To my mind, there are few finer websites for inspirational photographs of mines and mine equipment for model railway layouts than Subterranea Brittanica. It was on this site, many, many years ago that I became enamoured of pictures of the entrance to the drift at Ayle Colliery. In exposing the picture for details in the mine entrance, the sky has become totally blown out. Isolating everything, making it look like a model. I have wanted to re-create this scene for a long time. So, incorporating some of this in my original Nogg Freemine layout was at the forefront of my mind.
There is a lot of information on the internet about Ayle colliery, a quick Google search will reveal a lot of information and delightful photographs that would do much to inspire many an industrial modeller. That would be a real rabbit hole to go down.
But…
The Cartel Challenge also afforded me the chance to incorporate the atmosphere of that image into a layout. Sure, the photograph only has one track in it and the Squarefoot has two. But it’s the atmosphere I’m after. All that lovely mining detritus strewn around. So I started to doodle.
One thing I had been drawn to in the pictures of Freemines in the Forest of Dean. (Other than the incredible ingenuity of the miners in adapting diverse items for mining purposes). Was the use of shipping containers on site for storage, and a shipping container appears in all my early sketches for my Freemine layout.
I’d thought about using one as a workshop. Slicing the end off so that you could see a workshop inside, with someone at work creating some kind of mining equipment from something else entirely. I even ordered a 1:20 scale shipping container from a seller on that well known internet auction site. But it never arrived. (I did get a refund).
Just as an unloading was a feature of the original Squarefoot. So it would be a feature of my layout. Side tipping, even end tipping. Such a feature is needed to keep the viewers interest in a layout where trains only go backwards and forwards. Here’s a couple of early sketches of the Mine concept. The sketches are generally free of mining detritus and tipper details for clarity.
A couple of ideas. They may, or may not get used. I like the mine idea. There’s no buildings. Even a small shed would be big in 16mm scale. That’s something I should bear in mind.
1. The first sketch. Quite simple. Two lines emerge from the Adit mouth. One goes to a tipping feature at the front of the layout. The other line could be for storage of stock.
2. Another idea. This time I’ve moved the Shipping container to the rear siding and left it open ended to see the detailed interior. There’s a 3D printer in the UK, 3DWayne who produces a short shipping container that may be useable in this concept. Also, if I had a side tipping feature on the front siding, the tipping actuator rail could be hidden against the container wall.
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