Lets see them and your coal mining operations and communities.
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Two mine buildings serving Bethlehem Mines, with an N-scale village in the background on the left. The buildings are lighted, however there are some "leaks" that I need to address in the model seams. This is an Iron Ore Mine, where they also dump slag.
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Joe K, nicely placed iron ore mine 
Well, I got the #97 coal elevator, and we can use our imagination for the coal mine inside the mountain in the background:
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One of the smallest coal mines you'll see!
Kitbashed from a Plasticville coaling station.
Jim
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Joe K. Looks great. Thank you for sharing.
Arnold, thank you for posting pictures of you mine operation. My mind is still working. I definitely cane see a deep mine in your mountain.
Jim Policastro, What you have done with a plasticville coaling station is fantastic. You did wonderful.
My Homemade Coal Mine and Coal Loading Station Operating Accessory
A Bachmann Coal Station was used to make a Coal Mine and Coal Loading Station Operating Accessory. The kit was used to make the Coal Mine Entrance into the underground mine in the mountain.
A new “A” frame roof was built for the top out of 1/8 inch Masonite with a window in the end and the end was scored to be vertical siding. The roof was roofed with some of the kit roofing.
The Coal Loading Section was made of Masonite.
This picture also shows the slide valve closed (hole in slide gate is not under the funnel hole and the solid part of the slide gate is blocking the funnel hole) and the solenoid arm is holding the slide gate closed.
Picture showing lights inside to light windows and cut through bottom to light coal car area below. Valve below funnel is open here.
The picture is from the outside of coal mine loading station showing the lights working for inside the building and lighting the car below
Like most active accessories, the coal mine/coal loader should be located for easy hand access by the operator. The coal must be hand loaded into the funnel and the slide gate valve must be hand closed. Lionel plastic coal is used which came with a Lionel coal dumping car from the 1980s.
This was a fun project, especially figuring out a working coal car loading system.
More pictures on the Attachment Images below and construction details on page 2, post 15 on OGR topic link below.
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Choo Choo Charlie,
I love your structure. I fill like I'm in Coalwood West Virginia. Thanks for posting.
![IMG_4524_zps3b54a1d2[1]](https://ogrforum.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/157265374481720682/filePointer/157265374501675495/fodoid/157265374501675491/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/IMG_4524_zps3b54a1d2%255B1%255D.jpg "IMG_4524_zps3b54a1d2[1]")
![IMG_4524_zps3b54a1d2[1]](https://ogrforum.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/157265374481720682/filePointer/157265374501675495/fodoid/157265374501675491/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/IMG_4524_zps3b54a1d2%5B1%5D.jpg "IMG_4524_zps3b54a1d2[1]")
That turned out fantastic ! I can see the many hours you put into it and it surely paid off. Just outstanding - I hope if I keep looking at it some of your talent will rub off on me ! JP
Thank you, 
Choo Choo Charlie Just love it when someone can whip up an electro-mechanical design. Thats fun stuff and best of all - it works ! JP
Mike CT, Your structures are outstanding. Talk about realism. You have captured a true mining setting. I love it. Thanks for posting and have a great day.
Thanks Jim. Much of the credit, is to Bill Wade, for excellent model kits, and assembly instructions.
From an earlier layout:
Current layout:
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Furnace Hill Mine (named since it is across an aisle from the furnace room) is scratchbuilt from foamcore board with corrugated siding made from heavy duty aluminum foil. Windows are modified Korber. The mine supply building is also foamcore with Evergreen board and batten siding. Each mine track holds five 4-bay or six 2-bay hoppers.
Click on the photo for a larger version.
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There is some amazing coal modeling on this forum. Thanks for sharing.
I think that some of you may be interested in seeing this amazing sequence of HO coal train operations that I found on YouTube. The first video is loading at the mine and the last is unloading at the power plant. NH Joe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft81fi3axtg
Below are two images. The top one was taken at a Pittston, PA anthracite breaker in 1905. I wanted to try to capture the "look and feel" of that scene mostly using Lionel accessories. The bottom image is the result of this effort
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wbg.pete, Thank you for sharing pictures of your coal mine setting. Did you get this idea from a real community? Your post war Lionel C. and O. switcher is a perfect fit. The C. and O. railroad was a major coal hauler. It went right through Thurmond W.V. when it was the busiest.
Bob, Great work. Your buildings make a perfect coal mine.
New Haven Joe, Your videos are super. Thank you for sharing.
Avanti, You did a wonderful job capturing a likeness of the picture of a real coal mine.
I started my Coal Mine with a Lionel Coal Elevator. To make it look real I made a Polystyrene cover and an additional storage building to load coal trucks. A coal storage building was added to my upper level. The Lionel dump car unloads into a shoot that drops to the lower level into the Coal Elevator where the coal dump car can be loaded again. Two HO Gauge switch engines pull empty and full hopper loads in and out of the coal mine while coal miners pull coal loads out of the mountain operation.
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Gene Maag, Very nice. I love what you have done. You captured a true mining scene.
Not really a Coal Mine. But, Here is my Kitbashed 97 Coal Elevator.
And, after some more Area Landscaping Detail
Steve
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Steve 24944 Very nice work.
