My faking Coal

That actually looks very realistic; good work as usual...

Grass carpet scrap.

Back again for an update. My coal presentation was out done by other nameless forums. Mine is easy and fast with little mess. Basically, the other ideas had a black gravel and glued them to the shaped foam. Very effective so I wanted to mention it.
I also wated to mention the wonderful green paper grass some of us adore. I just hate to trim it . Throw it on a piece of plywood and your done. Some of us still like to keep it simple. There is always room for improvement.:laugh: So, I had to trim my grass, I had it rolled over on one side and age took care of the rest. Now for the latest(We need an idea smiley). I painted the grass scrap a flat black and noted that it will look ok as a gondola load supported with foam. It does add some zip as roofing for my papper buildings too. Both are fast and easy projects, the elmers is drying now.
Pictures will have to wait.
Bob

Dad did much the same thing. His idea differed in he but a piece of thin balsa in the cars and used less foam. Also the technique allowed him to "empty" the cars.

Looks great, Bob.

Bob

Recently, quit by accident, dropped some crushed charcoal into a coal gondola. with small dust like particles and larger chunks,it made quit convincing coal load. so i made a wooden insert and spread some white glue on it then began pouring more "coal" and adding glue until it was covered with a small mounded load. Since coal is adherently shiny i sprayed with a light coat of semi gloss. It actually looked very real.

Alternate ideas are always welcome!

i purchased a bag of "coal" in michaels...

Anyone ever replaced the fake coal in a tender with real coal? Any best practices for doing this?

Thanks

Henning's Trains sells large bags of "coal", it's really plastic tailings from plastic molding for parts. They grind them up and filter them, it looks very realistic and works well in the Lionel accessories.

Nice loads T, I guess I have never seen them before today.
I.....didn't comment?

It was a quick thread, started before you joined. You somehow missed two posts.

Well there are other posts in there after I signed up.
I still missed it.

I use black aquarium gravel. It is a little shinier than charcoal but not as messy (dust) and easy to find. Don

tankist said:

i purchased a bag of "coal" in michaels...

Click to expand...

what Michaels product is it? which department?


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T man, great idea. And looks good to boot. Probably a better idea then gluing, 50 years down the line , when someone else is playing with your coal cars they will look the same.
I use aquarium gravel in my operation coal loader. Works great and the weight of the gravel prevents it from scattering.

For 6 bucks and 2 bucks shipping these are very nice. Made with real coal from Pennsylvania. On ebay, http://www.ebay.com/usr/usanamoose I bought 2 and they look great.