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Impressive coal mining layout on the Leipzig fair Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 315 posts jpachl Regular poster 315 posts
jpachl

In the 1st week of October, I visited the modell-hobby-spiel fair in Leipzig, Germany. An absolute highlight was the H0 layout "Pocahontas Mining Company".

It was made by a Stuttgart model railroad club specialized in US prototype modelling. The layout shows a working coal loading facility on a N&W line in the early 1950s.

The natural sunlight shining through roof windows of the exhibition hall provided me with excellent light conditions for taking photos.

Here, a C&O 0-8-0 switcher is busy with switching hoppers in and out the loading facility

A very nicely detailed part of the layout is also this miner's town scene with.

Note that all of these photos were taken with a smartphone lens. Just a few years ago, it was almost impossible to get similar results without an expensive SLR camera.

Homepage: http://www.joernpachl.de/model_rr.htm

Blog: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/blog/40591
Reply 4
Marc Prolific poster 1,369 posts
Marc

Wonderful

.

I have had the chance to see this layout in 2011 or 2012 during the US German convention model railroad 

Yes it's really magnificent and the working mine is a Swiss horloge.

This HO railroad is a modular one; the mine actually work like a real one, car are loaded really with scale coal, the mines chutes go up and down, the transport band is actually working, an underground pusher move each car precisely under the chutes of the mine; the monitor of the mine is like an airplane one full of buttons light and controls.

Just next the entry of the small yard mine is a water tower with the pipe going up and down to " reload" water for the steam machines.

This  layout was and is still a price winner in all the show he goes; very happy to see is still working and in good condition.

At the same time at this US convention I have had the chance to meet the late Wolfgang Duedler who was running a fine HOn3 layout; this was an unforgettable moment to meet him.

hope you can share more pictures of this layout

On the run whith my Maclau River RR in Nscale
Reply 1
bkivey Regular poster 363 posts
bkivey

Very Nice

Especially like the hopper car interior weathering, and the town. What is going on with the guy on the end of the car in the first photo?
Reply 1
Marc Prolific poster 1,369 posts
Marc

@bkivey

.

This guy on the end of the car is not a joke or a liberty of modeling 

In this time area, first some chunk of coal were hand removed from the side of car to avoid any accident when running, second it was also necessary to take sampling of the crushed coal to survey quality and send the cars at the good terminal with his loading 

Before first ww and until the 55's these job were made by hand of poor miners, working at tipple  or in the coal fields was an hard and painful job  at this time

 

On the run whith my Maclau River RR in Nscale
Reply 1
Bernd MRH Author 5,560 posts
Bernd

Actually

I think the guy on the end of the car is working the manual brake. Many of the mine tracks were set on a slight grade so they could roll the empties under the tipple as they got loaded. That way no locomotive crew was needed to be stationed at the tipple. The walkway by the conveyor is what was used to get samples of the coal.

Bernd

New York, Vermont & Northern Rwy. - Route of the Black Diamonds - NCSWIC
Reply 1
Jim at BSME Prolific poster 2,087 posts
Jim at BSME

Video

Did a little youtube search and found this video of the layout in operation in 2018:

Don't know if there is any shared from this show.
- Jim B.
Baltimore Society of Model Engineers, Estd. 1932
O & HO Scale model railroading
Check out BSME on: Facebook, Instagram
Reply 0
mvlandsw Regular poster 163 posts
mvlandsw
Mines usually did not let hoppers go with so little coal in them. They usually filled them to overflowing.

Mark
Reply 0
railandsail Prolific poster 8,773 posts
railandsail
I was very impressed with that coal mine model, particularly when I realized that the use of those chutes could remedy a problem I had.

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/new-river-coal-mine-modifications-12292633?pid=1332050522

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/new-river-coal-mine-modifications-12292633?pid=1332054414

Brian

1) First Ideas: Help Designing Dbl-Deck Plan in Dedicated Shed
2) Next Idea: Another Interesting Trackplan to Consider
3) Final Plan: Trans-Continental Connector
Reply 0
Oztrainz Moderator 3,447 posts
Oztrainz
Hi Mark, all,
there is a reason why the model hoppers are not fully loaded like the prototype because of the limited amount of control available on those booms to limit spillage caused by model coal bouncing over the side while being loaded (by ricochets off the load in already the hopper) and spillage lost over the side during transit when wagons "bounce' when passing though turnouts.  Spillage dropped in transit can and will jam up turnouts and can derail a model train in a "worst case" scenario.  It looks like they may have been using relatively light Woodland Scenics "coal". This stuff "bounces over the side" really well.

Our coal skips are loaded to about 3/4 capacity because of loses in transit when fully loaded. Watch for the spillage on the grade using Woodland Scenics "coal" as loads.  We later went to larger lumps of real coal that tends to "stay put" inside the wagons much better.



The worst case is when the spillage lands on the tracks in front of the loaded coal skip when on the incline. Once the track is ballasted almost rail level, you have very little leeway for any spillage on the ground. Any spillage that lands in the flangeways will most probably cause a derailment or a runaway on the 25% incline grade.  

In real life I also have had to dodge lumps of 1:1 scale hot coke that went over the side for when gravity loading under the coke screens at the local steelworks when the "unlock the hand brake and move it NOW" hooter was left too late by the screens operator. Spillage is not desirable either on our models or in 1:1 scale.

I've also gone close to having a wagon derail because of spilt limestone on the tracks when unloading, but that's a different "war story". 😏

Regards,

John Garaty

Unanderra in oz

Read my Blog
Reply 1
mvlandsw Regular poster 163 posts
mvlandsw
Hello John,
   I didn't realize that the model hoppers were actually being loaded from the tipple.

   I worked with the bad walking conditions caused by coke falling from overloaded cars in Chessie and CSX yards.  All of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie interlockings were littered with coke knocked off of the cars by the rough riding track. Surprisingly some of the empty cars made a round trip with lumps of coke still perched on the top rail of the hopper cars.

Mark
Reply 0
Oztrainz Moderator 3,447 posts
Oztrainz
Hi Mark, all,
No, we're not loading from the screens at the tipple. The tipple dumps to a catching bucket under the layout. We load "unsized" real coal at the mine, transfer coal skips in trains to the incline top, send them loaded down the incline singly, dump, and return them empty singly back up to the incline top, where the skips are coupled to form trains and sent back to the mine for reloading. At the mine, the steam power comes off and battery-electric locos take the coal skips "underground" for reloading by teaspoon away from the public gaze. 

[P1280422a]

The loaded O-scale standard-gauge hoppers seen near the screens in the above photo are "non-operational scenery".

Now back to that Pocahontas Mining Company layout seen in Leipzig... There are relatively few exhibition layouts out there that actually load "stuff". The Pocohontas Mining Company layout is one of the better ones that I've seen on video. 

Thank you Joern for bringing it to our attention,

Regards,

John Garaty

Unanderra in oz

Read my Blog
Reply 1
CM-NS_fan Active Member 94 posts
CM-NS_fan
@Mark,  mom was a teen in depression-era Sturgis, MI.  She mentioned them walking rails to pick up coal.
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