Lite and Narrow Column - 2
Ron Pearson has drawn two tipples in the Friends of East Broad
Top’s
Timber Transfer
that include the support buildings, the
Robertsdale Number 5 and the Jollar tipple, the one featured in
this series of articles. He included all of the support buildings in
the articles and shoed how to construct them. You saw the first
of these with the scale house in the last article.
The types of support structures depend on the type of mine
that is being modeled. Shaft mines, easily identified by the tall
tower, must have a hoist house as part of the scene at a mini-
mum. A power house should also be present. A drift mine, one
that goes straight into the hillside, should have some indica-
tion of how the coal is moved from the mine to the tipple, and
the power used to move it. In most cases this is indicated by
overhead wires, and a transformer bank or a powerhouse is
needed. But if animal power was used, then, a stable would
be present instead. A slope mine, one similar to the Jack Work
tipple, needs a hoist house and a power house at a minimum
to represent the support structures.
Jollar tipple support structures
For this article, the only support items to be installed on the
tipple diorama will be the mine cars and the blacksmith/car
shop. The other structures will be mounted on ¼” foam board
for inclusion in the final scene when installed on the layout. A
map of Jollar from 1938 was used to determine their location
relative to the tipple, and I include that information here. For
example, the tracks are located on the south side of the tipple,
and the mine car scale house is located on the north side.
Mine cars
While technically not a support structure, no coal tipple scene
is complete without mine cars. I have several packages of the
MRH-Oct 2014
