Scratch Building an Anthracite Coal Mine - question

[Mr X]

In an Anthracite coal mine typically found in the Pennsylvania area how do they remove the coal from the mine? More specifically, do they or did they use a straight vertical shaft and a winch system, or a conveyor system, or a track and mine car? or a combination of these systems?

What I am trying to eventually come up with is something appropriate to add to a coalmine that I have scratch built. I am leaning toward the conveyor system but just want to make sure this would be accurate for such a mine.

If the use of a conveyor system is accurate then what type of roof should I place on top of the structure? Specifically I would like to know weather the roof was normally Peaked or Flat? As shown in this figure below.

Thank you
Mr X

[Mark Smith]

What you have drawn is one way it was done. Sometimes coal was hauled up via a skipjack line. Other times it was hauled up by an elevator. Coal bogies that ran on tracks were used in some locations. Various ways had to be used depending on the depth of the coal seam, its relationship to the coal prep. facilities, and what was cost effective. In smaller operations coal would be loaded into trucks, which would drive to a (sometimes) crude trackside facility where it would be dumped into hopper cars and taken to a coal breaker for processing. So almost any way you would like to build your facility would probably find a counterpart in the real world.

If you haven't done so, try searching for images of anthracite mining and you'll probably come across a number of mine operations you could duplicate. Yours is just fine as is, however.

[Mr X]

Mark,

So what you are saying is 'Any way that I decide to do it would be accurate?'

I have looked at several images on the web or at least tried to look at several before posting this thread. I tried to get a good feel for how it 'should' be.

In your opinion, if the conveyor is inside the horizontal structure on the right side of my diagram leading into the side of the mountain then would that structure normally have the flat or a peaked roof? From all the pictures that I can find I can not tell. I plan to use corrugated alluminum for this roof.

Thank you for your feedback and help.

Mr X

[Mr X]

Well... I would still like for you to share your opinion on the peak or flat roof but...

Funny how changing one word from 'mine' to 'mining' in a search engine shows you so many different hit results! I think I may have found a picture that would fit my needs.

Thanks again! Only goes to prove once again that two heads are better than one.

Mr X

[Mark Smith]

Check out http://www.coaldelivery.com/gallery/breakers/index.html if you haven't seen it already.

It appears most of the conveyors were flat roofed affairs.

There are a number of interesting pics here: http://www.undergroundminers.com/mahanoy.html including a look at the conveyor and the enclosed structure it was in. (Seems to be a flat roof).

Anyway I seem to recall seeing at least one breaker with a peaked roof over the conveyor.

[Mr X]

Well the first link that you had provided I had seen already. There are some pretty interesting pictures on that website. The second link I had not seen, but I like you can not make it out to tell if it is peaked or not.

Any way I think it is kind of a toss up any way. Personal preference I guess at this point. But I believe from most of the pictures that I have seen I will end up making it flat. But unfortunatly that means that my conveyor will some how need to be inclined.

Thank you for the help.

Mr X

[Stourbridge Lion]

Will check what I might have on this topic since you are talking D&H territory too.

:lightbulb: :lightbulb: :lightbulb: :lightbulb:

[Ironhead]

Postcard site, but still a good reference for Pennsy:

http://www.der-foerderturm.de/penna/coal-breaker-galerie.htm

[Mr X]

Stourbridge and Mark I appreciate the help on this one. (Ironhead please see below)

Boy did I find a couple of websites that were cool. If any one needs a coal mine to build or to get modeling ideas from. These websites really has some good photos. On the first one go through the links at the top since the pictures are alphabetized into different albums.

http://home.epix.net/~captclint/breakers.html

Hers is another one that is pretty good as well.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~paschuyl/castle/castles.html

Wanted to bring railfans attention to something that I found. I think the images were probably copyrighted so I did not copy them and bring them over. There are a couple of pictures of two locomotives that I had never ever seen before. The pictures are on the second link above and the titles of them are:

Greenwood Colliery - castle72.jpg - it is the 5th picture from the bottom.

