Strip mining

Ratcals Oct 17, 2003

  1. Ratcals

    Ratcals TrainBoard Member

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    I was wondering if anyone here has modeled a coal strip mine on their layout. Or has pictures of one. I'm thinking I would like to put one one my layout but am not sure how to go about doing it.

    Mark
     
  2. Larry E Shankles

    Larry E Shankles TrainBoard Member

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  3. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    How much space would be needed to realistically model a strip mine? Or could just a part be modeled, with the rest suggested "off stage".
     
  4. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Alan, not too much room at all if you just model the load-out. In all my travels to coal mining regions here, I've found that many different mining operaters will all transport their coal (by Terex type truck) to a common washery/load-out for shipping. So you could have quite a compact area for the load-out and washing facilities with a lot of activity, if you include some heavy duty mining trucks bringing in the coal from a hidden road that snakes it's way back into the hills/mountains. Maybe even show the top of the boom from a drag-line off in the distance behind a hill for that extra touch of reality.
    Good luck,
    Bill
    p.s. at one load-out in Southern Illinois I was surprised to see just a pipe-stand for the washery. The truck would pull under the pipe-stand, they would turn on the water for about 5 mins, then it was off to the load-out. A really simple set-up.
     
  5. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Mark, if you need any pics, drawings etc for your strip mine project, let me know. I have quite a bit of info (especially the Anthracite Region) that may be helpful to you.
    Bill

    Also here is a link that will provide you with some pictures, in addition to the fine site posted by Larry. A really good example of "Longwall Mining" in one of the pics, as well as a great aerial shot of a drag-line.
    Enjoy!

    Strip Mining

    [ 18. October 2003, 04:30: Message edited by: wabash_one ]
     
  6. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanks Bill. But what is a "Terex type truck"?
     
  7. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Alan, here is a link to an example of a Terex truck.

    Terex
     
  8. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Thanks Bill, that is an impressive piece of kit :D
     
  9. completely nuts

    completely nuts TrainBoard Member

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    A kaolin mine is exploted as strip mine. I did see something like that on the web (sorry can't remember the URL).
    The kaolin was transported trough a pipeline to a plant, where the white powder was cleaned and mixed with water to make slurry.
    This slurry was loaded in kaolin tankers and transported by rail to customers.
    Paul
     
  10. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Thanks Paul.
    Would be great if you could find that site again, and post it here. Sure would love to see it!
    Slurries have lost some of their luster lately. The last one I saw in operation was a coal slurry on the Western Maryland RR (CSX) in West Virginia serving the Mt. Storm Power Plant about 20 yrs. ago (maybe more...??).
    Now that most coal used in the US has to be low sulpher, or a combination which reduces sulpher (mostly from the Wyoming Powder River Basin Region), and for the most part must be transported long distances by rail, slurries are uneconomical for these uses. As a result few new ones have been built, plus many older ones have now been shut down, such as the famous "Seam #8 Slurry" from the coalfields of SE Ohio to the Cleveland Electric Illuminating power plants in the Cleveland area.
    By any chance, do you remember what year was dipicted for the pictures you saw?
    Thanks,
    Bill
     
  11. completely nuts

    completely nuts TrainBoard Member

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    Bill,
    Sorry about the URL, but I have met someone today who is a staff member of a kaolin importer over here in Belgium.
    He has visited mines in Brasil and the US and this is what he explained how the kaolin is exploted until today.
    The mining is strip mining, enormous bulldozers scrape the kaolin from the bottom and load the powder into large strains to shift stones.
    Than the powder is mixed with water and transported to a plant trough a pipe line.
    In Brasil the largest pipeline is "100 miles".
    In the plant the slurry is going trough magnets to remove metal parts and cleaned trough smaller strains to remove any dirt, they also change the chemical PH if necessary.
    Part of the cleaned kaolin is shipped in kaolin tankers for nearby costumers the other part is dryed to transport in bulk by large ships oversea.
    He give me a picture of his plant in Belgium, on the left of the large building the ships arrive from Brasil or US, the building on the right side is the plant they mix the powder with water to create the slurry for customers who wan't the mixture.
    They both ship dry powder and slurry to customers.
    Hope this helps, and this is business going on today as I wrote this.

    Paul

    [​IMG]
     
  12. Ratcals

    Ratcals TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the input guys. I've done a search on the web and found a great deal of information. I'm almost an expert on strip mining now. However, there is one area of the whole operation that seems to be lacking in photos. I plan on using the Walther's New River Mining Company to load the coal onto my trains. What I don't understand is how the coal gets onto the conveyor belt in an open pit mine. Some pictures show the conveyor belt going into the side of a mountain and others have it going to a hole in the ground. There are some great pictures of coal breakers, just not of the whole operation.

