COAL TIPPLES

[NW Modeling List]

The book, "Billion Dollar Coalfield," has a large number of pictures of tipples found on the Pocahontas Div in McDowell County, WV. A number of the coal operations described in the book include pictures of track layouts reproduced from N&W siding agreements in the N&W Chief Engineers Contracts and Agreement books in the NWHS Archives. Tipple pictures range from original pictures taken from around 1895 into the 1980s.

Billion Dollar Coalfield is sold by the NWHS commissary.

Tipple size was dependent on type of coal the operator sold. Early tipples only handled "Run-of-MIne" coal and therefore only needed a single track. As the domestic coal market developed, the market expected different sizes of coal such as Run-of-mine, pea, egg, lump, etc. These required an increase in loading tracks as each typye of coal required a separate track since coal sizing was achieved by passing the coal over different size screens. The first modern tipple in the Pocahontas Coal Field was constructed at the Empire Coal & Coke Co at Landgraff, WV in 1910. Mid-1930s pictures show it with 4 tracks. 

The next advancement was cleaning the coal at some type of preparation plant. This started happening in the 1920s. Large coal operators could construct a preparation plant and then haul coal from outlying coal operations to a central facility. This is what United States Steel did at its Alpheus (Gary)  operation. Plants used both wet and dry processes to clean the coal.

The book, "Coalwood," also available for the NWHS Commissary, provides considerable detail on mining operations, tipple construction, coal preparation and processing, mine construction and cost associated with mining. 

Larger coal preparation plants were built during the 1950s to recover the very small coal or "fines."

Regardless of time period, there is an acceptable rationale for 1 to 4 or more loading tracks under a tipple.

When modeling a coal operation don't forget all of the supplies delivered to the mining operation including timbers, lumber, lubricants, powder or dynamite, rail, company store supplies, mules (if used), animal feed, machinery, passenger service, mail, etc.  Up until the mid-1920s the railroad was the only  supply line and transportation system that most coal communities had. It didn't just exist to haul coal away. The railroad brought in all of the supplies assocated with mining the coal.

Alex Schust  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Modeling List 
  To: NW Modeling List 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 10:18 AM
  Subject: Re: COAL TIPPLES


  A basic search on "coal tipple" in the VA Tech photo collection yielded the following results:



  http://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/search.php?folio_filename=/home/www/imagebase.lib.vt.edu/web_root/xml/searches/imagebase-search-1291130027.xml&query_string=coal+tipple&num_rows=59&start_row=1



  I'm certain, for those who are willing to make the effort, that similar searches in google or other search engines would produce even more examples.  Reviewing prototype photos should furnish enough examples to provide ideas and inspiration to kitbash and/or scratchbuild a suitable model of a tipple, regardless of scale.



  Jim Brewer

  Glenwood MD


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "NW Modeling List" <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>
  To: "NW Modeling List" <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>
  Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 8:14:14 AM
  Subject: Re: COAL TIPPLES

  Walthers New River Mine is based on the Edna tipple located in Colorado.  The plans and a photo spread appeared in RMC I think sometimes in the 80s.  The other plastic tipple that is available is made by Pola and looks like a wooden abandoned tipple that in reality would never be used.  It is based on a model of a British Columbia tipple and was featured in a three part series by Jack Work in MR, Oct-Dec 1959.  It is a slope mine and features an elevated hoist house as well as models for the auxiliary buildings.  If you read the text on this article you will find out more about the site and and how compressed air was sent below for the miners to use.

  This is the second tipple kit that BTS has produced.  The first was a limited edition and is hard to find in HO.  S Scale kits are still available as far as I know.  In wood, Blair Line makes a very nice truck dump based on a EBT prototype.  Tygert Tipple is another kit made by Red Ball in their hometown series.  This is another truck dump of a different design and again a small design.  If you can find them, Industrial Heritage made a laser cut styrene kit for an Ohio coal tipple.  This was a massive two track tipple and was based on drawing and an article by Charlie McCoy in the NMRA Bulletin back in the 60s.

  The best articles that have appeared on kit bashing tipples came from Tony Koester on building his coal branch on the Allegheny Midland.  It offers ideas on different types of small to large tipples and how to bash them. 

  The have been many more tipples plans published for both standard gauge and narrow gauge, all eastern in design from mule powered to dog mines and the rest.

  Larry Smith

   On 11/29/2010 10:17 PM, NW Modeling List wrote: 

    Cal, and anyone else.
    That New River Mine is a very popular and bashable kit.  I have a few, and am looking for ideas to bash or modify them so that they don't all look alike.
    I suspect I'm not alone.
    Pictures of variations on that kit, alone or in combination with other kits, would be welcome.

    Frank Bongiovanni


    On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 1:17 PM, NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

      Thanks Cal.  That sounds workable.  FYI, since my skills probably aren't close to kitbashing yet, I took another look at how my "coal mine" would be laid out.  I really liked that BTS kit and wanted to try and make it work.  Well, after a couple of hours and moving things around a bit I found a place for it!  Answer was to get a bigger shoehorn or as we said in the Army, a bigger hammer.
       
      As soon as home six confirms purchase requisition it will be on its way to Alpharetta, GA.
       
      I've also found the MR book on Coal Railroading a big help. 


      Ed Svitil
      Norfolk & Western Railway
       
        



       

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      To: nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org
      Subject: Re: COAL TIPPLES
      Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:35:24 -0500
      From: nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org 



      Ed I took the Walthers New River Coal Mine kit and bashed it. With a little imagination I got two loadouts and extra building sized to the space I had. I looked at the Mill Creek kit and decided to stay with what I had.  Some of my ideas came from books on the Clinchfield, C&O and Interstate. Hope this helps. Cal Reynolds.
        ----- Original Message ----- 
        From: NW Modeling List 
        To: NW Modeling List 
        Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2010 7:22 PM
        Subject: Re: COAL TIPPLES


        Ed -

        I assume you're in HO.  I'd like to pose the same question for N-Scale -- single track tipples?

        Lou Schmitt
          ----- Original Message ----- 
          From: NW Modeling List 
          To: NW Modeling 
          Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2010 10:20 AM
          Subject: COAL TIPPLES


          Happy Thanksgiving all!
           
          While trying to digest all that turkey I was happily perusing the October 2010 MR and saw an ad for the "Mill Creek Coal & Coke Tipple No.2".  Wow!  What a fantastic kit.  HOWEVER (and there's always a "however") it's a tad too big for the spot I have for a coal mine.
           
          Anybody know of a kit for a single-track tipple that you've liked?
           
          If you got the room, the BTS kit looks like a winner but a little too big to shoehorn in.
           
          Thanks.

          Ed Svitil
          Norfolk & Western Railway
           
            




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