Nine years ago I built the original Majestic Colliery Company coal loader. I built it using 1x wood, treated with a preservative. I sheeted it with crimped sheet aluminum. It came out ok, but I was never thrilled with the finished product. So, with the advances in construction techniques we’ve all had over the intervening years, I’ve decided to rebuild it.

MCC was a mine located in Majestic KY. As near as I can tell, it was just the mine and breaker/loader. I could find no mentioning of any coke ovens. The width of the valley there (Bart’s been there, so he’s seen it first hand) kept this operation small. In investigating it originally, I discovered there is only one photograph of the mine online, and probably only a handful exist. This one is from the Virginia Tech photo library, and shows a track-on view of the sorting area and the loading chutes.

Definitely not enough to build a model from, but there were drawings published in the 1994 Railmodel Journal, and reprinted in “Appalachian Coal Mines and Railroads” by Thomas Dixon. I used those drawings to build the original colliery, and will use them for the rebuilt one as well.

First up is cutting out the major pieces of the building. I used most of a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" Sintra for it. Here are the pieces after cutting and sanding, along with some 1x1 pieces for corner bracing.

Nice start. Will you be building those loading chutes as well?

How about opened windows?

Not sure about the chutes. I’d like to, if I can figure out a nice way to build the hoist. Its pretty spindly.

re: windows, yea, Im thinking of looking around to see whats available, or maybe trying my hand on 3d printed ones through Shapeways. Having half of them open would be neat.

Cool prototype.

Good start Bob, and for the chutes I’d get all brass shapes and send them to Bart for the soldering

That’s a neat prototype Bob. I love those coal tipples. They’re just loaded with character. If I could justify such a thing on my far west shortline I’d sure have one.

Looking forward to watching your progress on this.

Its your railroad Richard. You’re just not trying hard enough. There was a huge coal operation just a hunnert miles north in Black Diamond, WA. Yout just haven’t found the vein that went south to Port Orford, yet.

Anyone else notice the different grades of coal in Bob’s photo? I’ve read plenty about different coal grades, but hadn’t seen a side by side picture of two different grades. I’d assume that the middle track is a middle grade between the larger and smaller grades. Two different car types as well. Certainly would make for an interesting place to switch.

I can’t tell from the photo, but it looks to me as if the far left track has a spring switch. The empty car sitting on the frog doesn’t look to have the switch lined correctly. I can’t tell if the cars in the background are loads or empties… If loads then a spring switch would allow a loaded car to roll towards the rest.

Yep noticed the grades, also noted they are not chutes as much as conveyors.

I think the cars are stationary and the conveyors retract to fill the whole car…

Steve Featherkile said:

Its your railroad Richard. You’re just not trying hard enough. There was a huge coal operation just a hunnert miles north in Black Diamond, WA. Yout just haven’t found the vein that went south to Port Orford, yet.

Hey Steve, my little short line only tramps along the southern Oregon coast. The loggers and fishermen around here wouldn’t allow me to haul coal. "If it can’t be done with wood you don’t need it."

Uh, nephew Dick - you seem somehow to have overlooked the adjacent and adjoining shortline of the Old Mill Lumber that goes from just above Bandon to Alconbury here in yUK. Shirley that qualifies as the longest short-line on the planet?

Just remind Brother Featherkile that nowhere in Port Orford is anything like a hunnerd miles away from any part of Washington State.

The VERY nearest location in Washington State is the northern end of the I5 bridge at 45-37-16.9N, 122-40-23.97W.

tac, pedant of the week award.

tac Foley said:

Uh, nephew Dick - you seem somehow to have overlooked the adjacent and adjoining shortline of the Old Mill Lumber that goes from just above Bandon to Alconbury here in yUK. Shirley that qualifies as the longest short-line on the planet?

Just remind Brother Featherkile that nowhere in Port Orford is anything like a hunnerd miles away from any part of Washington State.

The VERY nearest location in Washington State is the northern end of the I5 bridge at 45-37-16.9N, 122-40-23.97W.

tac, pedant of the week award.

Tadech, was it GB Shaw or Mark Twain who said that we were two countries separated by a common language?

In beautiful Deer Park, WA, a “hunnert miles” is not an exact measure of distance. It refers to a distance that is more than can be walked by a healthy man in a day, and less than can be driven in the average automobile on a freeway, in a day. Sort of like LGB’s scale measurements.

Now, mind you, Deer Park is home to the famous statement, “Here, y’all hold my beer and watch this,” just before the student B-29 pilot pancaked his aeroplane into the Deer Park Army Auxilary Landing Field, back in May of 1943.

Bob McCown said:

Not sure about the chutes. I’d like to, if I can figure out a nice way to build the hoist. Its pretty spindly.

re: windows, yea, Im thinking of looking around to see whats available, or maybe trying my hand on 3d printed ones through Shapeways. Having half of them open would be neat.

Since it’s so spindly, I’d make it out of brass. I’d check out K&S for most of the odd shapes.

I thought I saw that somebody made a window like that, but can’t seem to find it. I’d be very interested to see what you can do via Shapeways.

The chutes could be made with some cylinders from Plastruct - they have a lot of different diameters to choose from. They don’t look like a full half, but I’m sure you could cut them to size. Smaller cylinders for the conveyor underneath. Would look very cool.

Yea, and a timing belt for the conveyor… Hmm… might have to do this…

And, yea, I saw a window like that, too, but cant find it either… grr

Bob, those covers over the conveyor belts look like fabric, supported by hoops. Would you try to do that, or is there just too fiddly?

A bit of experimenting with siding for the colliery. This is .001 steel shim stock. Runs through the crimper like butter.

(http://i.imgur.com/FbYU3nDl.png)

and after a partial wash of rusting solution:

(http://i.imgur.com/sGwbZnel.png)

Pretty neat. Are you going to rust it first, or let it rust naturally?

Not sure. Probably let it rust naturally. I want to paint the signs onto the side of the building, and let the sign weather/get streaky, etc.

Some experimenting with Tinkercad to create a window to have 3d printed. Not too bad.