[N&W] Re: Tipple Operations

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

 >I grew up in the Southern West Virginia coal fields of United States
 >Steel which had 14 mines in its Gary District in McDowell County. Most
 >mines ended with stub tracks but not all.
 >
 >For stub mines you normally had two sets of tracks.  One set ran under
 >the tipple and one track ran outside the tipple.
 >
 >The Filbert no.9 mine shipped about 80 to 100 loads per day. The train
 >would come up from Wilcoe Yard each morning pushing empties past the
 >tipple anf leaving them on the double storage track. The empties would
 >then be gravity fed through the tipple  and stored as loads on a single
 >track.  After the engines were finished shoving the empties into the
 >storage track it would go back down the parallel track, couple to the
 >loads and go back to Wilcoe yard.
 >
 >If the tipple was located adjacent to the main there would be a storage
 >track on one side of the tipple for empty's continuing through the
 >tipple to the other side for loads.
 >
 >Most of the Gary mines operated the same way.  A train of empty's in
 >with the train picking up loads on way out.  The train never waited for
 >loading operations.  The mines ran three shifts per day.
 >
 >Alex Schust
______________________________
If you picked up 80 or so loads at Filbert, you just didn't go back to
Wilcoe Yard.  The grade was steep so you'd better pump a good charge of air
into 'em before you let 'em shove you out of there.  I know a guy who didn't
one time and he was lucky to get them stopped at Gary.

And didn't the Filbert cars get delivered directly to the cleaning plant at
Gary?  I seem to remember that unless there was a glut of #9 coal, none of
it went to Wilcoe, but was shoved into the cleaning plant.

I spent a year as Assistant Yardmaster, third trick, at Wilcoe in 1962.
Maybe the best job I ever had.

EdK
_____________________________________
Russell,
   My grandfather William (Bill) Cochran worked at Crumpler all the time I
knew him, and I intent to model the tipple/mines there.  Would you tell
me/us some more details about the operations there?
Thanks,
Jim Cochran
_____________________________________
     Can anyone come up with a simple but yet realistic track plan for coaling
tipple operations.? I am an O guage railroader and in process of
scratchbuilding a coaling tipple (small to medium loading)  and would like to
know how to arrange my tracks according to realistic operations that have
been discussed here. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Jeff