DME COAL MINE Complex Pictures updated 3/02/12

Lee Lewis, Your coolomh tower looks very nice. Thank you for sharing the oicture with us. Bill

I love how the new forum allows you to click on the picture and see a larger, more detailed view.  Those retaining walls are really nice!

Thanks Popsrr.

Les, that water cooler looks darn good.

WMTRAINNUT09, Thank you for the nice words on the retaining walls. This area of the layout has an area about 15' long elevated 18" about the main area and the retaining wall is running the 15'.

The elevated section has a silo complex, Power Plant Complex and a Coal Mine complex.

Alan Graziano has made more progress along this elevated area of the layout. The Coal Mine has a compound of tanks and a boiler building sitting above the mine. Below are some work in progress pictures of the area.

Thanks for the update Popsrr.

Popsrr,

Nice progress.  Do you know what kit the last structure comes from, or is it scratchbuilt?

Rich,

This is a scratch built building along with the tanks. I used plastruct rough brick on .060 styrence sheets and used DPM wall joiners for the corners.

Alan Graziano

Alan thanks for answering the question from Rich.

Alen just sent me some update pictures of the pipeing headers from the Boiler house . Thanks Alan for the update.

Thanks Alan, Very nice.  BTW can I ask what material you used for the tanks, was this some sort of large PVC type pipe?

Rich, I think Alan rolls his on tanks from flat stock. Some times for some Silos he may use a PVC type pipe.

Popsrr, great progress...  thanks again for all of the updates!

Any estimate on when this might ship and land on your layout? 

Rich,

Tanks 6 inches in diameter and less are ABS plastic tubing from Plastruct. I use this instead of PVC because there are no scratches in it and I can glue it with thin liquid glue instead of PVC cement or crazy glue. Tanks larger than 6 inches in diameter are made from sheet styrene or abs sheets. The thickness is .020 inches. I scribe the seams in the sheets and create a ring. Then, I glue a bottom on the tank and a top ring to keep it round before I put on a roof. The open top tank has a windgirder on it to keep the top round.

Alan Graziano

SOUTHERNRR, i WILL DRIVE TO NJ TO PICK UP ALL OF ALAN'S WORK. wARMER WEATHER WILL BE HERE BEFORE I GET IT ALL HOME.

Alan has made more progress on the DME COAL MINE. In the pictures below you can see from the layout drawing that the DME COAL Mine is on the right side of the layout past the power plant.

In the picture of the retaining wall and coal cars you can see that this is the location of the DME Mine and Loading Complex.

You can see the in the pictures that the Mine building is a multiple stories and the loading area is about 4 feet long.

Alan it is starting to come together. Thank you.

More progress on the DME COAL MINE COMPLEX today. Alan it is really looking GREAT!!

What a monster.

I am not aware of coal mines having that kind of overhead covering? Just wondering.

It does look good, very good!

Hi Lee 145,

Below I have posted some pictures of Coal Mine Operations in various locations. The large mines seem to use continues load out operations. The lead track on my layout is too busy for a continues Coal Load out operation. So the model is to represent an around the clock running Mine but a Batch Load out operation.  The load out operation can handle 12 Coal Cars at a time. Hope that helps explains how our operation is to work.

Thanks for your interest.

Alan Graziano has made more progress on the DME Coal mine.

A little back ground on the DME. When I was first considering options for this area on the layout my wife was giving input about various possibilites for this location. She came up with the idea of a Coal Mibe so I named it with her initals D M E. sO aLn knew about that and that she is a pretty fair bowler. Put it all together and Alan came up with the signs on the DME

Awesome!

Three tracks, 4 hoppers per track, gotcha.

Thank you for the pictures. The only resource I am working with is the old C&O Coal book I got down in Tamarack WVa once out of the bookshop there.

Lee145, Glad you liked the pictures. There are a lot of various ways coal mines seem to be configured to process and load out coal. Good luck in your approach.

WOW!  That coal mining operation looks super!  That logo is kinda neat.

Thanks Popsrr for the update.

Popsrr,

  All I can say is AMAZING!!

wmtrainnut09, Thank you very much. I like that logo also. Alan did a very nice job in coming up with that. 

JJAMES9641 Thank you very much

Alan Grazino has made more progress on the DME Mine Area, The Coal Hopper and Conveyor to the Power Plant Complex have been installed.

Lighting of the DME is now complete as you can see them on in the pictures. Thanks Alan.

Popsrr, everything looks great. What a complex you will have. I never knew, when I suggested Al's name to you, that you would have him make so many wonderful structures for you. This definitely a marvelous display. Enjoy.

Thank you for the nice comments and for suggesting Alan to make models for our layout.

He has created an Oil Refinery approx 6'x6' and we have added existing storage tanks and loading/unloading facility so that the Refinery now covers an area about 8'x10'. Alan also made an office building and a "POLE" building to hide a support pole in the basement.

He has crafted above ground storage tanks for two gas stations.

You saw the Power Plant Complex and the DME Mibe Complex.

Alan has done a WONDERFUL JOB of creating structures for our layout. Thanks again for your suggestion.