My wife is teaching a geography course and is hoping to find a video of a model train layout showing the coal being moved from mine to power plant -- or wherever the coal is used in that layout, a shipping port, etc. The more detail in it and explanation the better. Can anyone point to youtube or other links for this type of video if it's out there? Thanks, Mo
Two DVDs come to mind: Coal Bin Of America - a 1935 film produced by the C&O to explain coal and it's origins and how it was transported on the C&O - I got it from the C&O Historical Society. 29 minutes, black and white. The Appalachian Coal Industry Modeling The Prototype - from the DVD cover: "The video begins with a history of the coal industry in Appalachia and progresses to an examination of the journey that coal makes from the mine to the complete coal industry to you, from the mine to the end-user." 61 minutes, 1994 Green Frog Productions. This one is directed at model railroaders, and has lots of scenes from a model railroad.
This should get ya started..hope it helps. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=model+coal+train&aq=1&oq=model+coal John
I listed Coal Bin of America from the C&O Historical Society - no model railraoding in this video. The other video I mentioned does a really good job of explaining the history and showing how coal is mined and transported.
You might have to splice something together. There's not ALL that many layouts that model both ends of the coal transport system. It would be pretty easy, though to grab a coal mine from Layout X and a power plant and shipping dock from Layouts Y and Z, and create a video that explains what you want. All you would really need is permission from the various video owners to use and edit their videos. I imagine many folk would be happy to, flattered that you asked.
The following site might be useful, their primary modeling interest is coal: http://www.appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/index.html
Thanks for all the links so far, but still not quite what we're looking for. It's not just coal trains moving, but moving from mine to customer through the changing landscape. Over the years I know I've seen magazine articles of layouts with mine on one side of a scene divide and customer on the other side so that loads and empties can be moved all the way around the layout and passed through to the other side to be cycled again. So far, I haven't had any luck searching for videos of that type of layout in action. Cheers, Mo
I've been thinking of making a video very much like that. I have a small flood loader: The scenery is better now, but my photography skills haven't improved much: I unload the coal on the other side of the layout: My "storyboard" would load a few cars, build a train, run it around a bit, and then break off a couple of cars and dump them. I use the old Mantua clamshell cars, which actually dump the coal through doors in the bottom. They aren't terribly prototypical, but they are fun to watch. I was going to set the whole thing to the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, "Sixteen Tons." I don't have a lot of varied terrain on my layout - no mountains or sky-high trestles, just mostly urban modeling. I wasn't planning to do this until I had more scenery done. But, if you're into video editing, I could shoot some raw video and send you a DVD. And by the way - Go Bruins!
I was just over on the Green Frog Productions site - The Appalachian Coal Industry Modeling The Prototype DVD is on sale for $14.95...
Thanks Tim! That looks ideal. Just ordered a copy. Hopefully a few select scenes will work for the class. Cheers, Mo
