Bag of dirt?

[Bandit]

I just bought a Spectrum steam engine and after looking at everything in the box, found what looks like a bag of fine dirt.
Is this for weathering?

[Bill Baker]

It represents cinders.  Apply a very thin coat of diluted white glue and sprinkle it on.  Put it anywhere you think it would look good on your locomotive and tender.  Also try a little on top of your cars and in your engine yards if you have any.  It's just a little added detail that Bachmann provides.

[Bandit]

Thanks
Only us Model Railroaders buy beautiful items and get em dirty so they can look better.....

[Paul M.]

Bandit, that's true.

[Virginian]

If your loco is spitting out cinders that size, you have a BIG problem.  It is supposed to be coal you can sprinkle on the tender deck.

[SteamGene]

Virginian, I agree with you, but the company line is that they are cinders.
BTW, some friends built a model of the Ft. Monroe C&O station at mile marker Zero ca 1900.  the buildings came from a professional architecural modeler and the track, loco, cars, etc came from local modelers.  The architect guy and the model railroaders had a big steam blowing contest over weathering the buildings.  Railroad lost.
Gene

[Virginian]

Seeing as how my daughter is an architect in the Hampton Roads area, I would have to abstain from voting.  I never realized they had a passenger station anywhere near Ft. Monroe.

[SteamGene]

Actually there was a station at Ft. Monroe; one at Phoebus, at less than MP1, and one at Hampton, shy of MP 2.  Ft Monroe closed ca 1939.  Possible Phoebus built around then.  Phoebus had a turntable where the baseball field is now.  There was a wye just a bit to the west.
Gene

[Virginian]

I knew Phoebus and Hampton had stations, and there was a trolley line to Buckroe Beach.  Did the train have to go from Ft. Monroe area to NN area and run around the yard loop by the piers to get headed the right way out of town?  I looked up some old maps and all I could see was that track branching off the Westbound line running over there.

[SteamGene]

The "trolley line" to Buckroe was heavy rail and the excursion train ran down it until at least the beginning of World War II.   Just west of the trolley/C&O interchange was a wye capable of turning the locomotive.  One leg of the wye is stil very visible.   It's possible that the Langley branch was connected by a wye and that would have been more than long enough to turn the complete passenger train.  My understanding is that the Hampton station closed with the building of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel access road, which is now I-64. 
Gene