HI Folks: I am working on track planning, and tonight the topic is my coal mine scene. As you can see from the attached picture, I have an area about 8 - 9 feet long (the total area is 10 feet) by about 1 foot wide, this area is elevated about 3 inches above the main part of the table. I model in N scale, and will be running modern equipment, and trains about 6 - 10 cars long (or maybe longer depending on how yard and scaling projects turn out as I continue to plan. This is to be a drift (underground) mine with loading facilities (again, modern day) Id really like some input on how to lay out the track etc to give me good switching action on my layout Thanks TIM
HI Folks Ive been working on refining my ideas for the coal mine scene on my railroad, I looked really hard at a loads in empties out situation, but my original intent was to do something like the way that the Virginian that was published in Model Railroader. The idea is that coal is mined, and picked up, and brought to a marshaling yard, and then shipped out to the power plant. I think the plan is going to be similar to the edna mine TIM
Ok, so I broke out the planning software and tried to get some ideas in line for the coal mine area. Attached below is what I came up with -- Id appreciate some critiques -- this is going to be modeled in N scale. Each grid square is 1 foot, what is not depicted is the level change which is on the grid line to the left of the main, To the right will be scenery, rocks, cliffs etc as well as the entry to the mine, and conveyors and such. Please let me know how I can improve this for appearance and operation both THanks TIM
Coal in the modern era is all unit trains. Big ones too. The trains are not really switched, they just stay in on train length. They are loaded in one place,and unloaded in another, by rolling through the proper facility. The only thing you need to consider is how long your passing sidings are. The town names you have look like southern Colorado. Most trains coming to Colorado are loaded farther north and brought to Colorado power plants. but, in your imaginary train world there's a ton of possibility, why not have coal mines?
