailPictures.Net   One can search their photos by state.  If you search for West Virginia and wade through quite a few Harper's Ferry photos, you can find occasional images from down in coal country.   One that showed a typical rock outcropping is at:     http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=215030&nseq=127

Another book of interest on this topic is Virginian Rails 1953-1993 by Kurt Reisweber.  The photos in the book start down in the tidewater region of Virginia, but the last couple chapters are up in coal country and contain some good photos of help in crafting scenery.

Bill

[Robby P.]

Thats whats bad.  You can google what you want to find as far as old pictures and they are in black and white.  There has to be some pictures of some old photos somewhere.

I am going to model a coal area as well.  Now, the coal yards around my house are mostly coal all over the ground, and your wild grass and weeds.  I see a few pictures of peoples layouts have no bushes at all and they have coal all over the area.  It looks neat.  Myself will probably do that idea but put a few areas of grass and some weeds.

[Beach Bill]

I model SW Virginia (a could-have-been short line connecting with the brand new Clinchfield) just before WW1 and visited that area on numerous photo trips when I lived in Roanoke, VA.

I would recommend the book Clinchfield Country by Steve King as it has some scenery and area shots (all in color) rather than just emphasizing the locomotive colors.   When I visited down in Dickenson County VA, deep in coal country, the colors tend to be dark.  This is amplified by the heavily forested slopes which don't allow much sun into the "hollars".  The exposed rock faces tend toward a dark brownish-grey in that part of the world, with small horizontal seams of coal sometimes visible.  I use Woodland Scenics "cinders" for ballast - not that a railroad would use moisture-holding cinders as ballast, but rather that it looks more like the dark chat I have seen on railroads there (spilled coal also becomes part of the ballast).   Some main lines do receive the better grade of light gray ballast, but my little RR is not a main line.  My "rock" outcroppings rely heavily on Liquitex acrylic artists colors in Burnt Umber, then some Raw Umber and Raw Siena in for highlights or contrast.

Bill

 

 

[gyurick]

I've recently moved so I dismantled my old layout and I'm starting a new one. It will depict a fictional 1900 Appalachian coal hauler. I need suggestions re: the correct color of earth and rocks for such a region. All the pics in my books are black and white...no help at all. Also, what products might be used.