Coal loads

Hi LIONEL J,

  I have made my coal loads out of half inch foam board either cut on table saw or cut very easy with utility knife.  After cutting to you desired width and length take white Elmers glue and put a thin layer down on foam board then sprinkle with either real coal, if you live it he coal region we have tons of it, or use fine aquirium gravel.  You can either build it up with more layers of material sandwitched with the white glue or make three clumps of material and the spray it all with a 50%-50% mix of white glue and water.  Allow it to dry over nite then take either flat black for bituminous coal or gloss black for Antricite coal and spray paint load.  You might have to cut and angle on the foam board to fit the slope of the hopper.  Fast and easy.  If you use real coal put it in a plastic bag and lightly hit with a hammer to crush it up, to desired look. 

laz57

I do as laz1957 with the foam, but I paint it black and while wet sprinkle the coal over it if any bear spots show up just spray with the glue mix and add more coal

I am going to try this I just ordered some coal and i might try resin casting 

Buy your coal from Dave Zucal who gets on here. He sent me some samples for O G and HO which are absolutly brilliant. He grades and packs real pensy coal so are getting the proper stuff!!

Hopefully Dave will chip into this thread and provide more info

MIKE

In one of the Black Diamond videos by Rich Battista, he showed how to enhance the commerial loads that come with the cars with very little effort using some white glue and real coal from Woodland Scenics. I think it was the 1st one but not 100% sure. He put the load down on a flat surface, built a form around it using small boards, covered the plastic load with white glue and then spread out the real coal and let dry. He did 6 or 8 loads at a time so the process goes very quick. It improved the looks 100% from the factory look. You can do the same thing with engine tenders. 

What kind of hoppers do you have?  I have 14-16 wood inserts left over from over  8 dozen made.  Black beauty sandblasting material is my favorite look.

Patrick I have 2 lionel 2 bay hoppers and 3 Kline diecast 4 bay hoppers

I ll have to get ya exact measurements for the ones i have , they are for the MTH 4 bay hoppers. Pic from last year when i was building the tower

The ones I have left over  are 2 1/4"  x 11 3/4 ", made by a freind in the club.  You can glue whatever you decide to them after shaping them and as described above and painting them black

Black beauty also comes in different sizes. The coal mines processed at least four sizes cant remember them all  , pea, nut, egg etc...

You can shape the loads as to get 2-3-4 uniform piles in the car, you can see this step has not been takin yet on the bare wood loads on the right. This also gives you just a little bit more weight to the car using wood.

Patrick those loads are very nice. Did you just glue the coal to the wood.and did you paint the wood black first

I have used nothing but St. Charles Model Works coal loads in my 60 car MTH C&O two bay hopper train.   Call them at (815) 457-2453 They are also an advertiser in OGR Magazine! 

is the st Charles stuff a lot 

I guess it all depends on what you consider "a lot"! Since it was only a one time purchase for me, I really didn't care what the cost was to have an EXCELLENT looking, i.e. realistic looking, coal train.

Shape the wood to your desired "humps"   then paint wood black then glue whatever media to them you like. I suggested the black beauty, my personal preferance because you can buy a bag of many different sizes "coal" at any place that sells sandblasting material. Usually the ll give you a ripped 20- 40lb bag pretty darn cheap. I suggest you look at the size you want first and decide then and even if you will use it and compare.

Your original post asked about making them yourself.As HW said they can also be purchased. , I  was not familiar with the St Charles loads,probubly cause this is the way i ve always seen it done,I had 112  hoppers to do and  spending a thousand on coal loads probubly wasnt gonna happen anyway.

I had used Black Beauty, Body shop sand blasting material, applied with PL500 construction adhesive, heavy on a piece of masonite.  Then spray painted with Krylon Gloss Black.   Atlas 55 ton hoppers with internal braces.

It's cool all the ideas now just have to figure out how I errant to do it.

I have a several-pound bag of small crushed coal for pellet stoves given to me by a local hardware store.  It could potentially be crushed smaller and glued to a board, although I haven't explored it further. 

Is this forum great or what.  I have a couple of cars that need a load. This, even I can do

Thanks

Brent

I emailed them about their coal. The premade loads are $8-$9 each and they don't sell their coal seperate. I wanted to buy a bag of coal from them but it is a no can do on their part. Premade loads only.  

To the best of my knowledge, St Charles Model Works doesn't really use actual loose coal for their loads. Each of their various coal load inserts come in different "grades", i.e. mine run, fine, medium, and course. The loads themselves are molded from a master, which was originally made from "loose coal", thus all their loads LOOK like they are loose, but are not.

For actual "loose coal", I have purchased some REALLY NICE coal, in various grades, from Scenic Express. The best package wound up being actual REAL COAL, and THAT looks REALLY GREAT for steam locomotive tender loads.

Thanks Jack, I'm gonna look in my Scenic Express catalog.

The email from SCMW said; "While we process the coal here in our plant, the time that it takes to do such would not be economically feasible for the end user." 

i still think you should check out your local pet supply for aquarium charcoal.  i looked the Scenic Express catalog and the same stuff there is 3x the price.  i just soak a handful in a pitcher of water for a few minutes to get the dust off then scoop it out onto paper towels to dry.