Hi, Folks,
I would like to add a coal mine to the side of a mountain, but I have only a 2' by 2' space in which to do it. I am thinking that I could just have a "conceptual" mine entrance and equipment, with the suggestion that the rest of the plant is beyond the hill.
What would you all recommend that would portray the "idea" of a coal mine? What minimal structures would do the trick?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions!
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The largest single structure at a coal mine is a "breaker," where coal is cleaned (separated from rocks and other impurities), sized and loaded into hoppers. A Plasticville Coal Tower could be kitbashed. Or it could be moved to one side where just part is visible.
Lots of coal dirt (black sand) everywhere. A pile of mine "tailings" could be placed against the back of the scene. Weather trucks, shovels, hoppers & people. A simple coal loader (like a farm "elevator" to bring bales from a wagon to a hayloft in a barn) could suffice as a loader for coal trucks. Maybe for hopper cars if it is a small mine.
No shiny clean well-kept ballast. Fill coal dirt about halfway up the rails on sidings that aren't actually used. 2-rail track would look realistic there, unless it looks out of place. On running tracks, keep the coal dirt down at the ties or it will get into wheels, axles, gears and bearings.
A little structure or shanty will do for a company office. Maybe post a whimsical name: Itsall Mine; Mammoth Coal Co. (after Mammoth Vein in PA anthracite regions); Diggit Upp Coal Co.; or use a friend's name.
During the Great Depression, anthracite miners sank "bootleg" shafts to mine coal and sell it to keep food on their tables. A winch, rope and bucket (from a well) could be placed by a hole on a hillside (or mountainside) with a few miners around. Maybe one could stand guard for the Coal & Iron Police, who arrested the miners for trespassing and dynamited their diggings.
Start small with a few basic details and sructures and expand it until it looks right: dark; dirty; hardworking.
This should be a fun project. Keep us posted, y'hear?
About as small as they come - a modified Plasticville coal tower. 
Jim
Coal loaders came in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes "mine run" coal was loaded. This was a mixture of sizes just as it came out of the mine. Such a loader would not need the large breaker structure. Here are a couple of photos of such a loader on an HO layout in Cincinnati. I plan a similar structure against a hillside on my layout. I'll make the bins a little shorter and fatter. In O-scale, some 4" white PVC drain pipe for the bins and some Plastruct beams and ladders should pretty much do the trick.
Note the Plasticville signal bridge side support used to support the conveyor track.
ReadingFan: Interesting history...."high-grading" and claim jumping of coal mines..
who'da thunk it! American Model Builders has a kit of a small Illinois coal mine,
the Martinsburg No. 1 Mine. I've built this kit and it looks like the one on P.19 of
the current (Jan. 2013) OGR. It is "adjustable" to fit a space, but, with 2 feet by
2 feet, you probably have room for one of the kits from K&P Brick & Building, ad on
P. 85. The AMB kit will allow room for details around it, but is from the past, steam
era, and probably not contemporary. Coal mines from the past can be very simple,
there is a museum of a Kentucky coal mine near Stearns, Ky., that has a tourist
train running right by it. This Great South Fork area mine is an adit tunnel mouth,
and a tipple, with a few cabins scattered around it, period. Not far from it is a much larger mine museum where trains crossed a river high on a trestle to access the mine... all buildings gone, but recreated by metal frame skeletons of them. Anybody
with our interests driving south on I-75 should check out these little known sites.
How about this, the first 2 pictures are the modified Lionel track laying gang
the third picture is the MTH miners with fiberoptics in their helmets.
please excuse my bad photos was using my old phone I hope this gives you a different idea
of a mine
I am planning to use the Lionel Coaling Station (6-12737), which has a breaker and tipple. I think the footprint is well under 2' x 2'. I will run a conveyor up the mountain to the minehead, which will be very small (4"x4"?).
George
This footprint is 40" X 17" It could be smaller without the onsite power plant.
Coal Tipple. supplied by a drift mine. Click on the underline phrase for a slideshow. A BTS Kit.
Excellant work Mike!
Excellant work Mike!
Thank you
Mike
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