coal for 397

[msacco]

Added a 397 to my nephew's layout and realized I don't have any coal. On my layout I use a bag of original 206 coal, but I remember buying some repro coal that was just chopped up plastic from a parts guy at a train show a few years back. Seems I also remember I preferred the original stuff.

    Now I need some for my nephew's loader. Is the bagged coal Lionel sells currently good for a postwar 397?

 thanks,

Mike S.

[Anonymous]

msacco,

The forum archives are full of suggestions for "coal" for operating cars. The current recommendation from Lionel for the Rubber Belt Coal Loader is 600-6212-038. I haven't yet used any in my post-war loader.

Because the rubber-belt mechanism on the modern coal loader seems almost identical to the PW model I would speculate (but do not know for certain) that the modern coal would do as well as the 206 ever did. I would certainly try it in a pinch. Its even possible that the newer coal is more uniform or something. You can always dig it out from under the belt if it doesn't do right.

Lionel does make at least one other kind of coal, 630-2910-014, intended specifically and perhaps exclusively for the "Coal Tipple" accessory. I understand that it is very different from the traditional coal and will not run well in the 397's, old or new -- or so I read somewhere.

[laz 57]

The coal for the tippler that is in the bathtub gondolas is different.  It is bean like and about a quarter of an inch long.  Works good in the 397 coal loader.  I use it for the Bethlhem Gantry crane and fill up my 397 with the crane works real good.  Easy to pick up with crane and doesn't clog up the coal loader.

laz57