Station 16 - Coal Grove

Location.

WWSL 1st Subdivision

Coal Grove (CG) is the northernmost station on WWSL's 1st Subdivision.

History. See O.K. Coal Company.

The mine was originally a wood tipple. A fire in 1937 burned the tipple and it was replaced with a corrugated structure.

Operations. I wanted this module to show a 1950's coal loading activity. Specifically I wanted to show:

• The mine head house, sorting tipple, loading conveyors and warehouse owned by the O.K. Coal Company.
• Auxillary structures include a power house and transformer yard that supplies both the mine and the WWSL with power.
• An empty yard, and a load yard.
• A scale track.

The WWSL arrives at Coal Grove with empty hopper cars. The road locomotive places emptys, and pulls loads. Those loads are moved to the scale track for weighing. On completion, the train is reassembled and departs for Demaine Yard. Additionally, the WWSL may interchange with the OPLC. Empty log cars would be placed on the storage track on the Reload storage track, and loaded cars picked up on the scale track.

Design.

As I contemplated the design of Coal Grove I realized that prototype arrival (empty yard) and departure (load) yards were not consistant with class 3 operations. I chose to selectively compress arrival, departure and mine sidings with a simple yard operation. A diamond yard configuration was selected, the north ladder track would represent the empty yard lead, and empty yard, the south ladder track would represent the load yard. The module would be designate as a yard and operated under Rule 93. The main line would be the south yard lead supporting the load yard and the scale track. 

Track Diagram

Coal Grove is spread out over three modules. The Empty Yard Lead is located on the Reload Station module, the lead switch to the Load Yard Lead is located on a short (5 foot) module located between Coal Grove and Basalt.

Roadway.

• Main track is owned by the WWSL and is built to relaxed standards.
  
• Scale track is owned by the WWSL and is built to relaxed standards.
  
• The empty and load yard leads are owned by the WWSL and is built to relaxed standards.
• The two empty / load tracks and the supply track is owned and maintained by the OK Coal Company to relaxed yard standards. .

Scenery.

• Background is Steep Terrain with Near Forest. 
• Mid-level i s flat ground.
• Near level is flat ground. 

Catenary/Signaling. Main track, scale track, and north and south yard ladders are under wire. Scale track has simple red (turnouts misalignment) / amber ( divergent track aligned) / green (scale track aligned) signal tied to turnouts.

Rolling Stock. O.K.Coal Company requires a variety of 50, 55, and 70 ton hopper cars (HM and HT) and gondola cars (GS). See History of Hopper Cars for additional information.

Structures. Structures located at this station will be:

• Mine head (wood)
• Mine tipple (corrugated)
• Warehouse
• Coal Yard
• Power Plant
• Transformer Yard
• Mine entry  (nice to have)
• Ventilation Shaft Building (nice to have)
• Scale House
• Scale

REFERENCES