Best coal for homemade coal loads

I use real coal..   Tractor Supply has coal in bags.

How do you crush it and screen it?

Yes, use a bucket and hammer to crush it and use a tea strainer, window screen, etc to screen the coal.

It’s used for blasting media. T C S has it by the bag full. I think it comes in 50lb bags. All for $8 to $9 bucks. Here is a some picture of coal loads I did earlier this year.

STE posted:

It’s used for blasting media. T C S has it by the bag full. I think it comes in 50lb bags. All for $8 to $9 bucks. Here is a some picture of coal loads I did earlier this year.

Nice job on the loads STE.  I really like them.  I have a 5 gal bucket full of black blasting media that I just may dig out of the garage and make up some loads.

What are you using for glue?  Tried white glue, not happy with results.

Bill

I Used white glue full strength and coated each coal load. Sprinkled the crushed coal on the glued area then on top of the crushed coal I used a 50/50 drizzle of white glue and water. Let it dry over night removed some stuck on coal from the sides of the loads so they would drop into the hoppers with little effort. Oh I painted the tops of the loads with flat black latex paint and let it dry before I did any glueing. If you widen out the pictures on this thread you can see the 50/50 mix flowing down the sides of the loads.

S T E

Real coal when crushed small enough looks really great.    But since I worked in the steel industry many years ago, I remember that a lot of grades of coal have corrosive chemicals in their makeup.   I am a little worried that some of this stuff might attack metal cars.

Dollar Tree often has bags of black sand or small gravel (about half the size of aquarium gravel) for $1.

Dennis Brennan sells real Reading Anthracite, in several different sizes, that has a shiny glass like finish. https://brennansmodelrr.com/pr...ding-anthracite-coal

I believe the coal that MTH uses in their tenders is Anthracite. When sitting directly in water it's corrosive to iron but doesn't seem to be an issue in open air. It's unable to absorb and hold moisture like Bituminous coal. Once it's burned though the ash is very corrosive. Wilson Harrell's Hobby Loads uses Anthracite coal for his coal loads and they look fantastic.

A friend of mine gives me the "spent" activated charcoal from his water softener system.  It's perfect for my trains, light in weight, has no odor, isn't dusty and is the perfect size.  

REAL coal outta my Dads celler. Back in the 50s and part way into the 60s these old houses were heated using coal. My Dads house was no exception. After he installed an oil fire furnace the left over coal was just left sitting in the bin in the celler. I go down and grab a bag full take it home and put it in an old blender and pulverize it into smaller pieces. I glue it to a wood base I fit in my hoppers and/or gondolas and have an instant coal load with real coal

Real coal!  Matte medium works fine hold it in place.

mustangtodd97 posted:

I’m going to be making some homemade coal loads for my hopper car fleet. What is everyone’s favorite material to use for the coal? I have a few blue mountain coal loads, and love the look of those. Trying to find something that will give me a similar look. Ideas? Links appreciated!!!

First, let me ask a few questions:

1) What era are you attempting model? The coal in hopper cars from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s varied in appearance from what is mined today. Back in the "old days" the coal varied from large lumps, to small lumps, to mine run.

2) If you are attempting to model modern era "unit coal trains", then the coal loads appearance is much finer, as used in current coal fired steam power plants. Thus, the coal loads appear very uniform throughout the entire train, as the modern era hoppers (or 'coal gons') are all flood loaded on the move.

I went with the blast media from TSC as earlier suggested. Price was less than $8 for 50lbs. I went with the medium, which is actually pretty fine. I think this will get the look i’m going for. Thank you for all the suggestions! Feel free to keep the thread going. It has received a lot of “likes”

Hot Water posted

 

1) What era are you attempting model? The coal in hopper cars from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s varied in appearance from what is mined today. Back in the "old days" the coal varied from large lumps, to small lumps, to mine run.

 

You're correct Hot Water.  Back in the '50s I walked many miles of Western Maryland track back & forth from between my favorite catfish hole in Thomas, West Virginia and saw many lumps of coal that had fallen from hoppers the size of soccer balls.  I can remember my grand dad gathering those lumps and taking them back to the coal bin in basement.

Conway Coal has crushed coal to make O scale coal loads, you can purchase this coal on ebay or from their web site. I have used the O Scale crushed coal and Weaver 2 bay and 3 bay coal loads, good quality product and reasonable pricing.

My introduction to Bob Thatcher (of AM Hobbies) was his coal loads.  All the MTH cars that came without loads were filled with his cars.

A really great guy.

John 

John, with the passing of Bob Thatcher this  hobby lost a true gentleman and quality individual to make purchases from and for conversations.

Black aquarium sand for smaller coal.

I know it is a late reply... For my postwar 6456 style hoppers, I cut up old styrofoam and sprayed it with gloss black spray paint. They are cut to fit inside the hopper and remain there with no adhesives.

I recently modified the coal loads for my MPC-era four-bay hoppers, too. For these, I took the plastic base that came with them, put white Elmers glue down, sprinkled fine gray ballast material on top, and once the glue dried, I sprayed them with the glossy black spray paint.

I think it all turned out good, especially for only spending less that $15 on all the material to have enough "coal" for about twenty hoppers. Realistic enough for my railroad that runs MPC and postwar.

Real coal.

Dollar store black sand.

@mwb posted:

Real coal!  Matte medium works fine hold it in place.

Always real coal!

Information on "blue coal" here. Blue Coal In part it was a marketing tool, a way to give a brand identification.

I use the TSC coal blasting media sometimes but it's slightly magnetic and that will be a problem for my live coal loads that I intend to dump.

So I switched to black aquarium sand. It still looks great when it's the only coal in the hoppers!

Years ago when my kids were young, we had a few aquariums and raised guppies and other stuff.   As part of this, we had to have filters and that  used charcoal.   I found the used charcoal I took out of the filters seemed the right size for the O scale coal.   I would dry it and an use it as live loads.    I still  use it in my Steam tenders that do not have coad loads.  

When I had the aquariums, it worked great because the fish got the water oxygenated, and I got free coal for the  layout.   You can also buy it in pet stores and use it without first running through the filters!

Woodland Scenics tallus sprayed gloss black.

If no one minds, I'd like to put a link to this new one for anyone researching loads.

https://ogrforum.com/...5#171907990133064705

John

@mustangtodd97 posted:

I went with the blast media from TSC as earlier suggested. Price was less than $8 for 50lbs. I went with the medium, which is actually pretty fine. I think this will get the look i’m going for. Thank you for all the suggestions! Feel free to keep the thread going. It has received a lot of “likes”

Here is a link to a short vid for my process:

https://youtu.be/Tnsjd-KDPWI

Another option is Aquarium charcoal.    Years ago I had a couple of aquariums for years.    I had to change the charcoal in the filters about once a month or somesuch.    I found out I could dry out the used charcoal and it was a great size for O scale coal in my opinion.    Unused would work too.    Any pet store selling aquarium supplies would have it and the price is probably better than model RR products.

@rail posted:

Here is a link to a short vid for my process:

https://youtu.be/Tnsjd-KDPWI

Yes DONs video is easy and gives the cars a great look.  Thanks DON been using your technique and they look great.👍👍

Had to insulate a Bilco door and had some left over so I tried it for some Hoppers, Its 1" insulation board cut to size then scraped to desire look, used black spray paint.

@Sitka posted:

Had to insulate a Bilco door and had some left over so I tried it for some Hoppers, Its 1" insulation board cut to size then scraped to desire look, used black spray paint.

Great job, Mark! And the solvent in the spray paint dissolves the foam a bit, enhancing the look!