Here is where I will place all of my military or coal mine layout information that I find. I have plenty to start with now, So I will be getting started with basic foundations in a couple of weeks. All of my train stuff is elsewhere. I will be doing research starting tomorrow morning, and I will be researchinge every day until I go to get my train stuff in a couple of weeks.
Exohead's research development thread
- Thread starter Exohead
- Start date
Coal Mine Research: Wikipedia
I found this piece in an article on the Wikipedia website:
"Most coal seams are too deep underground for opencast mining and require underground mining, which method currently accounts for about 60% of world coal production.[13] In deep mining, the room and pillar or bord and pillar method progresses along the seam, while pillars and timber are left standing to support the mine roof. Once room and pillar mines have been developed to a stopping point (limited by geology, ventilation, or economics), a supplementary version of room and pillar mining, termed second mining or retreat mining, is commonly started. This is when miners remove the coal in the pillars, thereby recovering as much coal from the coal seam as possible. A work area that is involved in pillar extraction is called a pillar section. Modern pillar sections use remote-controlled equipment, including large hydraulic mobile roof-supports, which can prevent cave-ins until the miners and their equipment have left a work area. The mobile roof supports are similar to a large dining-room table, but with hydraulic jacks for legs. After the large pillars of coal have been mined away, the mobile roof support's legs shorten and it is withdrawn to a safe area. The mine roof typically collapses once the mobile roof supports leave an area.
There are five principal underground mining methods:
Longwall mining accounts for about 50% of underground production. The longwall shearer has a face of 1,000 feet (300 m) or more. It is a sophisticated machine with a rotating drum that moves mechanically back and forth across a wide coal seam. The loosened coal falls on to a pan line that takes the coal to the conveyor belt for removal from the work area. Longwall systems have their own hydraulic roof supports which advance with the machine as mining progresses. As the longwall mining equipment moves forward, overlying rock that is no longer supported by coal is allowed to fall behind the operation in a controlled manner. The supports make possible high levels of production and safety. Sensors detect how much coal remains in the seam while robotic controls enhance efficiency. Longwall systems allow a 60-to-100% coal recovery rate when surrounding geology allows their use.
Continuous mining utilizes a machine with a large rotating steel drum equipped with tungsten carbide teeth that scrape coal from the seam. Operating in a “room and pillar” (also known as “bord and pillar”) system—where the mine is divided into a series of 20-to-30 foot “rooms” or work areas cut into the coalbed—it can mine as much as five tons of coal a minute, more than a non-mechanised miner of the 1920s would produce in an entire day. Continuous miners account for about 45% of underground coal production. Conveyors transport the removed coal from the seam. Remote-controlled continuous miners are used to work in a variety of difficult seams and conditions, and robotic versions controlled by computers are becoming increasingly common.
Blast mining is an older practice that uses explosives such as dynamite to break up the coal seam, after which the coal is gathered and loaded on to shuttle cars or conveyors for removal to a central loading area. This process consists of a series of operations that begins with “cutting” the coalbed so it will break easily when blasted with explosives. This type of mining accounts for less than 5% of total underground production in the U.S. today.
Shortwall mining, a method currently accounting for less than 1% of deep coal production, involves the use of a continuous mining machine with moveable roof supports, similar to longwall. The continuous miner shears coal panels 150-200 feet wide and more than a half-mile long, having regard to factors such as geological strata.
Retreat mining is a method in which the pilliars or coal ribs used to hold up the mine roof are extracted; allowing the mine roof to collape as you retreat. This is one of the most dangerous forms of mining owing to imperfect predictability of when the ceiling will collapse and possibly crush or trap workers in the mine."
I think that this will be an excellent help towards my coal mine that will be on the layout. I am still going to have a military base but the entire railroad won't be centered around picking things up and dropping things off at the military base.
I found this piece in an article on the Wikipedia website:
"Most coal seams are too deep underground for opencast mining and require underground mining, which method currently accounts for about 60% of world coal production.[13] In deep mining, the room and pillar or bord and pillar method progresses along the seam, while pillars and timber are left standing to support the mine roof. Once room and pillar mines have been developed to a stopping point (limited by geology, ventilation, or economics), a supplementary version of room and pillar mining, termed second mining or retreat mining, is commonly started. This is when miners remove the coal in the pillars, thereby recovering as much coal from the coal seam as possible. A work area that is involved in pillar extraction is called a pillar section. Modern pillar sections use remote-controlled equipment, including large hydraulic mobile roof-supports, which can prevent cave-ins until the miners and their equipment have left a work area. The mobile roof supports are similar to a large dining-room table, but with hydraulic jacks for legs. After the large pillars of coal have been mined away, the mobile roof support's legs shorten and it is withdrawn to a safe area. The mine roof typically collapses once the mobile roof supports leave an area.
