Let the questions begin

[Krawler]

Hi guys,

This afternoon starts a new chapter in Model Railroading for me and have a few questions. First off like I have said in my other thread my roadnames are B&O C&O WM AND CSX so I am looking at an east coast area, WV mainly.

I have decided to go modular for now. With that in thought I am starting a coal mine section. I have a few questions for y'all. Am I totally off base by buying the building first? Buidling it and then figure out track layout? I do know the layout I am going for but I can't grap the size of the kit does this make sense or am I going about it all wrong?

Ohh I am looking at the New River Mining Company Main Building Kit by walthers. Any thoughts about the kit would be great also.

Krawler

 

[MasonJar]

What sort of standard have you decided for your modules? Some of your trackwork may be limited by the standards of whatever modules you are building. If on the other hand you mean "sectional", then your standards are your own, so please ignore what I said...!

I would try to mock up the building first to see if it is indeed a good fit. Most buildings have dimensions listed on the www.walthers.com site. I sometimes draw the layout of the benchwork/module with any required or standard track on the floor of my shop or a large piece of cardboard, and then add mockups made from cereal box cardboard and hot glue.

Hope that helps.

Andrew

 

[berraf]

Krawler, it's good to take part off your ideas about the buildings first and then the railroad but I wouldn't dare to do it that way but you surely have more courage then I do
As Andrew suggest I would also do a mockup first...

 

[oldtanker]

I'm just starting a layout and purchased several buildings that I would like on it.Well after getting some very good advice on here I would up redoing my bench work and picked up about 30sq ft of space. One building I got cause I loved the way it looked would have been very hard to work into a layout. Now I can and will use it. Keep in mind that I haven't laid one piece of track yet. I'm just going bit by bit till I get it.

Rick

 

[CRed]

Walther Cornerstone kits are really nice!I have three,Medusa Cement,Glacier Gravel and the ADM Grain Elevator.I have only built the medusa kit,but it went O.K. for my first model in atleast 16 years and was fairly easy to do and aside from a couple glue mishaps it came out pretty good.I'm getting the deluxe refinery kit next,my LHS has it for $80.

Like Rick I don't even have track laid yet and am taking it slow and easy,but it's getting harder to just look at my stuff and not play with it!

Chris

 

[60103]

At a minimum I would get out the instructions and see what they say about size and layout. If this is one of the major buildings on your railroad you will want to adjust things to fit around it. You'll also need to see what sort of scenery you need -- if you need a 45 degree hillside then you should find that out now. You'll also want to know how many tracks the mine requires.
I build all sorts of structures with no idea how they'll fit on my layout' in fact some of them don't fit!

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Buildings don't have to be built like the picture on the box or according to the instructions. If the building kit you bought doesn't fit the space you have for it, you can always kitbash. How wide are you going to make your sections? I think the biggest issue with the New Rivewr Mine kit will be the number of tracks under the coal tipple. If it is the same kit a member of our modular club used to build an Appalachian coal mining module with, it will fit nicely on a 2' x 6' section with room for a double track mainline in front. Note-by fitting on a 2' x 6' I mean not only the mine buildings, tipple, etc; but also all of the necessary trackwork to manuver cars under the tipple.

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

If you're main focus on the module will be the mine, then maybe you should build it. Better get an Idea of how it will fit before you lay your track and find out it doesn't!
For example, I'm working on a sawmill kit and just as I finished the last wall I checked the fix on the layout to discouver the layout was 2 1/2 inches too short. While it was fairly eay for me to add the extra inches to the layout, planning ahead before I added this particular sawmill would have been easier.

 

[Krawler]

Russ you seem fimilar to this building so maybe you can answer a few questions I have about it. First off I haven't built anything yet, meaning I have no table no nothing. I was going to leave it a triple tipple. I was thinking on the side of a mountain or hill. Now the first question I have is do I need main through lines or could I have the mine at the end of a run? I was thinking about setting it up for a (not sure of the term) peninsula , so at one end put a wye so I could go left or right out of the mine. What do you think? I am still trying to figure out the cad program I have so that I can actually post layout plans, so bare with my written descriptions and bad spelling. *L* I am also trying to figure out how to link a sceond table for a mining town too go with the mine. Let me ponder some more and just maybe get the cad program figured out. Size wise I was figuring a little bigger then what you said 3' x 6' and that'll fit nicely.

Krawler

 

[60103]

You really have a choice of putting the mine either along the line or at the end of it. A lot of mines would be located in valleys and the tracks might pass a few before ending at the last one.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

The mainline would not run through a tipple. On the other hand, in the Applachian coal mining country, the railroads ran a lot of branch lines off the main to service various mines. If a mine is at the end of a branch, the branch might run under the tipple. One thing to think about in planning is that you are looking at a loads in empties out type operation. I'm not real familier with coal mining operations. In the case of small mines, the mine shifter might push a couple of cars under a tipple or even under a loading dock where a dump truck would dump a load of coal into the empty car. A tipple the size you are modeling would probably have a small yard and load a train sized load of hoppers. You could put your mine on a hill built into your back drop as a low relief item with the tipple extending out. Put the tipple near one end with enough room beyond to allow cars to manuever under and beyond the tipple. Put a small yard in front of the tipple as a place to drop empties and for the mine to drop loaded cars. and perhaps a small switch engine to switch the mine. Then again, it may have been prototypical for the railroad to bring empties up to the mine, and work the tipple to load them for the return trip.

Perhaps some of our other members who are more familier with coal mining operations than I am will chime in here with better information than I can give. In Southern California, the only coal we see is coke going to the docks for export for overseas steel mills, and I think it all comes in on U.P. from Montana.