    Thanks
    Mark
     
  13. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Thanks Paul. That is certainly a great looking facility. Appreciate the comprehensive explaination too. By the way, do they have their own railroad switching equipment, or are they served by a line-haul railroad?
    OK guys, here's a great industry for one of those compact areas on the layout!
    Bill
     
  14. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Mark, you pose some interesting questions. First off, I have to believe that if you are seeing the coalveyers going INTO the side of a mountain, or INTO the ground, then you are not looking at a strip mine operation. It sounds more like an underground type, such as a drift, shaft or slope mine.
    I am not sure of the era or location of your proposed mine, but if it's more of a "modern" timeframe (which the New River mine is not...it seems to be more 1940s-1950s), then for your strip mine, your coalveyer would travel from a hopper house to the facility, be it a Crusher (new term for breaker), washery or colliery.
    In most operations (I am heging here as many operations are not the same), the coal is brought to the hopper house by the large Terex/Caterpillar type truck (see post above) from the stripping operation, which could be some distance away. It is then dumped into the hopper, and away it goes to the facility.
    Incidently, in most modern mining operations, the load out is not like the New River Mine you mentioned. That type of facility was needed back when coal was sold for home heating and industrial-commercail use, and needed to be sized, depending on the needs of the customer from "pea" size on up. Nowadays most coal is used by electrical power plants, and comes in a size mostly 2 3/4" to 3". So what you find is not the New River type of load-out, but rather a silo or silos, to load only one size into unit coal trains on a circular (or "balloon") track. A completely different type of operation from what was the norm back about 50 years ago or so.
    I hope to heck this info has helped you, and not discourged your project.
    Good luck, and keep us posted as you progress.
    Thanks,
    Bill
     
  15. Ratcals

    Ratcals TrainBoard Member

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    Bill thanks a lot for the information. You haven't discouraged me at all. I haven't really set my mind on any one particular type of operation be it strip mine or otherwise. At the moment I'm just doing some research. As far as the era of my layout that has yet to be determined but probably the 60s. I guess I wasn't too clear on the photo thing but I knew conveyors going into mountains or the ground were not strip mines. Those seem to be the only types of photos out there. If I could find a photo of a Terex unloading coal into the hopper that would be great. Were the Terex style trucks around in the 60s? As for the grand scale of strip mines I was thinking they don't start huge and maybe if I modelled one that was in it's early stages I wouldn't need as much real estate to make it seem believable. Like I said still early days (I don't even have power to the rails yet) and I'm way open to suggestions.

    M
     
  16. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Mark,
    here is a link to two photos similiar to what you requested, a mine truck dumping in a hopper. This hopper, however, is open, therefore does not qualify as a "Hopper House", but it must serve their purposes OK.

    Strip Mine Dump Hopper

    I checked some books I have, and cannot find any pics or text on when the Terex type trucks first entered coal strip mining, but I have to believe there were some available as far back as the 1950s (at that time they were probably made by Catarpillar). That is when, I believe, the first "monster" (first largest in the world) dragline (called the Mountaineer) was put into operation. By necessity, a very heavy duty truck would have been required to accomodate the large amount of coal this dragline's bucket could scoop. Maybe you could email a mining truck sales company and ask them.
    Good luck with this,
    Bill
     
  17. Ratcals

    Ratcals TrainBoard Member

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    Bill

    Thanks for the photos. I did a search and found www.terexmining.com and it seems "The prototype truck rolled out formally on January 27, 1960 and the first production models entered service in the last half of 1963." So one of these trucks would work for my era. I'll keep you posted of where I go from here.

    Mark
     
  18. completely nuts

    completely nuts TrainBoard Member

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    Bill,
    they have a sort of tractor, which can ride on the rails to do their switching purposes.
    Once they have a load of tankers and (or) hoppers filled and posted on the yard,they need to call the National railraod to bring this loaded cars to customers and bring in new empties.

    Paul
     
  19. Comet

    Comet E-Mail Bounces

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    Thanks again Paul.
    It appears this would make a really nice industry for a model layout. The processing plant, as we have seen, does not really have to be near the source of the raw materials, so it could be placed anywhere in-between that source and the ultimate customer. An "ideal" model layout situation!
    Bill
     

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