where does all of that coal go?

[Anonymous]

I am modeling a small coal railroad that starts at a coal mine in the mountains and ends ...
Thats what I need youre help for, where does a train drop off the coal and how could I model this?

I am modeling a present time 5x9 layout, so space is limited. Any help would be apreciated

[simon1966]

I am modelling a specific mine in Illinois. In its heyday in the 20's to its closure in the mid 50's the coal from this mine went exclusively to the Chicago N. Western RR. They were a part owner of the mine and used all the coal from it to power the steamer roster. So in my case, most of the coal is delivered off the layout via staging. Some is delivered to the coal tipple in the engine servicing area. Many coal sent product to power stations, steel mills, or even to coal distributors for use in peoples homes. Some of these industries are really big to model, so you may have to use them as off layout industries.

[Anonymous]

I have a specific plan to have a iron ore mine load into Jennies and bring them down to the river barge facility or to the harbor dock not sure yet which way I will go with this.

[csxengineer98]

first off...what time period...second what geographic location of the country....
if your going to model the 1900s to say the 50s...in say PA alot of coal mined was turned into coke for the steel mills in pittsburgh...coal mines would have coke ovens located on the mine proporty make the coke thier..and then ship the finshed coke out...as well as some coal....coal also was sold to the railroads for fuel for the steam locomotives as well as fuel for power houses and fuel for home heating....
now if your going to model a later time period...coal is still used to make coke..but now its done at alot of the mills themselfs...the coke ovens at the mines are a thing of the past.... also alot of coal goes to utility companys coal fired generation plants...or do the docks for export...
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

Harbour's, power plants, steel mills, ect.

[Don Gibson]

In the west, much of their coal goes to SW Electrical Generating Plants..

One coal mine owned by the Navajo's transports coal to a Power generating station 26 miles away that supples electricity for the entie Navajo Nation

[tatans]

CSX98 is right, if you were to model today most of the coal would go to plants to create electricity (not very exciting eh?) and the rest goes to Japan to make those little cars with seats on the floor, probably go back a few years when life was a little more interesting.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

second what geographic location of the country

This is the most important. Different kinds of coal are used for different purposes. Some kinds of coal were used for coke, others for power. It all depends on the actual chemical make-up of the coal itself. For example, the coal out of the Powder River Basin is used for power, as it yields little ash. This coal was considered worthless for the steel industry because its not good for coking. It wasn't until emissions standards were tightened that it had any use.

[Anonymous]

If you want to get a good idea of coal customers you might look at the Norfolk Southern's web page at www.nscorp.com. They have an excellent list of customers. The industrial customer list has a wide range of industrial applications that could be modeled.

I'm modeling the MIssissippi Lime Company's vertical and rotary lime plants at Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Coal is brought into the plants by train to fuel the kilns and lime is taken out. in bulk in hopper cars and bagged/bulk in boxcars. I'm also going to model the barge loading facilty on the Mississippi river at the Little Rock landing. Across the river is a relatively new coal barge loading facility that really looks interesting.

[Anonymous]

Imagine 4 Bethgons of good coal being burned an hour at the power plant. Suddenly that hundred car coal train seems adequate for the day's burn.

[METRO]

So in short, send your coal East, just like the real lines. Finni***he layout with a nice representation of a unit coal train exiting stage right, that's really what most real railroads do.

~METRO

[csxengineer98]

powder river coal is the coal of choice for power plants not becouse of ash..becouse of its low sulfer content... it produces less sulfer dioxide...as well as other pollutians.. also...power plants will get coal from many differnt soruces..and blend a mix that they burn in the plant...mix some powder river coal with WV coal to get more bang for the buck... cuts the emistions down to EPA execptable levels by blending then if they where just to burn a higher sulfer content coal...
csx engineer

[davekelly]

Given the size of your layout - it would seem to me that the best destination for coal from your mine would be somewhere "off the layout." Perhaps a hidden siding. You may want to investigate the possible use of a loads in/empties out set up where by loaded cars would leave the mine, enter a hidden track to reappear at the mine ready to be shipped out again. Empties would do the reverse.

[DigitalGriffin]

elias,

There is a complex way of doing this using DCC (or blocking DC). It involves 4 block detectors, 2 uncoupling magnets, two sets of identical cars and a second level which is hidden.

Basically a train A comes in with coal, and switches it off to another trian B (to haul over mountains...Prototypical for Allegheny C&O)
Train B enters the mountain with coal.
Train A picks up an empty Load that Train B brought in
Train A enters mountain.
Inside mountain Trains A & B switch loads. (That's the real trick!)
Train A comes out full again
Train B comes out empty again. Process starts over.

It's a neat little effect which I'm going to employ myself.

[j1love]

I had a thought reading all of these replys....how about using that "boring" electric plant as an "in & out" operation?? You mention that your pike is 5'x 9'....so you could use the door on the receiveing bay of the plant as a disquise for an entry into a fiddle yard, or staging (for coal loads only). You can switch the yard by any method you choose, but the point is that the switching will be off stage and hidden from your viewers. It can be small to match your layout size and it can emulate real "loads in, empties out" operation. Keep it as simple or make it as complex as you wish![swg][swg][swg]

[ReadingBob]

Here's a little piece of trivia related to this topic (taken from "Instructions on Fuel and Steam Economy" published by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company in 1921):

"This Coal Pile, about 400 feet high, and nearly a quarter mile though, shows the quantity of coal burned each year on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. It takes about 155 carloads a day to supply this railroad with fuel. If only 10% of this amount, or one-tenth, could be saved, it would mean 16 less carloads per day, costing nearly $4,000. If only 1% (one percent) or one-hundreth were saved, it would still mean a large amount of money annually."

Sorry I can't show the illustration it refers to here but it's a pretty crude drawing of a pile of coal 1,000 feet wide at the base and 400 feet tall at the center.