Need an opinion on a coal load

Those are pretty big chunks but the color and texture are great. And it's fairly lightweight for the volume, isn't it?

A friend gave me some finely ground-up rubber (used in a test for a concrete additive) and it looked really good for a coal load. But when I had an accidental spill it was a project to clean up.

I'll second what ACE stated, i.e. those chunks/lumps are WAY TOO BIG. Even back in the "old days" of steam locomotives, the mine run coal lumps were not THAT big. Nowadays, the vast majority of coal is quite fine, for power plant use and or export.

Conway Coal have a a vast variety of coal.

you will not be disappointed.

Andre.

I have real Reading Anthracite G scale coal.

They do look oversize to me, but I agree with Ace in that they do have a very good appearance.

jini5 posted:

... I am on the fence. I am not sure if the chunks are too big or not (don't forget 1/29 scale). Opinions are appreciated.

do the math... the pieces you show here are maybe ½" - ¾" or for 1:29 scale would be ~15" - 20" chunks.
for any of the garden scales, ~1/8" bits would be a more believable load.

cheers...gary

Texture and color (!) quite good.

Chunk size at least twice as large as it should be.

Keep at it. Break out that blender.

For 1/29 scale, I would think aquarium gravel would be a good size....

I'd throw it in the food processor for ten seconds...

Couldn't tell my wife, though.

Check out this link that gives the six main coal from the coal breakers circa 1910.  you will have to do the math to scale it.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_breaker

Your piece has a nice look to me ...the coal coming out of southern Indiana/northern Kentucky is large and much like boulders!  My snooping at power plants has never witnessed small pieces of coal being put in these power sources and I work in the environmental field.  However, our power plant is really old.  I think new equipment may have different needs.  If possible...visit your local power source's rail yard...it's not what people think...make your own judgement... if coal is still being used...we are soon to rid power from coal here in the Midwest.  It's for sure not uniform in size and fine or small is not how I would define it here in Indiana.  Large equipment cannot produce small results.

I went to the pet supply shop and purchased a couple of bags of the charcoal used in fish aquarium filters.  I washed it, let it dry and put it in my hoppers and in and around my coal tipple.  Size seems to be good and the look I think is perfect. 

FYI: Most coal is actually a bit shiny. Which only really matters if you are "rivet counting" detail oriented. And it is very dusty.

I still use a coal stove to partially heat my space, so I crushed some real coal for a car load. A bit of work to crush and then sift to sort out a consistent size, but it is real coal... The coal is in a standard gauge tinplate car instead of O gauge, but the pic below gives you the idea.

Your coal load has a nice texture, but seems a bit large to me. At that size I don't think it would fit through the car's bottom doors. ???

Henning's Trains sells large bags of "coal" for a pretty good price.  I don't see it on the website, so you'd have to call the store.

I agree with above comment, it should be able to pass through the dumping doors.

Agree     Too BIG   ------a blender will adjust the size -----

Gary G

I have tons of ground rubber that we use for our running track at the school district I work for. It would be the ideal size for G gauge. Contact me for details; info is in my profile.

Don

 Particles from black roof shingles work well.

Charlie

 They're a bit too big, but there are some pretty big chunks out there. They sometimes go up to about two thirds that. And I agree, the color and texture is perfect.