Large Scale Central

Pattiki Mine

Prototypes
#1

Having absolutely no ability to draw on this confuser thing, I’m going to try to write a complete enough description that someone with talent can create a drawing from my explanation.

A couple of months ago, AndyC and I did some traversing of the old L&N line going southeast across Illinois. It is now reopened as the Evansville Western, a shortline. Our exploration ended in far southeast Illinois below and east of the town of Carmi at a place called the Pattiki(sp?) Mine. What a simple track scheme to model for operations, if you were using battery power and didn’t have to worry about polarity.

On a piece of paper, draw a circle occupying about 2/3 of the page.

Imagine it is a circle of track, with 12 o’clock being north.

At 6 o’clock install a left hand turnout, with the non-radius leg heading east.

At 3 O’clock install a right hand turnout, with the non-radius leg heading south.

Connect the tails of those turnouts at a wye, turning your circle into a “Q”.

The leg of the wye (tail of the “Q”), should continue away from the circle and connect with a main line track running across the bottom of the page, east to west and connecting to the “Q” with a right hand turnout that came at it in a southeast direction.

The collection point of two mines, that were a mile apart, was in the middle of the circle and covered by a very large cone or inverted funnel and an underground conveyor that went to a flood dump tower located at 9 o’clock on the circle.

Who says a person with a simple circle of track can’t have a realistic model railroad? The unit coal train came into the mine flood loading station from the main line trackage coming from the east. The train of empty coal cars ran around the circle, until the entire train was on the circle with the “Fred” being only 3 car lengths from the engines, when it was all on the circle of track. Andy and I didn’t see the loading, because it was getting dark and they hadnn’t started yet. But it is easy tio imagine that the train was loaded and then headed back out on to the mainline heading back east with a full load of coal.

A circle of track, 4 turnouts, a mainline staging track, too many coal cars and two or three diesel engines almost nose to the last coal car running on that circle and you’d be modeling a prototype operations.

#2

Um… I’m using the work computer and didn’t bring Max with my drawing program on it.

#3

No offence Ric, but I would really like to see a drawing as this tired old brain isn’t smart enough to decipher that description.

#4

Tony,

Me to!! I’ve got a pencil sketch in front of me, but I don’t have a clue how to convert that to something that could be applied to this confuser. One of the keyboard brains could do it, I think. I’ll see what the bride can do.

#5

Tony,

Jan struck out and we don’t have any young folks around to make this happen. I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but I got as descriptive as I could. We’ll just have to wait for someone to decipher my language skills or lack there of. HAPPY EASTER

#6

Tony, We are in luck. AndyC. came through with a pencil sketch.

And to repeat my description of the operation - The collection point of two mines, that were a mile apart, was in the middle of the circle and covered by a very large cone or inverted funnel and an underground conveyor that went to a flood dump tower located at 9 o’clock on the circle. Who says a person with a simple circle of track can’t have a realistic model railroad? The unit coal train came into the mine flood loading station from the main line trackage coming from the east. The train of empty coal cars ran around the circle, until the entire train was on the circle with the “Fred” being only 3 car lengths from the engines, when it was all on the circle of track. Andy and I didn’t see the loading, because it was getting dark and they hadnn’t started yet. But it is easy tio imagine that the train was loaded and then headed back out on to the mainline heading back east with a full load of coal. A circle of track, 4 turnouts, a mainline staging track, too many coal cars and two or three diesel engines almost nose to the last coal car running on that circle and you’d be modeling a prototype operations. NOTE - this is not a disclaimer that AndyC is younger than me. Though he is. It is also a statement that on many subjects he is smarter than me. But I don’t have a reason to hang around with people that know less than I do. :wink:

#7

Hey thats the one that Andy was telling me about on Sunday at York. I was actually thinking of using it for part of the layout…

#8

Bart,

Yes, that is the coal mine I was talking about...    The diagram doesn't show all the conveyers and towers..  Didn't really think about making a diagram of all that, when we were there...  

Only thing showing on the diagram, is the track layout, and the loader, with the elevator going up to it, from the covered coal storage area..

I'm assuming that the covered coal area, was to keep the coal dry, so an accurate weight could be ascertained for each car, and during the winter, to keep the coal from frezzing together...   They had big front end loaders running back and forth under the cover, and I was assuming that they were pushing coal to the orgin of the elevator to the loader..

But, we all know what assuming does....   <Smile>
#9

Interesting to say the least! I was wanting to work in a loop for continuous running , and that might just fit the bill…carfully disguised as industrial trackage.

#10

The one nice thing about this layout is, you can make the loop as small or as big as you want, to fit your modeling desires… It’s really very flexible… some piles of coal around, would hide the back loop, looking from track level…

#11

The storage area for the loader was a giant inverted funnel held about 12 feet off the ground (could have been higher) and maybe a football field in diameter. We speculated there was a trough that the coal was shoved into that carried the conveyor belt up to a hopper above the loading area. What I remember was a large number of conveyors allowing us to speculate that you could basically take the coal from anywhere to anywhere in the loading area. Many elevator storage bins and a conveyor coming out of the bottom of the loading area, so that over flooding could be picked up and eventually reloaded. What was as interesting as any part was the mile long conveyor going from one mine head to the other and then on to the loading area.

#12

Ric.
Thank you for the pic.

#13

Tony,
Now you’re going to get me in trouble. AndyC provided the picture and I tried to give proper credit. I will catch a 100 kinds of hell for taking credit for his work. But I also thanked him.

#14

Cool place.

#15

Now Tom, did you cheat and look at the drawing? Or did you take my excellant description and from that created a perfect drawing of what I had to put in to words?

#16

Tom-
Not sure what the deal in the lower right is, but the rest is looking at a snowstorm in the North Atlantic through a periscope…

#17

Dave…

That bit of “Art” in the bottom right corner, is the “Stick Man’s” arm and two fingers; holding 'er steady as you take a star fix, during a snowstorm, in the mid Atlantic…geeeees: I thoght you could see that…

#18

Try an edukate em. Try as we might and they still spell taters with a “P”. Sometimes ya just can’t win.

#19

Neat info thanks , now turn this layout into a figure 8 ,
and useing one switch / turnout , you can add the straight track , enter the switch , circle at 5 mph and unload the coal cars on trestle work , then continue on back thru the same switch [ reverse loop really ] and return to the mine , useing 3 dash 9’s or what ever to pull the train . And to vary the operation , pretend it is winter and freezing , and you can jerk the train back and forth to break the coal loose to fall …maybe .

#20

ROTFLMAO!!!