Tipple

Operation

Basic coal tipples simply load coal into railroad cars. Many tipples had simple screening equipment to sort coal pieces by size before loading. A modern coal mine facility usually includes a coal preparation plant which washes coal of soil and rock, before loading it for transport to market. The term "tipple" may be used interchangeably with coal prep plant.

Tipples were initially used with minecarts, also called tubs or tram cars, or mine cars in the U.S. These were small hopper cars that carried the product on a mine railway out of the mine. When a mine car entered the upper level of the tipple, its contents were dumped through a chute leading to a railroad hopper car positioned on a track running beneath the tipple. At some facilities, each car was tipped over manually—thus the name, "tipple". In higher volume facilities, each car was placed in a machine called a rotary dump, which rotated the car to dump the coal or ore.

In the early 20th century, mine operators began using conveyor belts to load coal and ores into railroad cars, eliminating the use of mine cars. At some mines the conveyor loading facility is still referred to as a "tipple".

File:Clarksburg Fuel Co Tipple 1908.jpg|A coal tipple in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1908 File:Tipple at copper mine. Franklin Mine, Michigan LCCN2017812991.tif|Tipple at a Michigan copper mine in 1941 File:Montour no. 4 mine 1942b.jpg|A rotary dump of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. File:Geography of Ohio - DPLA - aaba7b3295ff6973b6fd1e23e33cde14 (page 83) (cropped2).jpg|Coal tipple in Belmont County, Ohio, 1923 File:Blue-heron-tipple-ky1.jpg|Coal tipple in Blue Heron, Kentucky

References

References

1. (1905). "The Coal and Metal Miners' Pocketbook of Principles, Rules, Formulas and Tables". International Textbook Co.
2. International Correspondence Schools. (1900). "A Treatise on Coal Mining; Part 24". The Colliery Engineer Co.
3. Dixon, Thomas W.. (1994). "Appalachian Coal Mines & Railroads". TLC Publishing.
4. Ketchum, Milo S.. (1913). "The Design of Mine Structures". McGraw-Hill.
5. Rakes, Paul H. (2012). [http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1364 "Coal Mine Mechanization."] ''The West Virginia Encyclopedia.'' West Virginia Humanities Council, Charleston, WV.