Here is my homemade DavidsTea fine grain sieve.
Gypsum powder sifted out.
And finally, very fine particulate gypsum which I have used for filler and track ballast.
There are some cons - other than the qualities in the material itself - for using “real loads”.
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Excess weight is often the biggest discouraging factor. It doesn’t take many overweight cars to severely limit a given loco’s hauling ability.
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Sooner or later an overweighted car of real product will derail and fall over, spreading the contents everywhere. I guess if one has a “plywood central” its no big deal, but those that have beautifully scenicked right of way - well that is another story.
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Often, the “real thing” just doesn’t look right on our layouts. That’s subjective of course, but I’ve experienced it many times with various materials.
On the other hand, there is a solution that would work for many of us. By building a base of foam or cardboard or whatever that would fit in the car, and covering that base with adhesive, the real material could be applied and shaped to the builders content. This would significantly reduce weight, eliminate the trauma of spillage, and allow the cars to be handled at will.
For what its worth…the above all came from experience.
What exactly do you mean by “lifetime” test(ing)?
Rich
OK, fine, thanks for explaining. Obvio
Rich, from what I read above, I believe others have cautioned the OP that having these raw materials near/in the trains may create a corrosive invironment. Surely too much of any salt just laying around may not be good…
Sheldon
In Nova Scotia rock and mineral collecting is permitted by the Government. This is in writing on some of their public documents. Private property I get permission like the barite silos in Walton. You can even sell what you find at rockhounding shows, etc.
I am not trying to appeal to modellers. I am presenting what I do. Working with natural materials is my valuable modelling time. BTW, I do use real trees to make all the lumber in my structures! This is called fine woodworking and artwork. My username says old school and that is exactly what I do. With the exceptions of trains, tracks and electronics, my modelling scenery predates the invention of commercial plastics. All my scenery is handmade primarily from wood, stone and glue.
Again, I understand, thanks for sharing.
While I have no interest in sifting minerals for car loads, or milling my own lumber to scratch build with, I am a very traditional modeler myself, doing a fair amount of kit bashing, scratch building, craftsman kit contruction, and using a fair amount of traditional materials. Only a small percentage of my rolling stock is RTR, most buiilt from
2. Shale Shale is also found in many places in my real Nova Scotia layout area. Shale is often found in sheets like the one shown in my hand. This piece was collected off the shale beach in Walton. Shale is even easier to work with than gypsum and can be processed using all the techniques I discussed for gypsum. I use shale more than any other natural material in my layout work. It is used for rail beds and track ballast, buttresses and foundations, roofing to simulate a New England style slate roofing for example, bedrock, ground cover, scenery, and hopper loads. The piece in my hand is slated for the roof of my feed and seed plant.
Walton shale will be used everywhere in my layout to build up rail beds and to lay track ballast. This was an early work up at my metal scrapyard - much more refined now. There are no giant boulders on the tracks now that I have a better technique for laying down ballast.
This is a shale outcrop that will eventually have soil and moss on top.
Shale bedrock used by the company to pile real Nova Scotia scrap metal.
Time to replenish my fine shale supplies.
Each test track has a hopper car load. That’s it for shale.
Thanks for posting this experiment-in-progress. It obviously merits little appeal to some here, but I have wondered about such things without bothering to set up an experiment. In my case, it’s the durability of the drive mechanism that would be of interest as I read about a wide variance across many posts. However, your own interest is handily laid out for us, and I will be interested to read of your findings. I use local beach sand (east coast of Vancouver Island) for my ballast and have no regrets. I don’t have real loads, but I have some chunks of local anthracite that will probably end up in a gondola or two. So, have at 'er! [8D]
One caveat that would also be something I would want to keep an eye on is the ‘price’ of the heavier natural loads on the bearing cones in the plastic Delrin trucks on the rolling stock. Again, it’s hearsay, but I have read that the plastic won’t stand up for long. Is it so? Would a lube of some kind, say a molybdenum or graphite work, white lithium, Dextron III Mercon ATF (as I was convinced to use years go), extend the lives of the cones?
-Crandell
With over 900 views and the moderator moving this thread early on to the General Discussion category (I didn’t ask, it just happened), I think there are a few modellers out there thinking creatively about what they can do with some of the ideas I am putting forward. Imagination and creativity are wonderful things. Cheers.
I just re-read this thread and realized that I had missed this when I asked, what do you mean by lifetime testing.
So, you are conducting this experiment to test the adverse effect on your locomotives and rolling stock?
Hmmm, I think that I will stick with fake loads.
Rich
(3) Coal Nova Scotia has a long history of coal mining. A real operational (animated) coal mine will be built for my layout. I will be going down into a coal mine on a tour in May. The coal in these test track hoppers is from a few nice lumps found on the beach in Parrsboro on the Bay of Fundy. Tomorrow I will be on a full day field trial around the coal seams of Chignecto Bay, Nova Scotia. I can make coal particles much smaller just like I described for gypsum.
In my opinion, using any of those materials on the layout as part of the scenic effects should have no impact whatsoever on the locomotives if the material is cemented in place, as is the usual practice. If it’s left loose as scenery, the layout will be difficult to clean (as far as dust and other unrealistic “real stuff” is concerned).
As loose loads in freight cars, the effect of the materials will be mostly on the locomotives (possible drivetrain wear, or loss of conductive plating on wheels due to excessive wheel slip) and posssibly on the truck journals of the freight cars carrying any rather heavy material. However, Delrin is a surprisingly durable p