I was thinking of bird seed to represent grain or coal depending on color. Any other ideas; small stones to represent gravel - any other ideas? I have two Lehigh hoppers and a Ford Motor hopper. I hate seeing them empty! Thank you in advance
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Cat litter will work for some mineral loads. Just make sure that you glue the material you use in the car or you just might have a mess on your hands. BTW, do not use the clumping-type litter.
This is an abrasive paint removing material used in a sand blaster. Works well as coal.
How about some frogs?
Ribitribit....
I cut a piece of rigid foam to fit the hopper, shape the top like a pile of coal, slather it with flat black paint and cover the wet paint with either Conway or Brennan anthracite. When the paint dries you’ve got a nice load.
Leroof posted:How about some frogs?
Ribitribit....
I was thinking kangaroos...
Tom
If you put seeds or nuts in the hoppers, then you could find out if there are mice in your house.
Andrew
falconservice posted:If you put seeds or nuts in the hoppers, then you could find out if there are mice in your house.
Andrew
And if you use cat litter, you may find out if you have cats in your house.
Greg - Mi posted:I was thinking of bird seed to represent grain or coal depending on color. Any other ideas; small stones to represent gravel - any other ideas? I have two Lehigh hoppers and a Ford Motor hopper. I hate seeing them empty! Thank you in advance
Use corn meal. Cut a piece of styrofoam to fit into your hopper and then put a 50-50 mix of Elmers glue and water and sprinkle the corn meal on top but in reality grain is never shipped this way
Try grass-HOPPERS.
So far, just $$$.
You could put broken or shattered bits of acrylic in the open-top hoppers to simulate broken glass.
Andrew
Lehigh74 posted:I cut a piece of rigid foam to fit the hopper, shape the top like a pile of coal, slather it with flat black paint and cover the wet paint with either Conway or Brennan anthracite. When the paint dries you’ve got a nice load.
That's the way to do it!
Other ideas include: real dirt, real sand, real gravel. Wood flour, sawdust, fine wood chips. All kinds of granular items are potential covering materials.
I've even used colored sand from arts & crafts aisles. Personally however, I avoid pinks, blues, lavenders, greens, etc., and try and stay with more earthy colors - tans, browns, grays, blacks, etc. But that's just me. 
On Halloween, candy.
Coal in all my hoppers. Make a load using foam to cut for shape paint it black glue and sprinkle coal shake the rest back in the container for future use.
cat litter has worked best for me. It takes glue and paint easily. Sift it out for the size you want.
I hide my spare cash from my wife in them.
Chicago & North Western had Pink Ballast.
Santa Fe open-top hoppers were often loaded with a red-orange rock or mineral.
Andrew
I just remembered, those Menards Reading hoppers that I posted earlier came with a plastic load, so for those ones I just covered the plastic with paint and coal.
I made the rigid foam piece for some other hoppers that didn't come with a plastic load.
Have a friend who wishes to be cremated (after death..) and have his ashes loaded into a covered hopper.
Does this count?
Another load for Open-Top Hoppers would be brass, aluminum, or copper cubes or balls.
Anderw
I use aquarium gravel, any color or type. Never use anything edible for fear of unwanted creatures.
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