CSX Cumberland Division

[wm3798]

Oh, I have quite a connection to that quarry.  A million years ago, my dad worked for Standard Lime and Cement, which was merged into American Marietta, then Martin Marietta.  They operated an aggragate plant in Millville, and we would often take summer car trips to Harpers Ferry and environs, which inevitably included driving by "the mill".  Even back in the 70s it looked like it was held together with band aids and banjo strings.  The mill was actually on the left side of the road as you come down from 340, with the old quarry, and the newer quarry farther down on the right.  The mill was located in this patch.
https://goo.gl/maps/xQgowKFWAt9j4aRm8

The new quarry is quite a bit more elaborate.  The Google Maps satellite view gives you a really good overview of the track plan, the crushers, and the loaders.
https://goo.gl/maps/mELKLFm4jaNW9WC37

Here's the only picture I took of the quarry itself last time I was in the area (last summer).  This is just outside the gates of the load out.  I'm assuming the power from the inbound train of empties was laying over while the power for the next outbound train was being readied for take off.



There's also this interesting guy rotting away in the yard there.

Looks to be a CF7.  I assume it is or was the inside guy that worked the loader to put the trains together for the big guys out front.  This one looked pretty derelict, so I don't know if it has a more modern counterpart working the inside, or if CSX simply switches it now.  (I doubt it since they don't like to pay crews to do anything but wait for derailments to be cleared).

You can see the gates to the loader in the background.

While this is the only active industry in the area that gets worked by the railroad, you could consider bending light a little and model the Halltown Box Works a few miles further on...





No longer rail served, but a wonderful industrial conglomeration of newer and older building styles.
Lee

[wazzou]

There's also this interesting guy rotting away in the yard there.


Looks to be a CF7. 
Lee

I think it's just a former Santa Fe GP-7 with a "Topeka Cab"

[wm3798]

Ah yes... I see the frame is more GP than F.  Good eye.  The cab is similar to the later CF7 conversions, that's what fooled me.
Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ah yes... I see the frame is more GP than F.  Good eye.  The cab is similar to the later CF7 conversions, that's what fooled me.
Lee

They'll do that.

The easy tell is that the CF-7 has a pug nose AND a weird channel looking side sill.

[Point353]

There's also this interesting guy rotting away in the yard there.

Looks to be a CF7.
Lee

Originally ATSF GP7 2858: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4978595
Later ATSF GP7u 2143: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5473032

[Bob]

Hey Lee - do you live in the area?  I grew up just north of Baltimore, which is how I got the bug to model Harpers Ferry, and am now outside of Philly.  I need to find some photos and/or an article that describes how an aggregate quarry works.  The helpful Google image you shared looks like there are piles of stone and various conveyor belts.  I have room to model some of this, but would like to know what these converyor belts actually do - are they used to load the cars, or is there something else that does this?  Next time I am down to take photos I'll swing by to see that old loco!  Bob

[wm3798]

I'm actually on the Eastern Shore (St. Michaels area), closer to you in Philly.  But I do business in the Blue Ridge, so I'm out there a lot.  I also went to Shepherd College, so I'm pretty well versed in the geography, if not the operations of the line, although my frame of reference is more early 80s than current events.
For modeling purposes, those google views should give you most of what you need.  The area is pretty well gated in, so I don't know if you'd be able to get much closer to the action.
The old mill had a big vertical bin and a crusher, and a veritable roller coaster of conveyors to the loading tracks, but it's all gone now.  I don't see anything like that in the new yard.
Lee

[John]

  I need to find some photos and/or an article that describes how an aggregate quarry works.  The helpful Google image you shared looks like there are piles of stone and various conveyor belts.  I have room to model some of this, but would like to know what these converyor belts actually do - are they used to load the cars, or is there something else that does this?  Next time I am down to take photos I'll swing by to see that old loco!  Bob

https://www.in.gov/indot/files/chapter_05.pdf

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https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=how+agregate+planst+work&atb=v230-1&pn=1&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dxp8pnljlckQ

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[Bob]

Wow!  Thanks for all this information - these videos and the google view will help me put something together that is reasonable.  Lee - St. Michaels is great!  Bob

[John]

This is also perfect for using grout as the scenery base ..

