BTS mine car on hand, and thought these would be adequate
for the Miller tipple. However after construction of the mine
car scale house, I discovered they are too large. In my ques-
tions with Steven Runkle, a relative of the Miller family, I was
told the mine cars were 2½ ton cars about 4’ 6” wide and 8’
long – about the same size as mine cars used in other Broad
Top mines. Models of the mine cars based on one that is on
display at Robertsdale, PA were produced in brass, but that
was in 1996, and they were expensive at the time. The old
Alexander Kanawha mine cars are now available from Tomar,
but, as with the BTS cars, they are also too large.
Using drawings from Don Heimburger’s book, “Along the East
Broad Top,” I modified the BTS cars to get the smaller mine
cars, reducing them by at least 30% and shortening the wheel-
base as with the Broad Top cars.
Begin construction of the cars by gluing the center sills into
the slots for the floor. Measure the distance between the axle
slots, and remove a scale 1’ between them, then glue them
back together. Narrow the frame of the car by measuring 6” on
each side of the slot for the ends. The line should be along the
1
1. Two BTS mine cars that have been modified to repre-
sent the smaller 2½ ton cars used at mines on the East
Broad Top next to an unmodified car for size comparison.
