can someone explain the purpose of the various tracks near the colliery in the diagram below?
i'm guessing the mainline is to the left and storage tracks to the right. the top track provides access by the RR to push empties and pull loads from the storage tracks.
is the lower track from the left into the breaker for freight cars?
not sure about the bottom track or the runaround.
are empties moved under the breaker by gravity?
here's another colliery
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
It was my understanding that a great deal of this arrangement was arranged to run by gravity, as engines and railroad crews alone would be needlessly expensive let alone logistically difficult to use.
This is analogous in some respects to how cars from some unloaders are handled: they will be run down a grade and then up into a steep tail track through a spring switch, then roll down automagically into a standing cut or be directed to a track in a receiving yard.
If I were doing a breaker, I'd look at the methods used to deliver the unclassified coal first. This likely involves dumping followed by some kind of skip loading; I suspect this would involve tracks over pits, or on some kind of viaduct structure, and would probably involve a switcher running a cut that is dumped and then pulled empty.
Seems desirable to me that many of the cars for various classified ranks or whatever, on the other hand, be both filled, perhaps with an appropriate mix and not just one type, and cleared without the necessary use of engines. That to me argues gentle but perhaps progressive grading for gravity feed. This wouldn't be obvious from casual investigation of a line drawing of the track diagram, but very clear if plotted on a topo map.
Well coal cracker country in Pennsylvania is mostly in the mountain areas which means level ground is hard to come by as is straight land between the hills so each location is going to be customized to fit the situation. I also wouldn't trust Sanborn maps for highly accurate track configurations. They were primarily concerned with building accuracy for insurance purposes.
i thought i had read that MT cars were positioned uphill and their brakes released to allow them to roll under a hopper on the colliery/breaker. likewise, their brakes were released to allow them to roll into a "loaded" yard.
does this sound reasonable?
Greg,
You nailed it! Most of these coal-and some aggregate operations were laid out so empties went up the hill and, loads came down the hill. The railroad only delivered them uphill and pulled them away from down the hill. There is a video, now on DVD of two fellows moving a 100 ton empty hopper somewhere on the old Clinchfield. One guy is pushing the car and the other is minding the brakewheel. At the mine, you did what needed doin'.
Being an anthracite RR modeler, I have a colliery planned for my layout, but as is often the case, I needed to fit the colliery to an allotted space, rather than giving priority to modeling a specific prototype situation. So, as with any served industry, I try to include how the inbound and outbound activity can be accommodated in the track plan, knowing full well there will be compromises.
The obvious primary traffic is the coal, and for my layout, having the classic "empties-in / loads-out" tracks - being secertly paired with the primary destination - was an absolute requirement for the track plan. FYI newbies - this allows loads to always going to the destination, and empties always going back to the colliery, without the need for any re-staging or manual load changes.
That done, attention was turned to the the other traffic, which might include:
Let me know if I missed anything!
Jim
I'm not a coal breaker modeler. I have seen some old Shorpy pictures with winches, and pigs for moving cuts of cars. I know the Hullets in Cleveland used between track pigs to forward cars.
It wouldn't be beyond belief that larger companies would have their own switcher.
Pete.
I am not a coal operations modeler but, I do find it interesting. The bigger operations like the huge breakers and cleaners-yes, cleaners of coal, frequently had their own motive power for shuffling cars at their facility. Mechanized mining often allowed a lot of dirt and rock to accompany the coal into a car. There were times a car contain 20-25% of this waste, known in some regions as "gob". Rock would not do the pulverizers of modern furnaces much good, let alone burn.
The answer was to send the coal to one of these cleaners that resembled a large tipple, as most folks call them. In Appalachia there were many smaller coal producers sending coal to one cleaner instead of directly to a coal yard or industry. At the cleaner, the coal would be dumped, the dirt and most of the rock removed and if necessary, blended to the cutomer's specification. Then, it would loaded into hopper cars again, for its final destination. This is a facility that receives loaded cars in, reloads its own empties and sends them back out, the same direction they came in, no deception needed.
The reason for this post was in response to those about coal facility motive power. There is a modeler's candy store in the homebrewed "critters" that some of these mines employed. They range from old EMD switchers to ALCo S-2's with truck engines mounted in the radiator compartment. The wildest one I know of was Haysi No.1. It was the sole motive power at one time, of the Haysi RR which connected with the Clinchfield. Haysi No. 1 was a retired Clinchfield F-3B with a footboard added and a window cut in one end.
Haysi No. 1 appears in American Altavista's "Coal Story" video series on Clinchfield's coal operations, now on DVD under Green Frog's label. Photos may also be found at www.rr-picturearchives.org under the miscellaneous H railroads header. Look under Hays Railroad due to a misread of the name painted on the unit. Those modeling Appalachian coal operations in southern Virginia, eastern Kentucky or, on the Clinchfield should definitely investigate the videos.
One other thing to take into consideration is that the Sanborn maps often do not have accurate track layouts. They are insurance maps so the track layout has no real bearing on the "accuracy" of the maps other than to note there are tracks there. They are more detailed and better than topo maps.
If you can get photos they are more accurate. The Sanborn maps are handy and I use them myself, just be aware that if something doesn't make sense, it could just be the map is wrong.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Check out this from 5:35 and you'll see the "dinkies" at Wanamie in the Sixties (I got to see it in person! Alas, before I could afford a camera)and that now totally bannned flying switch!
Short Lines & Branch Lines Volume 3 - YouTube
And this is a preserved line - Pioneer Mine
Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine and Steam Train (in HD) - YouTube