Thank you for the replies. I thought as much from my own searches. It would be very unusual that such a well recognized modeller would have had no feature on his personal layout if he'd had one. Cheers.
rrinker I think it was in the 70's or early 80's there was an article called Jack's Workbench
April 1972. My last project in high school mechanical drawing was to design something and produce drawings for all the parts. I made my own variation of Jack's workbench.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
trainbrain2011What I am curious about is this: are there any photos or drawings that showed Jack Work's layout/track plan that a person can access easily? I've been searching on and off for a long time and have yet to find anything at all.
i found the following doing a google image search for "jack work" coal.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
I seem to recall that the prototype mine was being preserved as a historical artifact on Vancouver Island. Someone who is a lot more familiar with that area might be able to pinpoint it, and a satellite view might show the outline of the old roadbed.
Basically, there was a track on each side of the long, skinny elevated sorter building. Raw coal entered at the high end, which is where the primary crusher would have been located. Sized coal would have been loaded alongside, smallest first. The lumps too big for ordinary lump coal would run off the sorting tables at the far end. Due to the design of the plant I doubt that they were sent to a secondary crusher and re-sorted.
There should be enough track length to hold a few cars between the switch clearance point and the mine, and the same length beyond the mine and ahead of the bumpers. If the tracks are on a slight downgrade gravity (and a skillful brakeman) can clear the loads on each track and bring in a new set of empties. I seriously doubt that that mine produced as much as a dozen loads a day.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with coal mines)
I think it was in the 70's or early 80's there was an article called Jack's Workbench, which Jack showed how he built the work bench he used to model at. Very compact and it all closed up when not in use, the idea being it coexisted with a living area. I don't know the jack HAD a layout. His 'thing' was scratchbuilding structures. So many of his scratchbuilt structures became kits, that mine is one of them. It was offered in both HO and N scale over the years, by various manufacturers as the dies traded hands.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I've recently completed scratch building all of the coal mine buildings described in a three part article written by Jack Work in late 1959. I am now in the process of trying to place these buildings, as well as determine the final track work. What I am curious about is this: are there any photos or drawings that showed Jack Work's layout/track plan that a person can access easily? I've been searching on and off for a long time and have yet to find anything at all. Back to work.