speaking of quad hoppers,
take a piece of aluminum foil, crumple it up, then stretch it out, and cut out the size of roughly the inside of the hopper (a little bit bigger) spray paint it black and poof a coal load! light weight and the most important NO MESS! I remember the day back in say 1989-90 one of those years i convinced dad to break down and buy real coal loads. One trip around the track a little too fast and wham 4 quad hoppers full of coal on the inside of the bend.[B)]. (Youll note that same coal is on display at the base of the coaling tower)