Another loco picture same site Beechwood Colliery - castle53.jpg - about half way down the page.

Ironhead: I was typing this response as you replied. I just had a chance to check that website when I hit the submit button. That is a very good web site as well! Thank you for sharing it.

Mr X

[Mr X]

Ironhead Welcome to Trainboard! Glad to have you here.

Mr X

[Mr X]

Mark, Stourbridge Lion, and Ironhead,

Thank you for your help. I have found and figured out what I am going to use for the plan. It really helps when you know the exact terminology to search for in pictures. Such as 'Coal Breaker' and 'Coal Conveyor' etc.

As it turns out after seeing several dozen, if not hundreds of pictures out on the web it turns out that there are a lot of different roofs that could go on top of a coal conveyor. There are some with flat roofs, some with peaked, some with a round dome, some with a cage like frame and others with no roof at all. So really no matter which choice for a roof you make I guess you would be correct.

I have decided to go with the peaked roof after finding a blue print online. I wanted to share what I have found and ended up going with in the plan.

I am using Bent #5 from this coal chute plan from the Erie railroad and also the general spacing. The braces in the diagram will be used as well. They will be built exactly according to these plans with only a slight modification to the height.

(Warning these pictures on these links are large - but worth it in my opinion)

http://gelwood.railfan.net/el/dwg/erie-acc-sht01.gif

For the actual conveyor and the peaked roof I decided to go with this plan which is also from the Erie railroad:

http://gelwood.railfan.net/el/dwg/erie-acc-sht02.gif

I have the three bents put together already and just waiting for the glue to dry before starting the decking. Once again thank you.

I have included a picture of the three bents needed for the project below to give an idea of the size. The main bracing is 12"x12" and the flashing is 2"x6" and another size.

This new conveyor will go on the left side of the mine shown in my favorite picture in my signature line.

Mr X

[Stourbridge Lion]

Got some scans of some stuff that I have temporarily upload into RI and will later be on the DHVM website.

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN007w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49785) - http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN008w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49786)
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN009w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49787) - http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN010w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49789)

[Stourbridge Lion]

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN011w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49789) - http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN012w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49790)

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN013w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49791) - http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN014w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/49792)

[Stourbridge Lion]

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1424/thumbs/SCAN001w.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/1424)

[Mr X]

Stourbridge Lion,

These are really good pictures - got a couple of new ideas from them or at least possibilities I might try. There is only one of these pictures that I think I might have seen before the rest are new to me.

I believe my breaker/conveyor is not going to be anything as safisticated or spectacular as these but I think it might capture the flavor or the essence.

Thank you for digging these up most appreciated.

Mr X

[Stourbridge Lion]

Glad to help!

This is a section of D&H History I have not had a chance yet to add to the DHVM (http://www.trainweb.org/dhvm/) but with this historic material that my wife got me for X-Mas I'm at a point that I can start building a section now.

:teeth: :teeth: :teeth: :teeth:

[Mr X]

The DHVM website that you provided was pretty good. They had some more pictures of something else that I was looking - small Coal barges and coal loading facilities.

I realize that Starucca Creek near the Starucca Viaduct probably never had coal barges or was possibly not a navigable water route at all, but it is on my layout. I have a coal loading facility/gantry crane that I have not overly gotten to yet. These pictures sure did give me some more ideas for that area.

Thanks again.

Mr X

[Mr X]

I thought I would ask for some opinions on the window placement for the coal conveyor. Below I have attached a thumb nail picture of 6 possible plans showing the different ways in which I could place the windows.

Which one of these plans looks the best? I am looking for what you think would look the best no matter what level of difficulty. My conveyor is rather short (only about 30 scale feet long) So my main question is which format of windows do you think would make it look longer and be the most life like?

This conveyor will be going to the right of the mine in this photo:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/thumbs/Coal_Mine_050.jpg (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/48971)

Thank you for the feedback.

Mr X