the mine i worked at the recovery conveyor run undreground to the stackout then a crawler would push coal back to the stackout and conveyor would run it back to transfer to be put on loadout conveyor, on photo it looks like it would be one next to the silo converor.
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That's probably exactly how it works. When you shut down for a while you want to leave the reclaim holes covered over for safety and to help keep rain, snow, and critters out of the reclaim conveyor tunnel.
carl425 Redore I'm an engineer "in the business". I help design plants like this. Thanks for taking the time to provide the great explanation. One detail I'm especially curious about is how the conveyor to the stockpiles would work and where the piles would be. Unfortunately, the picture I have of it I don't have permission to upload, but the conveyor hits the silo about halfway up. There is what appears to be a vertical conveyor that runs from there up the side of the silo to the top. The main stockpile conveyor is supported by two concrete towers that have randomly placed "windows" in them. I'm thinking the stockpiles would be centered on these columns but I'm only guessing. What is also strange is I can't see any provision for getting the coal from the stockpiles into hopper cars. Could they have used a mobile loader that was removed from the site when they shut down?
Redore I'm an engineer "in the business". I help design plants like this.
Thanks for taking the time to provide the great explanation.
One detail I'm especially curious about is how the conveyor to the stockpiles would work and where the piles would be. Unfortunately, the picture I have of it I don't have permission to upload, but the conveyor hits the silo about halfway up. There is what appears to be a vertical conveyor that runs from there up the side of the silo to the top. The main stockpile conveyor is supported by two concrete towers that have randomly placed "windows" in them. I'm thinking the stockpiles would be centered on these columns but I'm only guessing. What is also strange is I can't see any provision for getting the coal from the stockpiles into hopper cars. Could they have used a mobile loader that was removed from the site when they shut down?
Great info, Redore.
Mike.
My You Tube
RedoreI'm an engineer "in the business". I help design plants like this.
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.
I'm an engineer "in the business". I help design plants like this.
There are two buildings. a wash plant and a heavy media plant. The wash plant to the lower left probably uses wet screens and scrubbers to remove clay and shale from the coal. The media plant, to the upper right, is used to separate harder rock from the coal.
The two round tanks are thickeners, the larger one probably for tailings and the smaller one for magnetite used in the heavy media process for refining coal.
A thickener is a settling pool fed off the bridge in the center. There are rakes on the bottom of the tank that slowly revolve around the tank. The rakes have blades on them that sweep any settled solids to the center. These solids are then pumped out with some of the water. The rest of the water is clean and overflows the top of the tank into a launder. This water can be reused in the plant.
Tailings are the waste material in the coal, sometimes called gob in some parts of the country. Magnetite is a fine magnetic iron ore.
For heavy media, the coal is fed into a rotating drum or a cyclone with a slurry of magnetite and water. The magnetite raises the specific gravity (density) of the slurry so that the coal will float and waste rock in the coal sinks.
The float and sink are recovered and the magnetite sticking to them is washed off on a vibrating screen. The magnetite is then cleaned in magnetic separators and sent back to the magnetite thickener.
There are three truck pockets on the left side. Two feed the wash section of the plant. One can be direct loaded into coal cars. The third goes directly into the heavy media plant.
The conveyors to the upper right are clean coal conveyors. It looks like the main run is to a storage silo and stockpile area. A reclaim conveyor comes back and then to a loading pocket, probably for loading unit trains. The conveyor to the far right also goes to a loading pocket, maybe for loading single cars, loading on another railroad, or loading a different grade of coal. The conveyor to the bottom center and then to the upper right is probably for coarse tailings. It would go to a disposal area somewhere out of the picture.
The pond to the lower center is for storm water and maybe water spilled in the plant. This gives the water a chance to settle out before it nis discharged into the nearby creek to the right of the plant.
The plant was not running when the picture was taken. It looks like it hasn't run for quite a while.
