i've been contemplating operations at coal facilities and the awkwardness of delivering MTs and pulling loaded cars, trying to avoid the need to restage MT/loaded hoppers, unlike box cars, between sessions.
while a colliery may have a breaker, my understanding of the St Nicholas and Locust Summit breakers served by the Reading RR was to centralize the breaker operation from many other collieries. It therefore had loaded cars of raw coal from mines, unloaded the cars, cleaned and then reloaded the cars with sized coal.
a breaker seems to be the answer to my concern, having both loaded cars delivered and pulled; a destination for trains from/to staging
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
You may be overthinking this. If you consider a two track double ended yard attached to your mainline you have a viable solution to empties and loads. At one end is the coal mine. At the other end is the user like a power plant or steel mill. If you put a view block between the two industries like a hill or industrial buildings you take the empties from the power plant and push them into the coal mine area. You take the full loads to the user and do the same thing. The track should designed so just the end cars are visible when switched. The rest are hidden in the scenery. Now you have a real life scenario of loads in empties out for both industries. The hidden track can be straight or curved to fit your railroad.
gregci've been contemplating operations at coal facilities and the awkwardness of delivering MTs and pulling loaded cars, trying to avoid the need to restage MT/loaded hoppers, unlike box cars, between sessions.
You are correct, that's how central breakers worked. The did move cars around internally moving empties from the out side of the unloading track to the in side of the loading tracks, but from the standpoint of the facility and the main line, yes, loads in, loads out.
If you like that then a coking facility would be a good industry. There was one at Bridgeport/Swedeland across from Alan Wood Steel/Ivy Rock station. Once again loads of black stuff in hoppers in and loads of back stuff in hoppers out. The Bridgeport facility was shut down in the 1970's.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
thanks for the comments
ndbprrAt one end is the coal mine. At the other end is the user like a power plant or steel mill.
i understand the idea, but don't believe there are large coal consumers in coal country. i'm not modeling a large portion of a RR. even modeling a breaker might be stretch for me
On the contrary. Places like Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Bethlehem became major steel production centers because they were in coal country. Iron and ore were the imported materials. The steel mills aren't in Minnesota, are they? There's also large coal fired power plants in the same areas.
Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem got iron ore from mines closer than the coal mines.
i wasn't thinking so broadly. my mother's from Mahanoy Plane where loaded coal cars were hauled up the mountain to go south to consumer's. Both breakers were north of the mountain.
NittanyLion On the contrary. Places like Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Bethlehem became major steel production centers because they were in coal country. Iron and ore were the imported materials. The steel mills aren't in Minnesota, are they? There's also large coal fired power plants in the same areas.
Many of the early iron centers were established where iron, limestone and coal (or even wood for charcoal) were all nearby. Small iron deposits are found more places than are generally known. As iron mining became more concentrated around Lake Superior, steel centers (with blast furnaces) concentrated around the southern great lakes, like along the south shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, where iron ore and limestone (and sometimes coal) is brough in by boat. At one time there was a steel mill in Duluth, Minnesota.
My understanding is that Pennsylvania ores were already heavily depleted by the early 20th century.
I could be wrong about the Eastern part of the state, but Western Pennsylvania was already bringing in iron to process before the Civil War. Proximity to coke was driving the industry there. You went through more of that than the other materials, so your transportation costs are lower closer to fuel than the feedstock.
Many of the earlier iron deposits were quickly depleted. The Michigan iron mines were sending ores down the lakes before the Civil War. but Minnesota's mesabi didn't really get going until the turn of the century (1900). Iron smelting seems to have undergone continuous consolidation.
Grace Mine at Joanna, PA on the RDG opened in 1956. There were iron mines at Cornwall, PA into the 1970's.
All of these were within a 50-60 mine radius of Bethlehem, PA.
One of the points of breakers in anthracite country is that a variety of products were sold, including stove and furnace coal, that had to be cleaned and correctly sized. Rather than have each mine have to arrange for this, the idea was to have one central, modern facility that produced the necessary products (and arranged to get them loaded).
This means you'll model the outgoing loads according to size and perhaps other characteristics (one brand of coal was dyed a particular color; another had little red medallions mixed in with it... etc.)
I do not know whether there was the 'rank mixing' in anthracite that there was in bituminous, to produce a particular quality in the mixture.
Bituminous was also sampled and blended to fit the needs the purchaser, be it steam production, coking or, metalurgical.
dehusman If you like that then a coking facility would be a good industry. There was one at Bridgeport/Swedeland across from Alan Wood Steel/Ivy Rock station. Once again loads of black stuff in hoppers in and loads of back stuff in hoppers out. The Bridgeport facility was shut down in the 1970's.
IIRC, the coking process started with bituminous coal, probably because anthracite had a higher market value (?). Usually anthracite modellers don't want to "dirty their hands" with that soft coal stuff!
Jim
hardcoalcaseIIRC, the coking process started with bituminous coal, probably because anthracite had a higher market value (?).
Coking cooks the volitiles out of the coal, anthracite has very low volitiles already.
i thought i had read that some Reading locos ran with a mix of anthracite, bituminous and the type the Woothen firebox was designed for (culm).
Yes, the RDG engines ran on a mix of bitumonous and anthracite.
dehusman Grace Mine at Joanna, PA on the RDG opened in 1956. There were iron mines at Cornwall, PA into the 1970's. All of these were within a 50-60 mine radius of Bethlehem, PA.
In days past, iron furnaces would mix and match iron ores from various mines to get the desired blend for the melt. I recall a photo of a train of partial loads (but full weight) of iron ore in coal cars traveling from the port of Erie, PA to Bethlehem, thus showing that ore also came from the Lake Superior region. Now iron ore concentration/pelletization has pretty much standardized ore production.