There are five principal underground mining methods:
Longwall mining accounts for about 50% of underground production. The longwall shearer has a face of 1,000 feet (300 m) or more. It is a sophisticated machine with a rotating drum that moves mechanically back and forth across a wide coal seam. The loosened coal falls on to a pan line that takes the coal to the conveyor belt for removal from the work area. Longwall systems have their own hydraulic roof supports which advance with the machine as mining progresses. As the longwall mining equipment moves forward, overlying rock that is no longer supported by coal is allowed to fall behind the operation in a controlled manner. The supports make possible high levels of production and safety. Sensors detect how much coal remains in the seam while robotic controls enhance efficiency. Longwall systems allow a 60-to-100% coal recovery rate when surrounding geology allows their use.
Continuous mining utilizes a machine with a large rotating steel drum equipped with tungsten carbide teeth that scrape coal from the seam. Operating in a “room and pillar” (also known as “bord and pillar”) system—where the mine is divided into a series of 20-to-30 foot “rooms” or work areas cut into the coalbed—it can mine as much as five tons of coal a minute, more than a non-mechanised miner of the 1920s would produce in an entire day. Continuous miners account for about 45% of underground coal production. Conveyors transport the removed coal from the seam. Remote-controlled continuous miners are used to work in a variety of difficult seams and conditions, and robotic versions controlled by computers are becoming increasingly common.
Blast mining is an older practice that uses explosives such as dynamite to break up the coal seam, after which the coal is gathered and loaded on to shuttle cars or conveyors for removal to a central loading area. This process consists of a series of operations that begins with “cutting” the coalbed so it will break easily when blasted with explosives. This type of mining accounts for less than 5% of total underground production in the U.S. today.
Shortwall mining, a method currently accounting for less than 1% of deep coal production, involves the use of a continuous mining machine with moveable roof supports, similar to longwall. The continuous miner shears coal panels 150-200 feet wide and more than a half-mile long, having regard to factors such as geological strata.
Retreat mining is a method in which the pilliars or coal ribs used to hold up the mine roof are extracted; allowing the mine roof to collape as you retreat. This is one of the most dangerous forms of mining owing to imperfect predictability of when the ceiling will collapse and possibly crush or trap workers in the mine."
I think that this will be an excellent help towards my coal mine that will be on the layout. I am still going to have a military base but the entire railroad won't be centered around picking things up and dropping things off at the military base.
More on how coal is mined - .pdf file included
Here is a PDF file that tells how coal is mined and it has nice large text so even King George III of England could read it without his spectacles. Anyways. Here is the link to the PDF: How Coal Is Mined PDF file
Here is a PDF file that tells how coal is mined and it has nice large text so even King George III of England could read it without his spectacles. Anyways. Here is the link to the PDF: How Coal Is Mined PDF file
Here's another PDF file
Here is another PDF file that details where the coal goes to, you guys may find this interesting because they have input on it from a BNSF railway official. Here is the PDF: Where Does the Coal Go? PDF file
Here is another PDF file that details where the coal goes to, you guys may find this interesting because they have input on it from a BNSF railway official. Here is the PDF: Where Does the Coal Go? PDF file
Exo, both those links don't work for me. In terms of where coal goes, the vast majority is used is power plants, steel mills, and other industrial facilities. It's also still used to run boiler plants to heat some large institutions like hospitals, prisons, and schools. Western coal, like that from the Powder River Basin, is highly prized back east since it is very low sulphur and meets most of the current emissions requirements. The current administration seems to be focused on making coal the bad guy for pollution so coal traffic may fall off drastically over the next several years as users switch over to natural gas.
Well well, I see that you are back to helping out again. Thank you very much for your input. I don't know why Barrack Obama and the rest of the presidential staff have convinced everyone that "coal is bad". It's so stinkin' annnoying.I thought that you all might find those PDF files interesting but they apparently aren't working. That's weird because they worked when I posted them. Anyways. I'm not to sure what or where the powder river basin is, but I suspect it has a large amount of coal in it. I was actually just going to pull it back to the town and load it into a barge that would, if I had more room, take the coal "down river". Again, thank you for your input.
Rico
BN Modeller
I used to work at a coal fired hydro plant before they switched to natural gas.... long story. Now they can't afford to run the damn thing unless in emergencies or power shortages in MN, MI or WI.
I used to run the loco and switch out 113 car BN unit trains brought in by the CNR and we had over three miles of track with sidings and a reverse loop.
We used to burn Saskatchewan coal, (lignite) but switched to Powder River coal (bituminous) as it was cleaner burning and cheaper to buy, well until the Gov. took their cut and doubled the price at the border. (Don't get me started on that one!)
I used to run the loco and switch out 113 car BN unit trains brought in by the CNR and we had over three miles of track with sidings and a reverse loop.
We used to burn Saskatchewan coal, (lignite) but switched to Powder River coal (bituminous) as it was cleaner burning and cheaper to buy, well until the Gov. took their cut and doubled the price at the border. (Don't get me started on that one!)
Wait a second. I forgot that I have my unregistered copy of Xtrkcad on my computer. I'll use that for my layout plan. I might be able to post it on here. I'll make up an operations plan and post a new thread for any updates to the track plan as well as the original track plan itself.
Rico, LOL, I had to do a double take when you said "coal fired hydro plant" until I remembered you were from Canada, where power plants are generically called hydro plants. Down here, hydro plants are run by water and coal fired plants are a separate category.