If you want more, I'm available for consulting ;)
OK, found it on Google satilite. Since it's shut down, not sure about the conveyor line that leaves your photo. Google shows it's way off the ground, on supports.
Since I've checked out coal processing plants, water was used to wash the coal and seperate it from the dirt, stone and gravel. I'm thinking now that the tanks had something to do with recycling the water, used for washing, treating it for reuse, or disposing into the local stream. The active processing plants I looked at, via Google seach, most of the settling tanks, used for the washing process, are located under roof, so they don't collect rain, etc.
I guess you'll have to research this more, to see just what happened here when the plant was operating, look at how current plants operate, and come up with in "in-between" version, so you can plan a feasible, active processing plant.
My thoughts only. If I'm going to model a large facility, that generates lots of rail traffic, I want to know just what it did, and how it did it, so that, in my own mind, I can come up with a plausible , realistic, and justified rail traffic plan.
It looks like a great modeling idea. It could be a switching layout on it's own.
j. c.is this idled ? there is a noticable lack of cars in photo and the rail storage yard is full.
Yes. It was built in the early 70's. I'm not sure when it was shut down. I'm modeling 1975 when it was running.
carl425 mbinsewi Where is this? and what is the name of the company? It is Paramount Coal Company's Ramsey Prep Plant between Norton and Coeburn, VA. I believe the big conveyoy is for surface stockpiles when the silos are full but didn't want to influence anybody else's guess.
mbinsewi Where is this? and what is the name of the company?
It is Paramount Coal Company's Ramsey Prep Plant between Norton and Coeburn, VA.
I believe the big conveyoy is for surface stockpiles when the silos are full but didn't want to influence anybody else's guess.
is this idled ? there is a noticable lack of cars in photo and the rail storage yard is full.
having worked at a underground mine the smaller of the two is for waste water treatment from bath house and offices, the larger though it appeares empty would be for wash plant water the pond at bottom is more than likely setteling/evap. pond for mine dewatering , the one from the silos is for extra storage as you can see from anount of coal on ground around them as op said
mbinsewiWhere is this? and what is the name of the company?
It appears that the raw coal goes into the building from the left side of the picture (those conveyors go to the top), The cleaned coal and/or waste comes out the "top" of the plant to a "transfer" building where it is sent to the various loaders. It looks like the ther is one top center and lower right. One of those might be for waste rock. The big silo and rusty structure top right are probably a stacker/reclaimer, where coal can be stored if they run out of cars or can't load cars for some reason. Surplus coal is run up to the top of the silo and either stored in the silo or run out the rusty structure to be dumped on the ground. It can then be brought back to the silo and caried back to the transfer building by the conveyor that runs from the bottom of the silo to the top of the transfer building.
All this is a guess based on how coal fired power plants work and 1930's-1950's era coal processing plants.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Back in the day coal processing plants used "sand flotation" to clean coal. They had a big tank of sand and water and when the coal was dumped in it, the coal "floated on the sand and the waste rock "sank" in the sand. Maybe its a water reclaimation for that process.
Or they might spray water on the coal during the sizing/crushing process, then recover the water and settle out the coal dust.
I'll toss in a maybe? on the tanks. I have worked on the construction of numerous waste water treatment facilities, the tanks, with the aggitator and scum baffles are part of the treating water they use, in what ever a coal processing plant does with water, before it can be released in to streams, etc.
Where is this? and what is the name of the company? Maybe further reasearch would turn what all the conveyors are for. I mean it's obvious what some are, but that top conveyor goes off the page.
Carl,
I'm going to make a stab at this and guess that the "wet" pool is from left over ground water that has been pumped from the mine shaft and the "dry" pool is where they process coal "slurry" that has mixed with the ground water. Whatever water is left over from the "dry" pool is dumped into the "wet" or retaining pool.
Am I way off base?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I'm going to take a shot at modeling this and was wondering what a couple features were used for. I don't understand the two round pools behind the big building or the large conveyor that goes away from the silos toward the top right of the picture.