[Bob]

Good point John - it looks very powdery.  Thanks for the suggestion.  Bob

[mu26aeh]

Here is a Vulcan quarry on the Hanover Subdivision that I model.  It use to have two loadout buildings, neither are used today.  The crushed limestone building (nearest the silos) was used until Caremuse said it was too expensive to operate out of this facility.  The stone loadout that has the 3 conveyors to it was put out of service because the aggregate would get stuck throughout the bins, then contaminate other sizes when it got knocked loose, if you understand what I mean    Cars are now loaded by a large front end loader further to the left, between what is the quarry engine house and said loadout.  These things are huge, like a CAT 992K.  A couple of buckets and car is overflowing.  Here is a 3D printed version, available on eBay or Facebook sale groups.  He also has the 777 in the back, as well as a water buffalo and other equipment that you'd find at a quarry.





Not all aggregate is mined here.  You'll see on the upper most track a string of 100 ton 3 bay hoppers.  These come in from another mine in the southeast part of the US, with another type of aggregate they sell out of this quarry.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8326518,-77.019548,1488m/data=!3m1!1e3

I have modeled the limestone building, have yet to start on the aggregate loadout.

[CRL]

Rock quarries & sand pits are great facilities to model. They are frequently rail served, they come in all shapes, sizes & can be configured to fit almost any modeling space with conveyors leading to out-of-sight implied areas off layout. That way, you can model as much, or as little of the facility as you desire.

[Bob]

After working on my scenery and scratch-building skills over the past 1.5 years, I have decided to start work on Harpers Ferry.  I am not going to touch Maryland Heights, which I am modeling 1:1, until I have more experience with using and painting plaster rock castings.  One of the reasons that I chose to model Harpers Ferry is that the historic town is incredibly compact.  In fact, you could model the entire lower town with no compression at all in a 4x5 foot space.  However, I have about half of this space: the two bridges that cross the Potomac in my layout, while 90% scale length, are placed at a more acute angle relative to each other - about one half of the real angle.  This was done because otherwise the depth of the layout would have been a bit more than 4 feet, and I was not interested in having an access hatch.  So, the space I have is much more narrow than in real life.  Thus, selective compression is in order.  I used a topographical map and Google maps to determine the general layout of the major streets and the overall topography.  I then used the distance tool in Google Maps and at the highest magnification measured the dimensions of all key buildings.  I typically reduced the size of these by 10 to 25% except for the small buildings, like John Brown's fort, which I left at full size. Fortunately, older buildings tend to be rather small!  I then printed out 'footprints' of these buildings, cut them out with scissors, and began laying things out.  I think I am pretty much set - the photo shows the layout with the streets labeled.  The orange lines are the contour lines.  While I am compressing things horizontally, I've decided to not compress things vertically.  As a result, the streets will be steeper than in real life, but I think you can get away with this in N scale as long as you don't over do it.  The Potomac is off the left, with the HF train station at the bottom and John Brown's fort at the top.  The ruler is pretty much on top of the Winchester branch, which I am going to displace an inch or two to the north.  I wrote elevation numbers on the layout. Shenandoah Street is at 270 feet, about 20 feet below track level.  The iconic church is at about 350 feet, or 80 feet (6 inches) higher than the low part of the old town.  I think this is reasonable, but once I cut the Styrofoam and start shaping things I can make some adjustments.  I may not have posts for quite a while as I have about 20 structures to scratch build with lots of sidewalks and other interesting features that make Harpers Ferry such a fun place to visit!

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[wm3798]

You have to think of it less as an architectural model and more as a theater set.  What makes Harper's Ferry so wonderful is the verticality of it and it's delightful jumble of oddly shaped buildings interspersed with lots of mature trees.
Unless you are planning to push your mini metals autos from place to place while making zoomy sounds, the streets need only be suggested.  The main foreground streets can be condensed also, but not as much as the ones that climb and wind around the town.
I'm really going to enjoy watching this build.  I've dreamed of modeling the area since I lived there in the 80s, and again, you're nailing it!
Lee