HO Scale Coal

[MIKE0659]

Try Smith and Son Ballast, you'll find they have an ad in Model Railroader. Scenic Express sells some of their stuff, but only some and they charge a little more. You can deal directly with Smith and Son Ballast and get it in quantity. They sell it in small bags or inbilk by the pound. You can also get small bags of the various grades/sizes to see what it looks like in person for a small charge per bag.

We use their unit train coal for the live loads we run and their ballast and cinders too.

They're really great folks to deal with and like their ballast, it is real coal that they crush. I think they have a little rock crushing rig in their garage.

This is their address: Smith and Sons Ballast 13630 Gar Highway Chardon, OH  44024

[ndbprr]

Buy a bag of real coal and beat it with a hammer was done back in the 40's.  A really good substitute and is under $5.00 for a 50 pound bag is a grit blast media called Black Beauty.  It is an aluminum oxide material (read does not conduct electricity) used for sand blasting and is very common at sand blast supply houses.  My one bag has been sprinkled on my driveway after yearly tarring twice and  filled over fifty hoppers.  I still have ten pounds left.

[3155944]

I used some fine chicken grit from the feed store a 40lb bag for about  $5

[Namerifrats]

Well, I don't wanna make removeable loads using the Styrene method. I was the cars to be fairly heavy and realistic. I'm thinking of doing what I saw elsewhere online. Line the inside of the cars with wax paper to prevent actually sticking the coal to the plastic it's self. And then pour in a loose load and use a glue mixture similar to laying ballast to secure my loads. I found some on ebay just now thats 10 lbs of coal. I may end up buying that, should be enough. I see that the seller "Teachnshopgirl24" has sold quite a bit of it in the past. Anybody bought any of it before, experiences?

[locoi1sa]

  Make your own. Small bag of coal from woodland scenics and some sheet styrene and some glue. Maybe about 1/4th the price of ready made. I filled some tenders with real coal crushed with a hammer in a canvas bag. You cant get more realistic than that.

   Pete
 

[BlueHillsCPR]

Is there any reason why you couldn't make your own and save buying it already at HO size?

[Namerifrats]

Anybody here know of anywhere online where a large quantity of HO Scale Coal can be bought for a reasonable price? Looked around earlier and just seen the same things most hobby shops have for roughly the same price + shipping. I'm looking for enough to fill about 50 coal hoppers.