Railroader,
October, November, and December, 1959, by Jack
Work. Both tipples are very complex, with multiple buildings, and
represent three different types of mines.
The Joller tipple is unique in that it has two types of mines, a
drift mine and a shaft mine that it serves. The White Rapids
tipple serves a slope mine. The different types of mines are
as follows: A drift mine has a horizontal shaft directly into the
hillside where a coal seam has been exposed. A shaft mine
is a vertical shaft that goes deep underground, and the coal,
ore, or other products are brought to the surface in buckets. A
slope mine is on an angle, and the mine cars are brought to the
surface with cables. Each type of tipple associated with these
different mining techniques has a distinct shape. The shaft
tipple is the most identifiable with its tower and hoist house.
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11: Front of the Martinsburg tipple showing the run out
trestle and the loading chutes for the hopper cars. On the
left is the truck chute with a 1934 Ford dump waiting for
its next load. Mine cars will be added to the trestle.
The Lite and Narrow Column - 7
Slope mines are a little more difficult to distinguish from drift
tipples, but a hoist house without the tower is usually a dead
giveaway. An overhead trolley system is the spotting feature for
a drift tipple.
It was not unusual to have multiple tipples close to each other
tapping different coal seams in the Appalachian fields. It is also
not unusual to have multiple tipples tapping into the same seam,
much like the ones on the East Broad Top at Robertsdale or the
Mann’s Creek at Clifftop. These are just two examples of where
this occurred. Don’t get hung up on just having one tipple on the
whole railroad if you are modeling the coal industry.
12: Close up of the rear of the company houses at
Adams. These structures were scratchbuilt using board
by board construction. More detail will be added in the
future when these are installed on the layout.
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MRH-Nov 2013
