Photos

Ideas

While not wanting to promote Model Railroader, the December 2012 issue has some articles by Paul Dolkos that might give you some insight. One of his projects resembles the situation you have. There are pictures of not only models but proto types as well. Hope that helps.

Chris

"type of ground cover might be inside the yard"

I'd guess it could vary greatly depending on the size of the facility and the money the owners chose to invest in the operation. A concrete lot would be the best and a dirt lot the worst. In between would be paving stones or gravel. Since the coal is money they would probably pick up the spillage as much as possible just leaving the fines and powdered residue? I'd include some black stains where the trucks run to the scales and out the gate. Here's Cramer coal in the Bronx which looks quite clean but was almost brand new when the photo was taken....DaveBranum http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/ht.html

smaller coal dealers

My opinion is that most modelers make their small town coal dealers too large. Also, I prefer not to use commercial kits such as the Walthers kits because they are the same as are found on everyone else's layouts.  - Jim Six     

Looks great Jim.

You sure do have a way with those Accurail cars.  I just wish they made them in n scale.

Portable conveyor

Jim,  perfect timely blog posts .... I tried (in vain) over at Early Rail group to find out what time period they started using those portable conveyors in coal yards, etc. Nobody seemed to come up with anything. Any ideas? I am modeling 1900-1910. I figure that's too early, and I know that labor was cheap so a lot of times they just had guys with shovels. That being said, I am sometimes surprised at the early dates some of these labor-saving machines came into use. I haven't been able to find anything specific to my question on the web so far. 

Ground cover

In oil facilities they keep it pretty clean so I suggest some dark grey or medium grey n scale ballast mixed with sand.  There maybe some hydrocarbon staining on the ground in places so you could use black acrylic ink or AI.   For the coal areas these are usually older and so there would probably be lots of cinders mixed with sand.  make some piles using kitty litter or dirt. Glue them in and then apply the cinders to cover.  Also use some ink or double flat black krylon paint to dust the ground.  Do not saturate as you want the earth tones there as well.  Hope this helps.

Small-town coal dealers

Timely

As I work on what can and can't fit on my layout, I saw this--and a small town coal dealership would be great in Northern Maine, circa 1920-30!  Basicly a place to unload, a small building, and some coal piles!

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