What kinds of loads do you coal haulers out there use? I have a couple of Walthers 6-car packs of coal hoppers and cant deside what to do for loads. I don’t know whether to use the molded plastic (or resin) ones, or just fill the cars with “loose” coal such as the kind you can get from woodland senics that looks like ballast only black. (It looks to me like the latter method would be much cheaper.) Thanks for any help!
Here is what I did to make removable coal loads for my 55-ton 2-bay hoppers:
http://www.the-gauge.com/thread5406-more-removable-quotequotoads.html
I would not fill the cars with loose materials, just in case of a derailment…!
Andrew
I use a product called Black Beauty. It’s actually a coal by-product and is used to sand blast rust from boilers. It comes in 3 grades -coarse, medium and fine. I have found the medium grade to be about right and the price is quite reasonable…$7-8 per 100 lbs.
I use chooch coal loads…they are pre-formed and painted and slip right into a hopper or gondola…they come in two sizes…one for 40’ cars and another for 50’ cars…chuck
I carve scrap pink foam into loads, paint 'em black and sprinkle on real coal. Works great.
kev… dont forget to load your wagons in a prototypical way…looking at your website i would say you run modern coal wagons and these would be loaded by flood loader… most of the modern flood loaders now have a measured amount fed into a hopper then dumped into the wagon this ensures that the load is the correct weight and it is also quicker…so… i would use foam ( sponge) cut it to shape …tapered sides and a flat level top important to taper the last part of the wagon loaded… most of the wagons will look the same perhaps if you have a long train of coalwagons have the last one empty and the second last half full… as for coal i use real coal…very fine and washed…costs nothing ( i am a coal miner )… but any of the above products are good…peter
Well I have a good news/bad news situation. I have a well with enough iron I could evaporate the water off and go in the steel business. To fight the odor and taste I have a charcoal filter that is cylinderical and about 6" accross by 8"high filled with granulated charcoal. When I replace the filter I let the old one dry for a couple of months and salvage the charcoal for hoppers. I have gone both ways with glueing and loose and prefer loose. It isn’t a big deal to clean up and gives the choice of noloaded cars. I don’t advise running down to your local well supply store for a filter to chop up because they are about $16.00 now.
kevin, DO NOT PUT IN LOOSE COAL
it is such a drag when the derail
i have had three spills in the same relative spot
the ajadcent roadway looks like the wind ripped it off the ground
plus, you would have to dump them out when you want to make a empty trip
is loose stuff really cheaper than buying many new railcars to serve as empties, and dealing with the lack of realism at the end destinations?
with the removable loads, you can just put them in at the mine and take them out at the destination
Good luck!
Kevin,
I made removable loads with aluminum roof flashing cut to size and bumped with a ballpeen hammer. I then glued black track ballast or painted kitty litter to the flashing. That way you can run full or empty as you wish and no worries about spilling all over because of a derailment. J.R.
Since you already have the plastic loads, paint it with Elmers and sprinkle on scale coal. When dry, shake/brush off the excess. Perfecto!
Thanks! You guys have came through for me again! That’s why this forum is so cool!! I really like the foam covered with glued on coal idea. Sounds pretty easy and less expensive than buying pre-made loads. I think I’ll give that a shot! Thanks again
If I had to do it over again, I’d go the foam/WS coal route. All of my hoppers and gons have Chooch coal loads in them, and though they give a lot of added (and needed) weight to my cars, they ARE expensive when you start thinking in terms of long coal trains (I run a long one daily on the Yuba River Sub). However, if you have any of the Accurail hoppers, the company also makes cast coal loads specifically for their hoppers, and they’re not bad on the wallet, as they come in 6 and 12 packs. But like I said, if I was doing it all over again, it would be foam and WS coal.
Tom [:D]
I’m planning to use loose coal. I’ve got an old Vollmer coal loading station with solenoid-activated chute doors, and a string of old Mantua hoppers with working dump-doors on the bottom. There is a special track section that opens the doors - purely mechanical. Does anyone else actually load and unload coal?
Back when I was a teenager and I used these things on my first HO layout, I found that I could pick up the coal after a spill using a handkerchief over the business end of a vacuum cleaner hose. The cloth was porous enough to let the air through, but it would trap the coal.
I plan to use live loads, since my layout has an operating rotary dumper on it. Adds a whole new dimension to point-to-point operation.
Some of the ready made coal loads don’t look very good. I have cut 1/8" masonite for a removable fit in my coal cars. I put a piece of Saran Wrap over the top of the car, shape some Sculptamold into a load form, brush on white glue, and then sprinkle ballast on it. When it is dry, pull the Saran Wrap out and the load comes with it. I spray paint the ballast black and I have a great removable load. I did six cars in less than an hour.
I cobbled together a working rotory car dump (the mine is still in planning) so the non-dumpable solutions are non-starters for me. What I use is ground walnut shells (they’re intended for sand blasting) of a size that looked right and used black Rit dye (from your local supermarket) It’s a bit of a messy process but works well. If I were starting from scratch I think I’d look into McCovey’s Black Beauty. One other thing. If you’re going to run solid coal trains, give some thought to the wieght involved. Most MRR balast is just colored sand. HEAVY!
I cut a piece of sheet balsa to fit down into the top of a hopper, and then use the charcoal granules from a used Brita water pitcher filter. I give the charcoal a spraying of rubbing alcohol and dribble on 50/50 white glue mix. After this dries for a couple of days, the charcoal can be painted with charcoal color acrylic paint from the crafts section of Wal-mart so the odd-colored pieces of charcoal blend in.
This doesn’t add much weight to a hopper, so you can put BBs or whatever into the hoppers if you need additional weight, and glue the weight in place before adding the balsa.
What’s best to use depends on what you are doing with it, but if (as some indicate) one has a working rotary dumper, live loads are essential. I like actual ground coal sold as a dressing for floral and plant displays, other similar applications. This can be purchased at masonary-supply shops. Real coal has a sheen to it which I suspect something dyed with Rit would not have. It also is light but not so light that it readily blows around.
Model Railroader had a major article in it re how to build a working rotary; however, it was some time ago, and I’ve forgotten the exact date. The device worked on compressed air pumped through surgical tubing, and it was spectacular. The builder actually had a scale coal ship which swallowed the dumps; at the end of a session (or sooner if necessary), the ship simply was emptied, and the coal put back in the mine!
I put together a dozen coal cars a few years ago, and used real coal to do it. I bought a 5 gallon bucket of coal from a local supplier for $1, and pounded what I needed using a gunny sack and hammer, similar to what we all do when we want to break up some ice.
After I got the coal broken down to the sizes I wanted, I loaded it into the cars and carefully glued it in place as if I was setting a lot of ballast along a track.
What’s more realistic when pulling coal cars than pulling cars loaded with real coal? I will say though, that it DOES give a realistic load to the locomotives when you try and pull it up grades!
Mark in Utah
If the unit coal train is originated and terminated in beyond the layout' holding yards, then solid loads (and a matching train of empties) is the logical way to go. If, on the other hand, the coal mine is modeled (and is not loads out, empties in’) the auger-loader written up in MR a while back and loose lading (using either charcoal or crushed coal) is better. Yes, the loose load will make a mess if it derails and rolls over. DON’T remove it all! That beautiful white rock roadbed of the N&W was well speckled with mislaid black diamonds. The cleanup effort could also be converted to a scenic vignette (front end loader, trucks, folks with shovels and so forth).
If the real problem is frequent derailments, the real cure is redoing the offending track to eliminate them.