Adding coal (or Iron Ore) loads to coal cars

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

I have some coal cars I am trying to fit iron ore loads to and have tried using regular model glue and it didn't hold very well. I was wondering if anyone who has experience in this area of the hobby could give some advice me as this is my first time trying to fit coal and ore cars with Woodland Scenics Iron Ore as a load.

[jonathan]

I'm assuming WS iron ore is ground up plastic, as is WS coal.

I cut a paint stick to fit the top portion of the car.  Then glue some Styrofoam or packing foam to the top. Then... cut the foam to shape.  THEN... glue the WS coal to the top.

The first pic is a coal load for a coal tender.  The rest are pix of a past coal load project I took a number of years ago.  Hope this helps your project.

I use wood glue to hold the foam to the paint stick.  White glue holds the "coal" to the foam.










Regards,

Jonathan

[jbrock27]

That's a great idea!

[keystonefarm]

Woodland Scenic Iron ore is actually ground up walnut shells as are most of their ore and ballast products. The same method can be used as shown above using matte medium as the adhesive. ---- Ken

[jward]

don't forget to bury a steel washer under the load so you can remove it with a magnet.

[jbrock27]

Another, well thought out idea!

[K487]

Been doing this for 40 years.  I use the light green florist styrofoam sold at Hobby Lobby stores (easy to shape with a hobby knife with the blade at 90 degrees to the styrofoam), and don't use a base or a (magnetic) washer for them.  After the load is created and in a railcar (gons and hoppers) I just pry them up with a hobby knife blade or my pocket knife blade - and I usually only do this when showing them off to guests.  I keep most of the open-top cars "loaded."

The "hardest" part of all this is smoothing the styrofoam sides with the load glued to them.  I usually cut/scrape these off with a knife before the glue dries or a Dremel tool cut-off disc  after the glue dries.

Oh, I've always used the Elmers yellow glue.  Why not white glue?  Because yellow is  what I had on-hand 40 years ago and it works.

As info, I started this long ago because: 1 - the loads were very light (not add to the pulling needs of the locos) - the real strained sand etc. is only about 1/16th inches thick; 2- easy to remove to make an empty; 3 - easy to make the load the right height in the railcar (styrofoam shims underneath pressure-fitted styrofoam); and 4 - when I have a derailment and turn a car over  there is NO mess to clean up.

Of these loads I have sand (different colors), reddish iron ore in AHM ore cars (looks great), coal, rip rap rock (relatively large rocks for embankments), white rock, and cullet*.  Most of these loads come from different colored HO ballast packages.

* Cullet is broken waste glass (extra glass in the molds) from the initial manufacturer.  They sell this to another glass manufacturer as "seconds" and if there is any volume this cullet moves in open-top hoppers.  In doing a little research glass comes in three major colors: green, clear and brown.  So I went online, ordered some real glass beads (green), wrapped them in a tight-weave cloth, put that on a concrete walk, and beat the snot out of the beads with a hammer (there's probably an easier way to do this.)  I then strained the results and glued them on a fitted piece of styrofoam for a load.  They are now in an open top hopper on a train.

Hope this is some useful info.

K487

[jbrock27]

Thank you!

[K487]

You're welcome.

[J3a-614]

An interesting thing to keep in mind (and something I don't recall seeing done) is that if coal hoppers are loaded with iron ore (which happened with some regularity on certain roads) the load of ore should not completely fill the car as would be the case with coal; one should have just a little mound of ore in each end of the car, well below the sides and almost invisible without being above the car to look in.  

The reason is that iron ore is so much more dense than coal that to fill the car to its cubic capacity would badly overload it, by a factor of about three!  That's also why ore cars are as short as they are, yet might still have a capacity of 70 tons (steam era) or over 100 tons (today).  It's something to keep in mind when "loading" a "50-ton" capacity hopper!

[Sunshine Express]

All the above ideas and methods are great,and I have learned something new at 83,that is the metal washers in the botton for easy extraction.
I would like to offer a  product for consideration, that I have used for years,that looks like coal,but gives off a sparkle in changing light conditions. It is Carborundum that painters glue on to step treads,and paint over to for safety non slip useage.
I do not know what ore it may represent,but it is a great eye catcher. My son gave  me some many years ago,which I used on an outside  wooden step to the shed.

[Doneldon]

Sunny-

Carborundum does occur in nature but almost all of what we use as abrasive is manufactured for the purpose.

                                                                                                                                                        -- D

[K487]

That reminds me of how I first got my HO scale "coal" for loads.  I didn't have any HO "coal" and was sort of looking for some.  You might find this interesting:

Back in the mid-1980's I was a sales rep for the Burlington Northern RR in Portland OR.  One day I had to go to the BN's Portland Yard on business, and while there I noticed a small pile (about 3' diameter) of some black stuff in the middle of a track - obviously leaked out from a hopper.  I went over and looked - the pieces were shaped like lumps of coal, only varying in rough diameter from 1/32 to 1/4 inch.  I think someone told me later that it was copper slag.  Well, I came back and shoveled some of it in a couple boxes and went home and strained it.  This made perfect size and shape coal loads (glued to load-shaped styrofoam), and I still have some of that in a bag today.

K487

[RAM]

Sunshine Express.  It is good to find someone that is older than me.  The only thing nice about being old is that you got to see a lot of steam power, do what it was built to do.

[Doneldon]

One day I had to go to the BN's Portland Yard on business, and while there I noticed a small pile (about 3' diameter) of some black stuff in the middle of a track - obviously leaked out from a hopper.  I went over and looked - the pieces were shaped like lumps of coal, only varying in rough diameter from 1/32 to 1/4 inch.  I think someone told me later that it was copper slag.  Well, I came back and shoveled some of it in a couple boxes and went home and strained it.  This made perfect size and shape coal loads (glued to load-shaped styrofoam), and I still have some of that in a bag today.

K487-

Are you absolutely certain that your material isn't some of that high-risk radioactive
stuff which leads to all kinds of mongo tumors after a long exposure?
                                                                                                           -- D