# Mica Mining



## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

mica mining on the Squirrel Creek


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## dee.and.dude (Oct 9, 2016)

Nice 


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

I’m curious if that’s an old photo or did you adjust the color to look old ? Nice scene. :thumbsup:


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

a five year old photo of a HO model ..


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

Awesome scenery. Hopefully mine is that successful when I get to that stage on my layout. At this point I have my benchwork built and have a double track main just laid down to test what I’m working on that week. Still coming up with a good track plan to use that I’ll be happy with


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

thanks !!
it's basically DAP soaked industrial paper towel sprinkled with sandblasting sand ..
not fancy or high cost at all ..


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I am a mobile equipment mechanic so I go to a lot of the local mines and get to see places in them most people only see from google earth. One industry I want to do is model wedron silica in wedron il just instead of a silica mine I want it to be a coal mine due to me modeling the transition era so it will be a more appropriate industry


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

i considered mica to be era appropriate , they used it for windows in coal and wood stoves ... it fits 1890 era


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## Jscullans (Jul 8, 2019)

I take it you’re modeling a narrow gauge line?


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

Jscullans said:


> I take it you’re modeling a narrow gauge line?



nope, just a turn of the century backwoods mine / logging railroad .. standard gauge code 100 HO, not fancy at all ..
the mine cars are N scale with N archbar trucks, i think ??, can't remember that far back, lol


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## NorfolkSouthernguy (Jan 29, 2019)

Coal mining will be the biggest industry on my layout. That has always been the plan since I was a kid. I was born and raised in coal fields of SW Virginia. I have watched many tons of the stuff roll up and down the tracks. Norfolk Southern primarily did the pulling. CSX operated several engines out and about as well. 

I collected coal mining stickers when I was a kid. I still have about 6 thick photo albums page after page of all the coal mining companies big and small. 

I thought it would be a good idea to use some of the company stickers for signage on the layout. I am going to try to reduce the size of some of them then print them on decal sheet paper. They could be used for vehicle door signs, on the heavy equipment or even some train cars for that matter. 

I have about 10 mining kits with at least 4 being the Walthers kits you see often. This gives me lots of different ways to set them up with a variety of pieces from the kits. I plan to mimic Paramont mining and Westmoreland. For many years a huge coal belt ran off the mountain and across the 4-lane highway on down to a train loading facility. 24/7 day and night that belt ran coal . It looked like a huge round blue tube with lights ever so many feet. I wanted to mimic that one for sure. I was going to try to take a small motor to make the belt actually move, glue the coal onto the belt so it would appear to have coal on the belt at all times moving down the mountain. Placing the lights all the way up it just like I remember it to look like. 

Austin Powder company was a well known company that handled all the blasting agents and Oxidizer. My best friends dad worked there so I have a ton of those stickers. Joy Manufacturing was who supplied the underground mining cars along with many different types of mining equipment. I have a ton of those stickers as well. I have a ton of about all of the stuff related to the industry. Hopefully I can nail down the weathering pretty good because there is nothing about working in coal that is clean. Lots of dirty trains, trucks, equipment, rolling stock etc.. 

I never could keep my car clean. The coal trucks ran the roads 12 hours or longer a day. I would wash my car and try to have it sharp but it wouldn't last long. I wouldn't change a thing though from those days. I wish I could go back just one more time and live it once again. Those guys worked hard going back into those mountains every day and if your head lamp went out you were completely surrounded by the blackest dark dark can get! Hard work for little pay for many years.. the wages finally began to pick up more as I became a teenager. Black lung killed many friends, family of mine over the years. I never had a interest in being a coal miner but God bless the ones who were and still are because its a hard living.


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## QueenoftheGN (Dec 10, 2019)

nice photo


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