coal loader question

HemiAdda2d Feb 1, 2005

  1. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    When did flood loading of coal become mainstream? Did coal trains still get tipple-loaded on class 1 RR's past 1987?

    I would like to know, as my N scale coal trains need loads, and I wonder if flood loads are more appropriate for 1987, or if Tipple loads were more common?
    I have video evidence of flood loads in 1985-86, but not much in the way of tipple loads.
     
  2. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Maybe I should cross-post this....
     
  3. doofus

    doofus TrainBoard Supporter

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    My understanding is that it has to do with topography and available real estate. Open pit mining such as in Wyoming and Montana allows for the construction of balloon tracks to facilitate flood loading. The mining company holds a lease on the surface of the land being mined and can build tracks to suit. After all, it must remove the "over burden" or surface of the land to extract the minerals.

    Underground mining campanies buy or lease the "Mineral Rights" below the surface of the existing real estate. There are probably easements to allow the company to bring the mineral to the surface for transportation, but not for the construction of balloon tracks.
     
  4. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Well, I never thought of it that way!
    Sure makes sense, though.
    I think it answered my question as well. Thanks!
     
  5. doofus

    doofus TrainBoard Supporter

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    I don't know much history about the Hanna Wyoming mine or the mine on the Coalmont Branch, south of Laramie Wyoming on the UP. To my knowlege, these are older mines. Hanna may have has some of the earliest flood loading equipment? Until the opening of the Powder River Basin in the '70s, flood loading was not used very much. I think the coal loaded at Walden CO on the Coalmont Branch was tipple loaded. I am not for sure if this mine is still active or not. It was in the '80s.
     
  6. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    One other source of info for this could be Jim Harrawod- he lives in Utah, and has railfanned the western part of the Rio Grande as well as the Utah Railway extrensively. He should be able to give you an answer on how coal is loaded in that neck of the woods.

    Hey Slimjim, how's coal loaded out your way?
     

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