I have 2 n scale new river mines and wish to make one large facility out if both Can anyone help with how to go about this procedure it will be deeply appreciated
Welcome to kit bashing. First off you and only you can answer the question of how you want to expand the kit. Do you want 4 tracks, 3? How about a longer overhead area, maybe larger control areas, or everything all at the same time. Once that is decided then it’s up to you to cut the kit panels and glue them together in the configuration you desire. Rooflines may change so keep that in mind, and when finished make sure add on areas are reinforced with some styrene to prevent collapse.
First make a template of all the building sections. The template can be of cardstock or foam core material. You may need more than one to cover any mistakes. Number them or use some method of relating them to an actual wall section. Assemble the templates into the structure you want. You may have to rearrange things to suit your desires. Use tape to hold things together. Finally, when you are satisfied, transfer the template parts onto the actual kit pieces and assemble. It will probably be easier to paint the kit pieces before assembling. If this is your first kitbash be sure to keep everything plumb and square.
Thanks inkaneer helps some Massey I was asking because I wish the mine to be somewhat realistic And it include all your suggestions Because vi have no idea about modifying this structure
First of all your mine needs a large hillside for the mine shaft to be sunk into so there is the need for the space for that. Then comes the layout of the tracks to service the mine, at least one track in for empties and one track for loading and filled cars. Then the fun starts, do you want one long filling hopper structure on a single track or double tracks with two filling structures that takes care of two loading hoppers. If you do two separate fill structures then you need two supply chutes feeding those structures which each kit has. I would simply just add on to each section of a kit with the other. Since you end up with two roof sections for each part of the kits The only area that would need cutting would be those maybe depending on how much longer you make the structure. I would keep the structure the same width that way you can use the kit roof sections without having to make them wider. I would be projecting the mine further out by using the 2nd kit and its parts. Any left over sections could be used for a car repair shop and or office
Take a look around. There are/were all different types of mines:drift--slope--deep shaft mines. Each one has it's different tipple/colliery buildings. I don't think I ever seen two of the same design or footprint. And they differ according to what area of the country the mines located in. Use your imagination here.
I have a NRM on my layout with three tracks under it. Looked it up once, some sources pointed to a mine in Colorado but near as I could tell that was a copper mine. Seems like NRM is a tipple with breaker/sorter capability. There is a very basic description of what tipples did on the Appalachian Railroad Modeling site: https://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/category/articles/coal-basics/ Pics of something similar: https://www.nps.gov/neri/learn/historyculture/nuttallburg.htm If you want it bigger you could target a bigger coal prep tipple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_preparation_plant In that case the lane closest to the tall building might be for debris, with the farther tracks for consecutively larger chunks of coal from the screening process. With two kits you could add three lanes for more grades. I can't think of a reason to do the alternative which is to make the three lanes longer. Problem with adding lanes is everything has to slope down hill to the farthest lane. I can think of two alternative kitbashing approaches to this: either raise the building over the lanes that are closest to the wash building (the tall part) or add a story to it. Neither approach would be easy but you have material to work with from the second tall building.
I've often wondered if a modern flood loader has ever been used to modernize/supplement an older mine... I can imagine an older style processing building feeding a new flood loader while it's tipple is dilapidated in shambles. Then I wake up...
As soon as I posted that, I realized that "has ever" is almost always true, particularly in model railroading.
My old style mine that staircases up the cliffside. 100_0470-2 by John Moore posted Aug 21, 2020 at 2:30 PM 000_1396-3 by John Moore posted Jan 6, 2020 at 6:58 AM Okay folks lets put some mine photos up here so he can have some references.
The NRM is based of the Edna mine that was coal and located in CO on the Craig branch. Here is a photo of it later in life with a coal flooder. Thanks to whomever took these photos. There was a nice article was in the "Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine, December 1977 edition "Thoughts on a typical tipple" by Jim Boyd (if interested) Here it is before the more modern coal flooder
That's... interesting. So, they disabled the original tipples, installed a conveyor and tall concrete silo, but only for storage (not a flood loader) off track, which feeds a new, larger, single tipple via yet another conveyor? Makes one wonder why they did not just add a conventional flood loader, instead of the tall concrete silo and separate tipple? But sure enough, there's a prototype for just about anything! What's the difference between a flooder and a tipple? Speed & capacity?
So prior to the more modern setup. D&RGW would shove an empty coal train up on the storage tracks, the mine would use a winch I believe and pull cars through the tipple tracks (I believe I read somewhere they did different size coal or could) Once the modern coal flooder was I installed I think they had the storage as the mine could produce more than was needed or well I can not recall the specifics, been soo many years since researching that mine. Of corse with the flooder they could do a daily coal train instead of have the slower tipples and having to put the train together when they had filled enough cars. of course now, all of it is completely gone and Mother Nature has reclaimed the area. We where through there a few years back and we thought we had the correct location but we where still not 100% on it.
Wow, ask and you shall receive! My interpretation of @WolfWorks pictures is Coal is processed at the old NRM building. A conveyor takes the coal to the top of the tall cylinder which is just a silo for storage - no tracks. Another conveyor takes coal from the bottom of the silo up to the tall rectangular structure, the flood loader with track. And guessing the history: originally no flood loader. They built one and a conveyor took coal from the NRM to the top of the loader. Then trains got longer. The loader's storage capacity wasn't enough to fill it, and waiting up the train for the processing plant to finish filling it was a no-go. So they added the silo, new conveyors, and Bob's yer uncle. You can see the conveyor opening at the bottom of the silo: http://coalzoom.com/article.cfm?articleid=10740
