Mine tipple buildings in HO...why so few?


W

West Virginia Midland Man

Member
With the exception of New River Mine by Walthers, there are no tipple buildings of moderate size in HO. I wonder why? Coal railroading has a following with modelers Eastern and Western, yet Walthers is the only manufacturer to pick up the ball.

N Scale Architect did a nice anthracite tipple for the N guys, but no one else has done anything in HO.

Model Power has the "Blue Coal" loader, which is European and reflects nothing of US style. The AHM/IHC/Tyco/Model Power/ Pola version of Jack Work's scratchbuilt tipple from 1958 has been around since Hector was a pup. It's a Canadian prototype and also not very modern.

A truck dump (Blair Line) and a LaserKit offering (which they call a coal mine but looks barely able to offer a carload a day IMO) are about it.

I know dies are expensive, and kits often sit on store shelves once produced, but there are umpteen dozen of other kinds of industries made, why not tipple buildings?
 
WVM: What about BTS "Cabin Creek Coal Company" which more then fits the bill for a 30's-60's era coal company tipple. And the kit goes together resonabily well to boot.

Matt Dillow
MD Custom Models
 
mdcustom said:
WVM: What about BTS "Cabin Creek Coal Company" which more then fits the bill for a 30's-60's era coal company tipple. And the kit goes together reasonably well to boot.

Matt Dillow
MD Custom Models
Click to expand...

AH yes, Bill's offering is nice. I forgot about it. However, when one has multiple tipples using the same one over and over isn't recommended. Also, as nice as the BTS offering is, it may be above the budget line of some modelers. Still, there is a dearth of tipple buildings in most scales. Now that I think of it, the O scale and S scale guys don't have many offerings either.
 
I'm going to scratch build mine...

I'm modeling pretty much the same era as you, & judging by your user name, I'd say close to the same area (my layout is set in Bell & Perry Counties, KY - circa 1940)

I think it'll be a fun project...one of those old timber tipples, maybe partially sheathed with some corrugated metal...
I like that New River Mine kit ok, but WOW...you sure do see a lot of them...I want something a little more original!

I found this link...check out all the galleries...quite a few tipples, as well as a lot of photos of life in the Appalachian coal country...

http://www.coal-miners-in-kentucky.com/ACoalCamo.html
 
Great resource Drew and duly bookmarked! The reason for the topic though was to find out if anyone knew why or had an educated guess why that a hobby with so many coal mine modelers (especially Appalachian modelers) has so few model tipples? Even in other scales, model tipples are seemingly few and far between.

What would really be great is if some company would make corrugated panels (similar to what DPM and Walthers have done with brick for industrial buildings) that could be assembled as the modeler desires to build tipples (or for that matter, other buildings that take corrugated siding and conveyors and steps). They could make the supports separately, coal chutes, etc etc. That would save buying kit X and Y and fiddling around until you got something that resembles a tipple building.

(Before anyone says "Plastruct" and "Evergreen", I'm talking specific application, just like the DPM and Walthers brick modular panels. Tipple buildings are composed of multiple overlapping sheets of metal, not of one gigantic piece.)
 
I too like Drew am going to scratch build my own. For some years now I've had the plans drawn up somewhat copying a Coal Mine Tipple that Bill & Mary Miller featured on their On3 layout.

I'm in HO but their mine is very similiar to the Masters Creations 'Cabin Creek Coal mine but scaled down due to lack of space and I may likely have the same situation so it should work-out great. The nice thing is that I can add whatever fits my area. The Cabin Creek model is quite a model but more that I want to try and afford and too big I belive for a 1900-1920's era line I'm building so a bit more down sized and simplified is better for me IMHO.
 
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