Hi Matt,
Thanks
, the Rheinbraun is top of my list of favourites for industrial stock, been collecting images off the web for a few years now, factory and power station ones too, pretty good idea of the track plan and surrounding scenery, got the DEM too and even started to flesh it out a little, my problem is real technical info on the ELs and to boot l like them all so rather than a specific route l decided on a generic one, then you can mix and match as you feel fit.
Ironically since the Wall came down both LAUBAG and Rheinbraun are now working in cahoots with each other so possible swapping of stock is possible, however the LAUBAG tend to be more of a heavier normal stock and even use normal couplings, Rheinbraun on the other hand has very specialised stock.
Both companies actually ran a sub system of 900mm routes that tended to serve brikette factories as opposed to direct to powder burn power stations.
Lignite or brown coal is actually fascinating stuff, its no where near as dense as black coal and the seams are much thicker, in some case hundreds of feet thick, its actually more like peat and is only a few million years older, it would take another several hundred million years more to transcend to black coal....which wont happen as we will have burnt it all by then.
Lignite is also one of the worst if not the worst ozone layer depleating natural resource, however it is the easiest to mine and closest to the surface but being 'lite' needs an awful amount to fire just one power station.
Anyway l digress LOL, yes your right those bucket wheel diggers were featured on Chris Barries massive machines program, but even then its hard to really comprehend how big they truely are, l'm hoping to visit next year, Rheinbraun do specialised tours of the pit and surround industry, if l cant get on one of those l've sorted some good places to take photos from.
You can go here to view the East German sites and some good images of the cranes, they use a completely different system so there cranes are smaller and styled different
http://www.ostkohle.de/html/tagebau.html
Or you can go here to see the West German ones
http://www.wisoveg.de/rheinbraun/bagger ... agger.html
Wisoveg is a very good site to learn all about lignite mining in West Germany, theres also some serious political problems with what there doing,a simple google of Rheinbraun bagger will get loads of links.
As far as MSTS goes then Rheinbraun is pretty good as a self contained system, but is basically a merry go round system between collection points and power station, LAUBAG is better as you actually go down to the pit floor to load or in some case's unload ( overburden back filling ).
RAG is pretty good and runs through heartland Rhurgebeit, just north of Wupper express 9 actually, DE ( Duisburg Eisenbahen ) is also good with there multi power steel mill locos, serves coal mines ( black coal deep bore ), coke ovens and steel industries, as well as most of Duisburg low airdraft Rhein docks, and they have a good collection of MAK locos to choose from. The other is EH, technically (D)EH, Dortmund Eisenbahn and Haven, thats at the other end of Wupper express 9 and runs round the northern bypass route as well as through the heartland, again steel mills including Krupp Thysen where l belive locos are made, a canal docks system and obviously coal, they and DE still run hot bottle trains, as far as l know only DE, EH and SNCB in Liege still do this on national owned railways, though there was a French path set up but l think even thats now stopped.
Yup theres so much going on behind the scenes in industrial freight its mind boggling, its just finding the time to fit it all in !.
Best regards
Michael
, ouch, thats gonna hurt the old coffee pot funds !.