Hmm...unless you are going to open a big open pit mine in Wyoming, a coal road almost always involves mountains, tunnels, and bridges. If you'd rather not have these and want a mostly flat layout, why not model something like a granger road that picks up and delivers wheat from prarie skyscrapers to to something like bakeries or cereal makers in the city. That would be a lot more believable than a flat coal road.
what he's saying is, it wouldn't be prototypically accurate to have a coal mine without it being hilly or mountainous.
It'd be like having a coal mine in FL..no hills, just flat land....just isn't accurate!
You could do a phosphate mine (basically a pit a crane digs into) in FL with a railroad running to a fertilizer plant..........that is if you want to keep the table flat.
so why don't U make a steel mill, which will need coal from the coal tower ( or whatever its called, and Iron ore, both will use open top hoppers if those are the kind of cars U like
Take a quick look at the attached picture. It's a mine head (Consideration No. 8) located on the prairies of IOWA! Those are cornfields in the background. Consideration No. 8 produced 840 tons of bituminous coal per 8-hour shift (as of 1928). Its primary customer was Iowa Power and Light. In 1895, Iowa was the 14th largest coal producing state. Illinois was #2, well ahead of Kentucky (#9) and West Virginia (#4). Just goes to show the old saying "there's a prototype for everything" is still true.
I can't get the file to upload so here's the url: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/calvin&CISOPTR=363&CISOBOX=1&REC=16
There are coal mines all over Illinois. Some are strip mines, some are in the hills, but many operate beneath topographically boring farmland.it wouldn't be prototypically accurate to have a coal mine without it being hilly or mountainous.
...and what ever else uses coal.