This is a photo of a totally scratch-built coal mine that started out as a model of a coal mine built by Jack Work, a Master model builder, that was described in a 3 part series in Model Railroader Magazine starting in December of 1959 and running in the January and February 1960 issues. I have added additional details and expanded the building to incorporate an elevator so that supplies can be warehoused and raised to the mine by elevator.

Below is a photo of the same mine showing the freelanced addition added to the right in the photo. The original model is made from balsa wood because at the time I didn't know about Northeastern's strip wood and construction sheets. The addition to the right was added in 1989 using matboard overlaid with Northeastern wood material. This was my first attempt at scratch building a model. The left side of the model has since come out in kit form made by "Lifelike Model."



Photos by Doyle Davis