Some starting points

Hi Yaron, 

I too can remember discussions on here about coal flood-loaders and tipples on balloon loops.  

Have a look at 

https://forum.mrhmag.com/magazine-feedback-was-ezines-891776 - one flood loader location listed on forum posts

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/need-info-on-coal-tipples-scratch-building-plans-etc-12190801 (note the links early on  - maybe buried amongst them?)

http://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/photos/loader-photos/ - locations of photos might help narrow your search

Hopefully this might help you to zero in on your prototype. Good Luck,

Found it!

John,

Thank you for pulling together those resources. In the end, they didn't help me. What did help was following all the nodes (junctions) starting from Pax, WV and keeping track of which sides of the junctions I've visited and which ones I didn't. After a few hours I finally came from the west via Drennen, WV towards Zela, WV. And, there it was: the Jones Branch, Grant WV coal flood loader using a balloon track!

As you can see and as I remembered, the spur to the balloon track crosses over the curved mainline first before hitting the flood loader. The balloon track has a diameter of around 1200 ft. I'm surprised they could find enough of a level area to construct the balloon. All other loaders I saw during my search use either a single or multi track spur for loading.

And yes, I did save the images on my PC. Plus I bookmarked the location in google maps, and dropped a pin in Google Earth. Ans since I've got this all in a post on MRH, I'm sure I won't lose this prototype location again!

Congrats, Yaron

Yaron,

Bravo on finding your flood loader location! Is this pure research or something for modular development?

If you search for Poca, WV, you'll find a place to send some of those loaded coal hoppers on the west side of the Kanawha river.

Respectfully,

Tim Moran Akron, OH

@Tim

Tim, this was pure research of rail lines in West Virginia and seeing if there were any unusual track arrangements out there. This one made an impression on me since it is a balloon track in a mountainous area while all others I've seen are linear build loading tracks. I did use the arrangement in a mock track plan I was developing for the MRH 24x24 garage challenge. After going over Paul's Pokey 3.0 track plan, I was reminded of that location, and triggered the search for my notes and the visual.

Now with a diameter of just under 14 feet, this technically would be do-able in Free-mo. The length would be around 55ft, but should likely be compressed (or the approach tracks Mini-Mo'ed) unless you really want to run a full 150 car length train with 4-6 locos lashed up trough the balloon. In my track plan I had limited the track length to work for a 40 car unit train with 4 locos.

The coal transload in Poca, WV is a nice looking industry with several loop tracks, and seems to include a power station as well. A bit messy when it comes to looks and rail infrastructure. For sure a site that had capacity upgrades alter track arrangements over time, and thus now has some character. More difficult to model though unless you have tons of space or selective compress a lot, although minimum radius and risk of string lining a train will likely be the limiting factor. The Poca, WV site for those following along:

I've seen another coal transload facility that recently got abandoned from an STB perspective in Maysville, OH. It's a very simple facility that could easily be modeled on ones home layout or in Free-mo format:

My off the wall layout I was working on would not have had a transload, but an actual power plant as the consumer of coal unit trains. The prototype is located in Clover, VA and receives from what I can tell, 105 car coal unit trains at a time. On my plan, I had it's track length reduced by 1/3, so it could handle 35 car unit trains. The Clover Power Generation Plant prototype:

For those who think a reduced plant receiving 35 cars is still too big, an alternative I had in mind was the Mecklenburg Power Generation Plant in Clarksville, VA. It seems it receives less than 35 car loads at a time based on the amount of cars shown in satellite imagery. I've been guessing around 25 at a time. So after a 1/3rd reduction, you could have a plant that receives and handles about 8-9 cars. Much more doable with little space.

The Mecklenburg plant has been put into cold storage by Dominion Power since April of 2018, with current satellite imagery looking like this

Who knows if any of this ever makes in onto one of my layouts or into a Free-mo module. In the meantime, it's nice to get a feeling on how the prototype arranges tracks based on volumes of car loads needed to be handled on a day to day basis. And what strikes me, is that the prototype, given the space, really tries to keep it simple!

Not the only balloon track in Appalachia

Know this is a year old but snowed in and bored.  That location near Drennen was originally announced way back in 1984 when Bethlehem Steel formed BethEnergy to run its coal operations so was the first "new" BethEnergy mine to be developed.  Mining started immediately but tonnage was being shipped from their nearby Mine 81 that was located on Jerry Fork just across the ridge.  Mine 81 was a deep mine in the Eagle seam that processed met coal.  The new BethEnergy mine with the balloon track was set up as High Power Mountain and was an effort to increase profits by tapping the utility or steam coal markets.  The first coal was shipped from the new loadout at HPM during October 1985 and most of it was going to Detroit Edison through a 1 million ton per year, 10-year contract.   Within two years they were averaging 2.5 million tons per year.  In 1992, Bethlehem was actively spinning off all non-steel business units and had HPM on the market.  Amax was actively bidding and was after the balance of the Detroit Edison contracts but the deal fell though.  Five years later, a deal was finally closed with A.T. Massey in October 1997 and this was Bethlehem's very last non-steel operation to be "divested" as the bean counters say.  It's changed hand a few time since and I believe it's now all owned by Contura Energy.  There are strip mines in seven different seams and a deep mine feeding the loadout today.  Alex Energy runs the mines while Power Mountain Processing handles the cleaning and rail loadout.  The rail line and balloon track were originally paid for and built by Conrail but is currently operated by Watco as the Kanawha River Railroad.

The site is often called Central Appalachia's only Balloon or Loop Track loading facility which is just not the case.  Harbert Construction, which had been operated by Alabama's slightly eccentric billionaire John Harbert, beat BethEnergy to the draw by building the Andy Unit Train Facility near Haddix, KY on the former L&N's EK Subdivision in 1979.  Andy has been idled for some time but is still completely intact.

@Robby

Robby, thanks for that background info on the Drennen balloon track and this other balloon track in the Appalachian mountains.

Flood loader and Ballon track

There is one here in harrison county west virginia called the robinson run Mine track off the shortline in the Shinnston and lumberport area if you go to Lumberport WV and follow Jack Run to the end and go left on google maps you will find it.