HOn30 Mine Trains Advice


wheeler1963

Aurora & Portland Owner
Gentlemen, I need some advice on how to integrate my HOn30 mine train into my future layout. A little background first. My railroad is based in Northern Illinois/Indiana, flat lands, mostly corn/soy bean fields. Not much as far as hills/mountains. So having a mountain isn't a possibility.

I have a rather large collection of these HOn30 cars that I inherited from Mark (MGWSY) when he passed away. I've thought maybe a gravel pit or something like that. My question is how to make this HOn30 line tie into my HO line. What type of facility would the mine cars dump at to transfer into HO cars? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated before I start laying track next spring.

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Well you asked gentlemen but I’ll answer anyway.
First off I had no idea Mark had passed, sorry to hear it! Guess I need to check in with the coffee shop more!
Second, I think a gravel pit operation would be perfect! One better might be a stone quarry which would bring in an even bigger variety of freight cars.
There are/were narrow gauge ops in pits and quarries around here at one time.
 
Well you asked gentlemen but I’ll answer anyway.
First off I had no idea Mark had passed, sorry to hear it! Guess I need to check in with the coffee shop more!
Second, I think a gravel pit operation would be perfect! One better might be a stone quarry which would bring in an even bigger variety of freight cars.
There are/were narrow gauge ops in pits and quarries around here at one time.

Rick, OK that is a start. Now how would I transfer from the small cars to larger ones???
 
In a gravel pit the small cars could be spotted over a conveyor to load directly into the standard gauge cars but could also be used to feed a crusher or processing plant.
In a quarry that shipped cut stone the narrow gauge cars would haul the tailings either to another plant or up an incline to a kiln.
There’s a few ideas to start with.
 
I remember reading about a brick operation that had cars with regauged 28" wheels from TTX equipment. The train hauled clay from the source to the brick factory. I don't remember how the bricks were shipped.
 
I remember reading about a brick operation that had cars with regauged 28" wheels from TTX equipment. The train hauled clay from the source to the brick factory. I don't remember how the bricks were shipped.

Paul that is a good idea too. A clay pit to the brick factory.
 
Hi,
I know I am a bit late to the party, but my compliments, YOU SCORED!
Enough cars for 4 different industries and 2 great locos.
Th black car are of 2 different types. The Steel steel square ones are typical ore cars, the gable bottom ones are based on a British Prototype and are usually drop bottom ones that transport coal.
you have 2 different ones of the side dumps. The V Skips are for general quarry operations and sand pit. The square skips are actually for mixed concrete.
As for industries, you have various options. One is the Sand and gravel pit, the other is a coal operation transporting mined material to the crushing/washing operation and the gable bottom ones to transport the cal to a loading facility.
Then you have to other more general purpose cars.
And to pull all the cars, 2 fantastic locos. Should you decide to have more Pulling power, the BACHMAN N Scale switcher make a great Quarry Loco.
I built one of them years ago and happened to find it again after a move.
All you need to do is change the cab.....
Then as usual the problem began...I wanted to build a small quarry operation. But once I bought the crusher model it all went out the window....
Now I am building a larger quarry layout with larger rolling stock and locos.
I am still using N Scale drives and convert them to HOn 30.....lots of possibilities....
The white/yellow one is a TRIX chassie and a SHAPEWAYS body...
Then I used an old ARNOLD drive and built a larger Narrow gauge loco...
in the meantime it is growing...
In other words you have endless possibilities.
have fun
Chris

If you take a look here, you can see the other Rolling Stock and Engines and follow the progress of the layout and equipment.
 

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Gentlemen, I need some advice on how to integrate my HOn30 mine train into my future layout. A little background first. My railroad is based in Northern Illinois/Indiana, flat lands, mostly corn/soy bean fields. Not much as far as hills/mountains. So having a mountain isn't a possibility.

I have a rather large collection of these HOn30 cars that I inherited from Mark (MGWSY) when he passed away. I've thought maybe a gravel pit or something like that. My question is how to make this HOn30 line tie into my HO line. What type of facility would the mine cars dump at to transfer into HO cars? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated before I start laying track next spring.

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Wheeler1963 here in Kansas mostly in southeast Kansas we had brick plants with small narrow gauge industrial railroads going to and from the plant, the storage yard and clay pits. I don't know about Indiana, but it might take some research to find out. Myself I am tempted to model albeit a freelance model of a Kansas narrow gauge railroad in On30. Look up the Kansas Central Railroad and its later configurations as the Kansas Central Railway and Leavenworth and Western.
 
In Kansas mostly in southeast Kansas we had brick plants with small narrow gauge industrial railroads going to and from the plant, the storage yard and clay pits.
Lots of bricks.
Columbus, Neodesha, Buffalo, Coffeeville, Cherryvale, and Pittsburg were all along the coal fields where the red clay under the coal (underclay) proved to make excellent bricks. While this was centered in southeast corner of Kansas, other good brick material light colored is found in the Cretaceous formations throughout the western part of the state.

Here are a few of the red brick in my collection from southeast Kansas. The third down is the most famous Coffeville brick was used for paving around almost every Santa Fe Railway station in Kansas and Oklahoma. This particular brick came from the passenger walking surface around the stucco "county seat" style station in Kiowa KS (rip).
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I was thinking of modeling such a plant, but the only Kansas Narrow Gauge a three footer ran from Leavenworth to Moundville a distance of 162 to 163 miles. It was narrow gauge from 1871 to 1889. The railroad was first called the Kansas Central Railway then after a bankruptcy and reorganization the Kansas Central Railroad and finally after becoming part of the Union Pacific and another reorganization and switching to standard gauge between 1890 and 1892 the Leavenworth, Kansas and Western.

The Kansas Central gave me another idea for making my On30 narrow gauge. Instead of a mountain or western desert mining railroad why not a railroad servicing the coal mining areas of Bourbon and Crawford Counties, the farms west of there and some of the brick plant belt. Like the Kansas Central the Lost Creek and Western chose narrow gauge to save on the cost per mile of building. For the brick plant narrow gauge I thought about doing it in On18 (I have several N gauge turnouts and lots of other track) that goes from a clay pit to the brick plant and yard. There would be a spur from the On30 into the plant and I also thought about another On18 line coming up from a pit coal mine and using some ore bins to transfer the coal into the On30 hoppers, gondolas and ore cars for transferal to the standard gauge Saint Louis and San Francisco Railroad off scene.

My switch from HO and N to On30 and On18 was spawned by my reduction in eyesight as I entered my fifties. My eyes were having trouble seeing the wheels and details of the smaller scales and 1:48 scale was just large enough to model and still get a lot in a square foot. I chose On30 and On18 because of all the HO and N track and turnouts I have. Though to honor two of my inspirations I may still wind up modeling a mountain or desert narrow gauge line. I am inspired by Dave Meek and his Thunder Mountain Mining Company and Brent Underwood and his work to preserve and rebuild what he can of the California mining town of Cerro Gordo.
 



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