Making Realistic Coal Loads
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- Опубліковано 2 тра 2023
- This video covers how I'm making my coal loads for the HO scale Bessemer and Lake Erie RR. I'm using woodland scenics 'mine run' coal along with simple white glue, foam, and wood. The process is pretty fast and easy and could easily be adapted for a aggregate load of your choice for any type of car. Lastly, finding some real coal at the Pardoe mine, the very first coal mine served by the B&LE. I have future plans to crush this coal and use it in my future loads using this method.
Great idea to use the laser to cut the 'base' I had been doing just the foam, and never thought of using my laser to do that. Have made new coal loads for about half my fleet of coal cars (consisting of a grand total of 12) following what you did and I am very pleased with the results. Thanks for sharing!
Glad it helped!
Thanks for sharing how you do it Ray. The coal loads looked very realistic and it sure is nice to be able to lift them out easily.
Thanks! Easy removal and durability is my goal.
The best technique I've seen -- especially the embedded screw for magnetic removal. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing that it was a awesome video.
Now I can do my fleet. 👍🏾
You're very welcome!
Great video. Thanks for the tutorial. I like your method of making coal loads. Wish I could laser cut my wood pieces.
Thank you! You could probably also get there with a fine tooth blade in a table saw.
I usually make my own weathering chalks. I use the kitchen grater I got at a dollar store. I grind up some white chalk and mix some food coloring in a communion cup (great little cups for mixing paints). I then add my chalk and stir it up with a tooth pick. I then pour it onto my cutting mat and wait for it to dry. Then I use a single edged razor blade to cut it up as if you were cutting out a line of cocaine. :-) Then I put it back into the communion cup for storage until I need it. For trucks, wheels, freight car bodies and locos to add rust I use REAL rust. I take a roll of fine steel wool and put it into a quart jar and fill it up with white vinegar and set it on a window sill so the sun can shine on it. After a month or two, I pour the liquid out into a stainless photo tray from my darkroom (10X14). After it is completely dry I use a single edged razor blade scraper and scrape the rust out of the tray. It usually comes out as a fine powder. I then store it in a snuff container. Depending on how long you leave the steel wool in the vinegar my batches come out with different colors of rust, i.e., some are orange and others are a deeper colored red. When I get ready to use it I put several scoops of my rust into a plastic communion cup (neat little cups for mixing paints) and add some alcohol, Elemer's white glue and a dab of water soluble glycerin. Then I just brush it on. If I want an area where the rust has eaten through the metal (plastic) I use my X-acto knife and make some gouges in the sides of a car and fill it up with my rust. To seal the rust I usually topcoat it with a flat acrylic clear coat. It looks very realistic 'cause it is REAL rust! Happy Railroading! W Rusty Lane in eastern Tennessee
I've got a great big old chunk of bituminous coal I use a hammer on (outside) and keep smashing it on my piece of railroad track until I get it to HO scale and I use real coal for all my coal loads even in steamer tenders. Guess anthracite would have been easier but not many railroads used soft coal for their engines. Cheers from eastern TN
It's hard to beat the look of the real thing!
Thank you for sharing. Very nice idea. Now just have to make a few hundred or so. LOL👍 Gary
Just a few, lol!!
Awsome video! Now I can convert my covered hoppers. I like the wood backing with the steel screw. Great idea!
Thanks. Definitely not new by any means, but I think using the laser was a nice twist.
Nice , I use the Green Foam that florist use and simply carve it into shape , add glue and the fine coal , And it looks real and is very light !
Very light for sure!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing.
Entirely welcome
Nice tutorial Ray, and good looking loads as well.
Thank you!
And so five years later, you had 25 cars done
Lol no it goes pretty fast. I do a few here, a few there. Took a few weeks to do a 35 car train.
Hello Ray! I have experience cutting 2 inch insulation foam with a hot foam cutter for model RR use. I would always get much smoke, terrible fumes and would move beside an open window with a fan, or move to the garage with the door open. I've used pink, blue, green, etc., and always had to deal with the above problems. I saw no evidence of smoke, or fumes in your video and your face was right there. Any comments? Thanks Ted
I mean, you can smell it a little bit nothing I'd call smoke or fumes. The foam is just plain insulation foam from lowes, the cutter is from Amazon and was CHEAP. the only thing I can think is maybe I'm cutting at a relatively low temp? Never gave it much thought. Compared to painting, soldering, or printing, the hot wire is pretty tame.
Ray, thanks for posting this video. How many coal hoppers do you have? Good to see Betty again.
She was coal load inspector! I'm not sure how many I have. Most are still in boxes. 400 ish maybe.
Great way to make coal loads. What is the removal tool?
Thank you.
Any magnet works, what I used in the video is the wand that comes with rapido easy peasy lighting kits to activate the reed switch.
This was a great video that opens up so many opportunities for modeling and operations. Just wonder what wattage the laser you used.
Do you think it would be possible for the lazer to cut the board and foam together?
I have so many hopper so little time.
LoL
It's a 40w laser. I experimented trying to cut foam with it and it's a really, really bad idea. The laser just melts the foam and the chances of fire are high, even on very low settings.
@Bessemer & Lake Erie in HO scale thank you I though about the melting but not about the fire that's a very point
I saw a Railroader do the same but he made it so the tops was coal, the underneath was Wood load, and even did one with metal scrap and another with Aluminum scrap loads that way instead of just one side of coal the other side is something else.
Great idea about the use of wood.
Hi