I was going to use foam for the base. Thinnest section I have is 3/4 of a inch which was way to thick to fit in the top of the car. I tried to split the foam and it feel a part. I all so did not want the mess from carving the foam. I think it would be quicker with the cardboard, took 3 minutes to get it fitted.
Crandell, the sanding block worked very well for shaping the cardboard.
I did one more last night, this time when I poured the coal, I used the coal it self to make the humps. Caulk is still under the load.
I still have some of the woodland coal left. If I had started with a full bag, I am guessing I could get 15 cars from it.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
I use the foam meat trays from the grocery store as the base for my coal loads. I glue two layers together, carve it shape with a filet knife, paint it black, then glue the coal on top. They add virtually no weight to the car and if you size them right are easily removable.
Ken, nice thrifty modelling. I did what you did to a lone-wolf CP hopper on my layout. All the others are the BLI six-pack ones with coal loads, but the CP one came by itself and without a load.
Mine turned out well, but not as well as yours. I still have to fix one corner of the cardstock...it is bare.
-Crandell
dean_1230 I carved out some leftover pink styrofoam to fit the cars. Then I shaped them in the basic shape of the load and then inserted two steel finishing nails into the loads on each end. Then I painted the styrofoam flat black. I took the coal and crushed it up and used straight glue to attach it to the styrofoam. None of the coal has ever fallen off.
Great idea. Thats what I want to do.
Ken loads look sharp, nice job.
At the club being a newbie of sorts I was tasked with making 300 coal loads using left over foam cut tight to fit with a lage flat washer glued to the bottom of each piece of foam. The foam was shaped and mounded free hand with a sure form tool so as to try and make the loads look not so uniform. I used real anthracite coal pounded between tow metal plated with a hand sledge. A club requirement we only use real coal. hit each piece of foam with straight white glue and sprinkled coal on to them even some we tried the upside down dip method. That was not a good idea. Myself and another guy made all the loads in two nights
Nice job!
I did something even simpler... On the last public run of the Ohio Central steam excursions out of Sugarcreek, Ohio a few years ago, I picked up several large chunks of coal.
I only have a few coal cars to do. I carved out some leftover pink styrofoam to fit the cars. Then I shaped them in the basic shape of the load and then inserted two steel finishing nails into the loads on each end. Then I painted the styrofoam flat black. I took the coal and crushed it up and used straight glue to attach it to the styrofoam. None of the coal has ever fallen off.
So why use the nails? Well, now I finally have a use for the Rix magnetic uncoupler device I bought. It never really worked for uncoupling, but it grabs those nails just fine and pulls the loads right out. I can run the cars either loaded or unloaded.
I have around 60 or so coal cars, but only 24 had loads. I don't want to spend a lot on the store bought ones so I made my own.
First I filled the car with cardboard. I used a old Walther's tank card box, side is close to the withe I needed. I used a sanding block to make the final shaping. I wanted it tight on the sides.
Next I added some latex chalking. Reason I used it is three fold. I wanted to protect cardboard some what from the wet water. It is cheaper than the coal,so it acts as a filler and did not want the load to be flat. I need to work on adding details far as the humps, but still not bad.
I used Isotropy Alcohol 91% for wet water, reason, that is what I have. It took 3 eye droppers to get the coal load wet. Then I added 60% white Glue 40% water and a drop of dish soap. Few places it did not soak in I added more alcohol.
Glue did dry clear, no white showed.
I used woodland coal, bag new was around $5.00 and only 25 percent was left, I still have 10%.
The Chicago Outer Belt Line car weight started at 3.75 onces. With the new load it comes in at 4.75 onces. I left the weights that where in the car so it would not be so top heavy.
Each car took about 10 minutes if that. It has now been a hour and I can flip the car's over and no coal comes off.
Hope this will be of some help to others.