# 4x8 coal mine, power house, layout



## csxmandave

Thought I would share a few pics of my 4x8 layout, 6 months and a lot of hours. I never should have went to that Christmas train show! I would guess, I'm not the only one to get involved in trains around Christmas time. Not many days go by without cars getting switched around, I am thoroughly enjoying it.







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This started out as 1 inch thick pink foam







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more pink foam turned into a coal mine where the trains pick up coal to take to the powerhouse







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Where the coal gets unloaded







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Allways a mess to clean up around there







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The coal goes into the grating where a conveyor takes it to the top of the boiler







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good place for the locos to take on fuel while unloading coal







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The church was the first thing I bought, I rembember when it was sitting in the middle of a piece of 4x8 plywood, just the way I am







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An aerial view of the power house







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substation an parking for the powerhouse employees







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Made the roads from shingles, the lines are cut from label stickers







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motorized oil well, you got to have a reason to buy a tank car







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when the generator field went out at the power plant RUSTY CUDA sent this replacement down







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That's all for now, hope you enjoyed. dave


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## apoc444

nice job sir looks good


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## Mayhem

OK I got to ask...Have you ever hooked enough cars together where the engine is right behind the last car? lol


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## csxmandave

Mayhem said:


> OK I got to ask...Have you ever hooked enough cars together where the engine is right behind the last car? lol


Before you asked I hadn"t, but I have now. :laugh:

thanks apoc444,


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## Carl

Thanks for sharing.....sure like the layout.


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## Ranger

Nice clean looking layout. Great Work!!!


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## The New Guy

That there is some fine work - good job.


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## golfermd

Very nice layout.

Dan


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## sanepilot

*nice layout*

That,Dave is a very neat,nice layout. Maybe someday mine might look as half as nice.

Keep up the good work,Everett:appl:


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## RUSTY Cuda

Nice setup, funny I was looking at the motor load, but something looked different, just figured it was a different one, on the truck bed & all, till I got further down & saw the note.:thumbsup:
Now I figure POWER plant workers might be gear heads, but every employee a hot car or hemi pickup, thats a cool workplace,do they race the 'Cuda & the vette when church lets out! 
I should do a dragstrip on mine, but all my muscle cars are matchbox or bigger sizes 
hwell: I guess I could race a renaut van against the ford sedan I have


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## csxmandave

Quiet a few of us own hotrods, I think we talk hotrods more than we talk turbines.  I went the matchbox/hotwheels route, just couldn't justify the 18$ ho cars. I"ve now found model power makes some nice hotrods in ho scale for only 3.99 each. Actually each vehicle at the powerplant represents someone that works there, although some need repainting. Getting the motor load from the railcar required the addition of a flatbed an crane. The crane goes for 70$ on ebay but can be bought directly from Bachmann for 25$ Be warned it took 3 nights of watching movies for assembly. I never saw so many parts.


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## tjcruiser

Crisp and creative throughout. The rock face near the coal mine is superb ... excellent shaping, coloring, etc.!

TJ


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## broox

csxmandave said:


> Thought I would share a few pics of my 4x8 layout,
> Where the coal gets unloaded
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> Allways a mess to clean up around there
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where did you get them from?

look cool!


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## sjm9911

Real nice. Looks great and we'll thought out.


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## Big Ed

Nicely done, :thumbsup: what do you have planned for it anything else?

What did you use for the grass on the mountain?


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## csxmandave

Broox,
Not sure which item you were asking about, here"s a link to the bulk transfer conveyer 
http://www.trainworldonline.com/cat...ries/bulk-transfer-conveyer-wpit-kit-933-3519
I got the construction workers at a train show but here they are 
http://www.trainworldonline.com/catalog/specials/ho-railroad-workers-6-1190
Any way I can be of more help just let me know.

Big Ed, 
Next will be add lights to the buildings, at some point I have to install the white elastic power lines!!!! (to the substation and power poles). The grass is mostly woodland scenic blended turf (green blend) but also used some burnt grass, and yellow grass. They have a nice video on there website of how to do that. The video is called "the clinic" done at a model train convention. It has a lot of great advice on how to use there products an I highly recommend anyone from a beginner to the novice to watch it.


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## broox

yeah, the conveyor. cheers for the link


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## California RailFan508

Nice work on your 4x8 layout so far, *CSXmandave*. :thumbsup:


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## onemodelcitizen

*great use of shingles!*

I'm a science teacher and I got into model railroading about 2 years ago when my classes and myself decided to build a layout for a coal "fair" here in WV. We did a 4x8 HO layout that really dumped coal. It was based on the CSX line, as that's what we have here. We also have Norfolk Southern. Anyway, that's what drew me in to your posts. It wasn't as clean as yours, but man I wish I had used shingles for the road! That would have gotten us extra points! LoL. Great idea! We used painted foam btw. I don't as of yet know how to upload an image but I will figure it out. If you like, you can view that layout on my Youtube channel. We got 2nd with this layout. Last year we won 1st in two categories with a Lego stop motion video (also on the channel). This year, it's back to trains with an N scale. I will be posting that build when it begins in September, 2013! Great work, man!

video: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_H2KLu7qm0


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## csxmandave

That"s a great layout you have there, so many moving and working parts. Its also a very nice video well done ! Kept me interested the full 10 mins. The music fits right in an it never got boring. Was a nice touch to see the young people that were involved in making it at the end. I think yall should have gotten 1st place !!!!!


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## kix662003

Wow! Great layout. You did a lot in a 4x8 space. Good to see all those muscle cars, too. It's car show/cruise weekend on my HO layout and it gives me a chance to to load the board!


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## onemodelcitizen

csxmandave said:


> That"s a great layout you have there, so many moving and working parts. Its also a very nice video well done ! Kept me interested the full 10 mins. The music fits right in an it never got boring. Was a nice touch to see the young people that were involved in making it at the end. I think yall should have gotten 1st place !!!!!



Thanks Dave! Keep us posted on your layout. I'm looking forward to seeing more.


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## onemodelcitizen

*HO Equipment*

Would you be interested in buying the conveyor you saw on that layout from the video the kids did? I'm trying to get rid of some HO stuff. We're doing an N scale layout this year. I have quite a bit of HO scale stuff to get rid of if you're interested.


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## IlliniViking

Awesome layout, great job.


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## BigBaby

Great layout. I'm looking to do a similar mountain/hillside in the upper left corner of the attached layout. But I've never done any modeling, would you have any pics from beginning to finish that would could possibly IM me?


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## csxmandave

Onemodelcitizen you have a PM,

Bigbaby this was my first attempt at doing any scenery, I did not take pics as I was doing it. What I did was watch the videos on woodland scenic website an watched a lot of videos on youtube about foam mountains. Take your time an watch the videos an it will turn out very nice. Like it says in the woodland scenic videos if you use there products an go by the videos its almost foolproof. I will totally agree with that statement,


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## BigBaby

Thanx for pointing me in the right direction Dave.


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