Hey guys
Does anybody have a cheap source to simulate coal? I have heard of some people using black aquiriam gravel to put in there coal hoppers. hope to hear your thoughts
Jeremy
Jeremy,
I believe Woodland Scenics makes simulated coal. (They make ballast; they ought to make coal.) It should be available at a LHS in your vacinity.
Tom
Woodland Scenics makes “coal” in a variety of sizes. Also, there is “real scale coal” available on Ebay. I have used crushed and screened charcoal briquettes for some of my background scenery coal.
I’ve picked up plastic bottles with fine black crushed something or another in it at the local Dollar Stores. They also have other colors, I think it must be intended for some other craft work because it is on the shelves in that section. There’s probably a lifetime supply in one bottle!
Bob Boudreau
If you have black roof shingles on your house place a pan under the down spouts and catch the roof gravel that gets washed off, It makes great looking coal and its cheap.
I have a coal train using roof gravel and have visitors ask where I got the great looking coal.
kiss
The filter charcoal for fi***anks works well…you can get it cheap at the dollar store or wal-mart
there was an article a few months ago (maybe a year???) about painting Accurail’s coal loads then pressing crushed coal into the wet paint to give it a real apperance…what were they using in that article? Real coal? So if we want REAL coal…where would you get it? Just curious…
Cat’s Pride litter is about the right size for simulated lump coal. It does not dissolve or swell up when wet like other brands of cat litter, so you could color it with Rit clothing dye or flat black latex paint. This would be quite a bit cheaper than aquarium filter material. I have also used the charcoal out of an old Brita water filter.
I usually walk across the steet from the office and pick up a small chunk from beside the track that fell off one of the hoppers going to the power house. Take it home, smack it with the hammer and sift thru a flour sifter (that’s too fine), and then thru a piece of porch screen (perfect). Of course it’s nerve wracking because I am always just hanging waiting for someone to say it doesn’t look like real coal.
I bought a bag at a train show but I can’t find it. It’s supposed to be real coal too. They have different sizes available. Chunks for hoppers and stoker size for loco tenders.
We have an open fire at home, so there’s a big bunker of coal out the back of the house for this - swipe a smallish lump, break up with a hammer (ideally in some form of box as otherwise it goes everywhere!), instant HO coal. I’m getting better at scale sizes now - first Athearn quad hopper I loaded with it has lumps the size of someone’s head!
A friend of mine has access to coal so I can get it for free. Take an old cheese grater (metal).
I suppose if you want to simulate a working mine, stick firecrakers in the layout, hook them up, sound a siren and blast away…hmmmmm better ignore the last part.
[:D][:D][:D]
Check out sand/ bead blasting material. Granite/ headstone engraving, machine shops and foundaries a good place to ask. Material is in various sizes to match your scale coal. Sprinkled over a good layer of white glue or paint makes that load or tender very realistic.
Bob K.
I usually go and get what I need out of the tender of my 4in scale steam locomotive. Sorry I just couldn’t resist. I have tried to use a number of different things for coal. You just can’t beat the real thing. Look around and you may come up with a source. Good luck. Paul
Bingo! I usually use the spent stuff from the fi***ank. It’s cheaper that way
Fergie
- charcoal BBQ briquettes (sp?) - the season has switched, a small bag is probably cheap
- aquarium charcoal from the pet store, or general store - even cheaper from neighbour’s place[:-,] - crush or grind it to a finer grade
- dark roast (used) coffee grinds
- the black charcoal from public mall ashtrays / (as seen outside McDonald’s restaurants for example), the mall admin office might be able to direct you to a source (or give you a small amount to try out)
- fireplace ash - dirty stuff, but it might work
just my thoughts, I haven’t experimented with these (yet)
I seem to recall that article. I thought that they sprinkled Woodland Scenics coal on the painted load.
A good friend of mine uses all sorts of “live loads” on his layout, from machinery to scrap to steal bars to farm implements. At his coal mine he uses real coal, crushed to size – keeps it in a coffee can with a small scoop and a handy rag because it causes a mess believe me.
But for his coal unit train he tried an entirely different idea that frankly is so effective and looks so good that I see no reason to use anything else but on my layout.
That is, he uses foam rubber – the kind used for cushions and pillows and sometimes seen as packing material for electronic equipment such as stereos and TVs – about 1/2 inch to an inch or so deep and cuts it to size and and paints it flat black. When you poke the foam rubber into the coal gon or hopper it almost natureally assumes a slightly rounded appearance, and you pry it out with a dowel that ends in a bent pin or wire. He keeps the loads in a shoe box and when the unit train arrives at staging it is loaded or unloaded depending on direction.
You could round the top I suppose but my friend keeps it flat and it looks just fine.
The thing is, when you stand on a bridge and look down at a loaded coal unit train, you do not typically really notice individual pieces of coal until you are very close. From even a slight distance it is simply a uniform dark color and uniform slightly rough texture. The foam rubber simulates this to a really remarkable degree.
Dave Nelson
I use a product called “Black Beauty”.It is actually slag (a by product of coal mining) and is used in the real world for sandblasting rust from metal. It comes in 3 grits small, medium and large with the medium being the appropriate size for HO. I buy mine from Builder’s Supply in Aurora, Illinois for about 7 bucks per 80 pound bag.
I live in Kentucky and it is thick with coal. The railroad leaves it laying about the right of way when it falls off the cars. Around here you can go store bought or just pick up what is laying around and make it the right size as others have described. It also has that authentic coal smell that you can’t get with other products!
I use crushed coal. It can be found about anywhere. As was mentioned it lays along the tracks when it falls from trains. The thing I don’t care for is the mess when you have a derailment. I had a kadee coupler hose catch on a switch track and over went four hoppers spilling the loads of coal. While it kinda looked neat it tends to be hard to clean up, and my wife doesn’t see the humor in using the vaccum for what I can’t get out of the grassy areas. I thought of gluing it in the cars but told myself NOOOOO. So I used a piece of styrene cut to the hopper size and layed it in the hopper and glued coal on that to make coal loads. The placed them in all the other hoppers. This only goofed up one hopper with marks from prying the glued loads out. I used an old grappy hopper not a good one.