Friday, November 18, 2005

Abandoned Coal Transloader

Here are 7 photos of a small coal transload in northeastern/central West Virginia. Trucks would come here, I'm guessing, with coal from surrounding mines, also likely of small size, and the coal would be dumped from the trucks onto a conyeor belt to be stored in a silo. It could either then be reloaded into trucks, or likely more commonly, into larger railcars. The facility is now abandoned, though it actually seems relatively modern- the condition, while rusty, is not exactly decrepit, and the pleasant hue of paint that (used) to cover the whole complex represents a trend that appeared in the 70's and continued onward.
This is the lower part of the complex, where coal from the silo heads on a conveyor belt into a tipple for dumping into railcars. Currently, those railroad tracks, along with the mine, are unused, but they look like they have recently recieved maintence; why, I don't know, becuase they end here. Across the creek in the backround is the main railroad track these come off of, and it seems scarcely used too.
Down at that building from the above photo it seems like a bear (?) has tried to get in!
I've seen plants out of buildings, on roofts, through concrete, but never coming up in between coal on a foundation of rubble. Its amazing how durable natural elements can be.
Climbing to the top of the storage silo.
Here is the most striking feature of this small complex, the conveyor leading up to the storage silo. Off to the left is a side coveyor for re-dumping into other vehicle.
The ground surrounding the silo is coyered in coal
View looking down from the silo, showing the conveyor belt rollers sans belt. The sky blue of the original paint is such a strange color in this setting, especially once heavily rusted.

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