Exo, the Powder River Basin is in Wyoming. All the coal is strip mined. There are almost no rail served tunnel mining coal operations left now. The adminstration currently looks at all "non-renewable" power as bad, with coal being the worst. The ironic thing is that the only large scale renewable energy is water driven hydro, which causes great damage to entire ecosystems of the rivers they dam up to use for water diversion. This distaste for coal is one of the reasons why railroad stocks have dropped dramatically since the inauguration. Some railroads, like the NS and CSX, earn a large percentage of their revenue from coal so less coal means less revenue. Natural gas, OTOH, is moved exclusively by pipeline.
Exo, the Powder River Basin is in Wyoming. All the coal is strip mined. There are almost no rail served tunnel mining coal operations left now. The adminstration currently looks at all "non-renewable" power as bad, with coal being the worst. The ironic thing is that the only large scale renewable energy is water driven hydro, which causes great damage to entire ecosystems of the rivers they dam up to use for water diversion. This distaste for coal is one of the reasons why railroad stocks have dropped dramatically since the inauguration. Some railroads, like the NS and CSX, earn a large percentage of their revenue from coal so less coal means less revenue. Natural gas, OTOH, is moved exclusively by pipeline.
Well then, I guess I'll have to do a layout that is based BEFORE the current administration started saying that power from non-renewable resources is bad. Not really. I don't know what I will end up doing now. Jim, could you tell me the B&O operating dates until they merged with the C&O and made the Chessie System? Just one more time? I am trying to make a layout that will run realisticlly with the amount of track that I have. For now, I will have to have sort of a clashing of time periods as far as railroad lines go unless I can have both of my B&O engines running at the same time, one pulling passengers and one pulling coal.
Exo, the C&O obtained financial control over the B&O in 1963 but they continued to run as separate railroads until 1973, when the Chessie System was formed. Although the railroads still continued to run as separate operations, the Chessie paint scheme was standardized with just the owning road's initials under the cab numbers to distinguish them. So, if you want to operate the blue scheme B&O engines, sometime around 1976 is about the latest date you would have still seen one on the road.
Thank you very much Jim. I will have to do some more research on what buildings looked like in the '70s. I'll post it up here when I find it. Although what I am wondering is, if the B&O was no longer running the blue scheme engines by '73, why would I be able to run them in a '76 era? I'm just curious.
tomustang
I'm Blunt..
That's because their's two https in it, the links are:
http://www.warws.com/documents/Wheredoesthecoalgo.pdf & http://www.bmacoal.com/school_projects/documents/Howiscoalmined.pdf
Thanks for fixing those links, Tomustang.
Exo, you'd have a chance of seeing them as late as 1975 because the B&O engines weren't painted in the Chesie scheme in one fell swoop. They were repainted as they came in for major shoping or overhaul. This took about three years, hence the guess that the last blue B&O locomotives would be seen somewhere around 1976.
Exo, you'd have a chance of seeing them as late as 1975 because the B&O engines weren't painted in the Chesie scheme in one fell swoop. They were repainted as they came in for major shoping or overhaul. This took about three years, hence the guess that the last blue B&O locomotives would be seen somewhere around 1976.
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Strange! When did the administration change their position? The President made a lot of speeches in the campaign, during and after the inauguration saying that one of his goals was to push the technology to turn coal into a clean(er) fuel to help ease the imported fuel dependency. The Coal Industry Association, or whomever they are known by, even have a TV commercial showing the President saying during the campaign that he would do this. Doing this, he said, would solve a lot of our fuel problems since we have a several hundred years supply of coal, and you can put more people to work not just in mining, but in all parts of coal and related industries.
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Carey: Yeah. I was just thinking the same thing.
Jim: Okay. Thank you for clearing that up
. Any ideas where I might find accurate models of 70's vehicles, buidings, and clothing styles. I was talking to a friend who teaches a middle school level Home Economics class and she told me that since the
70's, clothing styles have changed a lot.
Tomustang: Yes, thank you for fixing my links. I apparently copied the entirety of the address accidentally.
Jim: Okay. Thank you for clearing that up
. Any ideas where I might find accurate models of 70's vehicles, buidings, and clothing styles. I was talking to a friend who teaches a middle school level Home Economics class and she told me that since the 70's, clothing styles have changed a lot.
Tomustang: Yes, thank you for fixing my links. I apparently copied the entirety of the address accidentally.
Exo, things have indeed changed since the 70's. Buildings are really not much different except there were a lot less strip malls then. Clothing has really changed. You've probably never seen bell bottom pants, leisure suits, or paisley shirts. The best place I've found to get a feeling for a specific time period os National Geographics from that era. The ads and stories are usually a pretty accurate reflection of what was going on. Your school or local library may have issues from the 70's in stock or on microfilm. They can also be found in places like thrift stores for around a quarter an issue.
The best place I've found to get a feeling for a specific time period os National Geographics from that era. The ads and stories are usually a pretty accurate reflection of what was going on. Your school or local library may have issues from the 70's in stock or on microfilm. They can also be found in places like thrift stores for around a quarter an issue.