Kotanga Valley Posthole Mining Co.

[Annie]

There's quite a bit of woodwork and messing around before I'll have the main layout boards for the Kotanga Tramway in place, but after working on converting my old Baguley IC loco model over to Lego gauge (38mm) so it can be eventually used on the Kotanga Valley Posthole Mining Co line, I started to think about the site of the mine itself. When I moved house to where I'm living now my tinplate 0 gauge layout had to be dismantled and the only surviving layout board ended up being installed in a corner of my bedroom with the intention that I might rebuild the layout one day. Well that never happened and it's not likely to so I'm going to clear away the remaining tinplate track and it can become the site of the posthole mine.

I don't have the space for an open cast mine, so it will have to be an underground mine which only needs a tunnel entrance in the landscape in order to be convincing. I would imagine that the underground mining of postholes might be more dangerous though.........


There used to be some fairly amazing mines and their supporting infrastructure around where I live that were literally clinging to the sides of the valley so I can have a bit of fun with designing the mine site if I want to.


Of course they were all gold mines, but I think posthole mines are much more fun.

I'm going to need some tippers for mine spoil, but you can't carry postholes in a tipper wagon because what do you think happens if you tip out a load of postholes? - that's right you end up with a big hole in the ground.
So I'm going to have a bit of fun designing a wagon especially adapted to carry postholes

[Annie]

So I tried out Anyrail and amazingly it has Lego track in its library. As you can see the mine layout is very simple. There's a steep hillside behind the buildings and all of the buildings and track are mounted on wooden staging over the river. I haven't decided yet how high above the river the staging will be as around here river levels can rise alarmingly during heavy rain.
I would like to make the river a feature and model the river bed properly and use casting resin for the water. It goes without saying that I will be doing the river level at its pleasant trickling Summer level so I don't have to spend a fortune on resin!

My plan is to make the section that joins the mining co with the rest of the layout mostly as a timber bridge section as it will need to be removable when the layout isn't in use. Now that I've found my bush tramway book again some of the pictures of timber viaducts look awfully tempting.

[sstjc]

I shall be following this with interest. I don't have a garden railway as I live in a rented house and i'm not sure I will be staying here so although I do have a portable layout, which has a glorified oval of mamod track (ie a mamod straight on all 4 sides... if that makes sense) the whole thing is quite cumbersom to set up particularly as this house is on a slope so virtually no flat and level area to set it up on.... So I intend over time to build an indoor track, inspired by John Rogers exploits, however mine would be a mine setting which can make use of my small battery engines such as the simplex's which I am very fond of...... I haven't got a name for it yet or settled on a design.

So coming back to your shenanigans Annie how big will these 'postholes' be, and what sort of wagons do you envisage being required and.... I know i'm going to regret this but someone has too.... have you got a picture of such a posthole ?

Barry

[Annie]

Post hole samples held at the local mining museum.


Special posthole handling tools used in posthole mining.


Packaged posthole ready for use.


The special mining carts have a rectangular open wagon type body with sides as high as a posthole is deep and the inside of the wagon body is divided into compartments, each being the right size to safely hold a single posthole.

On a more serious note though indoor garden gauge layouts are very possible Barry.  I'm lucky in that I have a largish bedroom and I'm able to give over half of it to building the Kotanga Tramway.  I'd love an outdoor layout and I do have space where it could go, only with me living with a chronic illness I couldn't manage to either construct or maintain an outdoor line.  As it is I have to get folk in from time to time to tame the wilderness that used to be the gardens surrounding the house.
The big advantage as I see it is that it's possible to build nice buildings and not have to worry about them suffering from the weather.

[tuppenced]

I don't have a garden railway as I live in a rented house . . . although I do have an oval of mamod track . . . no flat and level area to set it up on

It may not help you where you are, Barry, but in a similar situation I once set out my Mamod track semi-permanently on a flat roof.

Kids could watch, cheering-on the little lokey toiling up the gentle slope, without being able to trample.

David

[Big Jim]

As far as I know post holes were never mined in Wales due to the ease that they could be imported from abroad.

However we do have in Carmarthen a thriving Pot hole breeding program and I believe the last traditional Welsh doughnut hole factory was located only a few miles away and only closed a few years ago.

Special copper alloy for VW Beetle radiators was also produced for years in the north of the Principality.

[steam Technology]

Postholes have to be transported with extreme care.
There have been reports of trucks & trains getting wheels stuck in ones which have fallen off.

[Annie]

Postholes have to be transported with extreme care.
There have been reports of trucks & trains getting wheels stuck in ones which have fallen off.

Very true.

[Annie]

The Johnston 'B' bush tram lokey is an elusive beast.  A works drawing does survive, but nobody knows for certain how many were made and none escaped scrapping.

This is somebody's very nice 5 inch gauge live steam model just to give you an idea wot they looked like.


What isn't commonly known is that the Kotanga Valley Posthole Mining Co approached Johnson & Sons and ordered a very special version of the type 'B' that was smaller than any other type 'B' (Would that make it a b minor?).  The mining Co needed a lightweight articulated loco that could cope with the narrow clearances and tight curves found here and there about the premises of their mines.
Sooooooo Johnston & Sons produced this drawing which by sheer luck and happenstance has come into my possession.

By a stroke of absolute luck this little loco is just the right size in 16mm-ish scale to fit a certain kind of slightly uncommon 8 wheeled Lego 4.5volt chassis block that I have in my possession.  Understandably I am quite delighted  :D

[Annie]

I meant to say that if anybody wants to use this drawing to make a model of their own please feel free to do so.

[sstjc]

With an off centre boiler does that not cause stability issues...

Or do you counterbalance with post holes ?

Barry

[philipy]

Or do you counterbalance with post holes ?

[stoker]

It's all very well mining postholes,but do you have customers who need to buy them?

I,on the other hand,intend to model a gin mine....and I have a customer...hic......

[Annie]

With an off centre boiler does that not cause stability issues...

Or do you counterbalance with post holes ?

Barry

It's the Kiwi version of a Shay Barry.  I would imagine that the cylinder castings and all the transmission gearing would help with balancing things.

I do have a digital copy of the surviving original plans for the Johnston 'B' (not the 'B' minor) should anyone like to see them.

[tuppenced]

Need you ask, Annie?

Yes Please!

David 1/2d

[Keith S]

Postholes have to be transported with extreme care.
There have been reports of trucks & trains getting wheels stuck in ones which have fallen off.

They are even trickier to transport by sea, for obvious reasons.

[Annie]

Need you ask, Annie?

Yes Please!

David 1/2d

Enjoy

[tuppenced]

Thank you, Annie!

David