A Small Mine Railway Model

A Small Mine Railway Model - Introduction , Bo Justusson

Prototype I started to build a small model railway in 1995. The layout depicts a branch line for transport of iron ore from a mine on a mountain down to a main station that has a small harbour and an outgoing track (thought to lead to the national railway network). Inspiration to the plan is from some early Swedish railways that were built around 1850 to transport iron ore and products to the nearest channel or large lake. The national railway network was built in the years after and the early local railways were connected to it.

Trackplan, preview
3-axis ore wagon

Trackplan For the track plan I wanted a realistic touch, and got inspiration from some fantastic constructions in Switzerland and Germany: When a track has to climb on a mountain side, one has used 180-degree turning tunnels at the ends, resulting in a S-shape of the track, a serpentine. Such designs are very useful for small model layouts.
Another feature inspired by Swiss railways is a bridge connected directly to a tunnel into a steep mountain side, as for the famous Landwasser viaduct. The model is so small that it can be lifted, and placed hidden behind a door when not used. Its size is: length 200 cm, width 100 cm, height 40 cm, weight 12 kg.
I have used H0 scale and standard gauge with very small track radius, only 25 cm. Naturally, on such a small layout one can only use small locos and wagons. In fact, it might have been better to use narrow gauge.

Most Interesting I have found it very interesting to study railway and mining history to get good prototypes for the model. This includes visits to historical places: old mines, iron works and, of course, museum railways with steam engines. I have collected tourist tips about places to visit, references to books, and links to other home pages, on two separate pages:
- Tourist Information
- References and Links

Internet Pages The html-pages are made with tables to get a page layout with one heading column and two text columns. Images have when possible been stored as 16-color GIF-images, since they make small files and thus can load fast.
- The scanned images are not so good. Have you any tips to improve them?

Prototype	I started to build a small model railway in 1995. The layout depicts a branch line for transport of iron ore from a mine on a mountain down to a main station that has a small harbour and an outgoing track (thought to lead to the national railway network).	Inspiration to the plan is from some early Swedish railways that were built around 1850 to transport iron ore and products to the nearest channel or large lake. The national railway network was built in the years after and the early local railways were connected to it.
	Trackplan, preview	3-axis ore wagon
Trackplan	For the track plan I wanted a realistic touch, and got inspiration from some fantastic constructions in Switzerland and Germany: When a track has to climb on a mountain side, one has used 180-degree turning tunnels at the ends, resulting in a S-shape of the track, a serpentine. Such designs are very useful for small model layouts. Another feature inspired by Swiss railways is a bridge connected directly to a tunnel into a steep mountain side, as for the famous Landwasser viaduct.	The model is so small that it can be lifted, and placed hidden behind a door when not used. Its size is: length 200 cm, width 100 cm, height 40 cm, weight 12 kg. I have used H0 scale and standard gauge with very small track radius, only 25 cm. Naturally, on such a small layout one can only use small locos and wagons. In fact, it might have been better to use narrow gauge.

Most Interesting	I have found it very interesting to study railway and mining history to get good prototypes for the model. This includes visits to historical places: old mines, iron works and, of course, museum railways with steam engines.	I have collected tourist tips about places to visit, references to books, and links to other home pages, on two separate pages: - Tourist Information - References and Links

Internet Pages	The html-pages are made with tables to get a page layout with one heading column and two text columns.	Images have when possible been stored as 16-color GIF-images, since they make small files and thus can load fast. - The scanned images are not so good. Have you any tips to improve them?

For more information use links at: Railways - Start Page