Pyrolusite (manganese dioxide) is an important mineral for manganese used in the steel and battery industries, plus a few others. Nova Scotia has many deposits and that was the goal of my field trip yesterday. I’ll demonstrate MnO2 as a hopper load and staining material.
Here are some of the samples being washed. The pyrolusite is dark grey and metallic.
Once dry, the pieces were crushed. Note the dark staining on the concrete where I crushed the samples.
The particles are sifted into four grades. Next I take a nice clean hopper and make it look like a mining workhorse.
I use one grade for a real MnO2 load and the finest grade brushed onto the car to stain it to look like it would if it were actually frequently loaded with the mineral. Took all of 10 minutes and can be repeated anytime to improve the look further.
That’s it.
Probably should have put this thread in prototypes.
I clicked on the last image to get a better look, and I must say the load looks great!
.
Is the car full, or is there an open space under the load? Is the load loose, or glued in place? How heavy is it?
.
-Kevin
.
The car is full but a false bottom using foam can lighten the load if desired. Care must be taken not to make the car too top heavy though. I like to leave the loads loose - perhaps someday I’ll build a dumper. The load weighs 3.3 oz (94 g). One or two decent locomotives can haul several full loads but not with plastic couplers - mine are all metal.
Two things about the look of the ore pieces. If they are much smaller than this they loose their individuality and look more like sand. Also, by crushing on a rough surface like our concrete walkway, the pieces this size look rugged like they just came out of a mining crusher.
I’m surprised it did not weight more than that.
.
I might need to look into purchasing some interesting minerals. All we have around here are limestone and shell.
.
-Kevin
.
Looks spectacular! I would love to try it with some copper ore or some galena for the type of ore loads that used to run through my area (although I imagine there has to be some caution taken with the galena due to its lead content…).
I am not familiar with that mineral but you might test it with a magnet in case it has some iron content. I tried something similar with some gravel from my driveway. After I sifted it, some of the small pieces got picked up by the loco motor and wheels due to slight magnetic effect in the gravel. Not good for the loco motors.
All of my real loads, be it manganese, gypsum, coal, shale, etcetera, are tested for iron. I don’t use random sand or gravel, only purer ore and stone from Nova Scotia mines, quarries and special outcrops and deposits.