Products – Federal Mine

HO scale Federal Mine

- optional wood version (above) – optional metal version (below). Both building versions are included in the kit!

Details include: Interior etched floor boards, interior structure, one piece removable roof, plank siding that is engraved on the inside and exterior wall surfaces, full head frame with moving parts, work bench, forge, windows and doors that include laser-cut glazing, an optional rear shed, & much more!

Our trademark EASY to follow FULLY Illustrated step-by-step instructions make building easy!

Precision Laser cut wood construction.

Includes our paper corrugated roofing material and tar paper roofing.

Footprints

          N = N/A

          HO = 4.0" x 6.6"

          S = N/A

          O = N/A

With all of kits, we include some way for you to customize our structures right out of the box. This allows you to add you own personal touch to fit your layout.

See “The Design” section below for some of the included options.

Features:

The Federal Mine is one of the few remaining gold mine structures still standing in the Central City – Black Hawk area of Gilpin County, Colorado. The historic region has a rich history of gold mining and railroads. Gold mining began here in the 1850s, and Gilpin County was one of the earliest and most productive districts in the state. Later, as the mining industry expanded, the Colorado Central (later the Colorado and Southern) and Gilpin Tramway railroads served this area.

The Federal is on the southwest side of Russell Gulch, near the Old Town Mine vein - one of the district’s largest ore producers. Photographs published in Sundance Publication’s “The Gilpin Tram Era” hint that this mine building was built sometime between 1900 and 1908. Th e mine was situated above the Gilpin Tram mainline, and a short spur branched off near the south side of the mine. Though there are no records of this mine having shipped ore over the Gilpin Tram, a large ore bin is located where a spur could have existed.

The rugged winter weather in the Rocky Mountains required a year round, weather-proof structure. The size of the enclosing structure was determined by the prosperity and financial backing of the operation. Typical of most operations, the mine enclosure was just big enough to house the head frame, hoist, boiler, forge (for sharpening drill bits), and other odds and ends. Skilled craftsmen of the era assembled structural members, such as head frame timbers, with mortise and tenon-type joints. Exterior walls were saw cut planks nailed to irregularly-spaced studs and other framing members. Many of these mines were covered with tar paper, and sometimes a second layer of wood siding as the original layer weathered. More prosperous mines later clad exterior walls in flat metal (“tin”) siding, and corrugated metal siding nailed to the wood roof decking. The siding and metal roofing likely was painted, typically in a red iron oxide common for the time. Today, the hillsides of Gilpin County have regrown with pines and aspen trees, and the mine quietly weathers away in the woods. Someday, this mine will succumb, like many others, to time and the elements.

History:

The Design:

We have included many options for this kit. This mine can be built with the wood siding exposed. Boards are engraved on the inside walls, as well as, the exterior walls. A second option is to build the mine covered with our “metal” siding.

The rear of the structure has an optional shed that could be used as a compressor house, tool or equipment shed, or any other use.

Federal Mine - metal siding option

- without optional rear shed -

Federal Mine - wood siding option

- with optional rear shed -

Federal Mine