I am pretty sure the coal in Blue Mountain Hobbies coal loads is SAND painted glossy black. Russ Downs was selling them for while. I started chopping at 1 once for a tender and it exploded with sand. That was the end of that idea.
I had the novel idea of using COAL for my coal loads for over 15 years now. On 2 occasions I happened upon real coal fines and got all I could carry in truly found containers. Once was in Minersville PA at a coal sorting plant. Apparently these fines are a saleable size for them. Some leaked out of a hopper car onto the track. To say it was PERFECT for S Scale use is an understatement screened and uniform in size truly ready to use. I filled a ½ gallon cardboard orange juice container with it. Another time was on my no booze or broads - just trains and good friends bachelor party over 10 years ago to see Cass. At the bottom of the conveyor at the Durbin Rocket was all the fine dust etc that did not make it up to the tender. Jackpot again. The engineer John was looking at us funny when we were scooping up the coal dust! I am reasonably sure there is this same pile of fines at the Durbin Rocket right now. So raid your local steam tourist line. The amount you would be taking is nothing to them. Some of the H21 I have now ran for years prototypically FULL of coal at Bill Moores house. They weighed a ton! (:->) We even had a prototypical derailment and spill of the coal more than once. Bill is my Minersville connection. Bill got some bigger chunks while visiting his brother. After some hammer smashing he ran them through an old time hand crank coffee grinder with good results at least for a while. It absolutely ground the coal into a MORE uniform size. I dont claim to know the longevity of the coffee grinder . Thank You, Bill Lane Modeling the Mighty Pennsy & PRSL in 1957 in S Scale since 1987 See my finished models at: <http://www.lanestrains.com/> http://www.lanestrains.com Look at what has been made in PRR in S Scale! See my layout progess at: <http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Layout.htm> http://www.lanestrains.com/My_Layout.htm Custom Train Parts Design <http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm> http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm PRR Builders Photos Bought, Sold & Traded (Trading is MUCH preferred) <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls> http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls ***Join the PRR T&HS*** The other members are not ALL like me! <http://www.prrths.com/> http://www.prrths.com <http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf> http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf Join the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society It's FREE to join! <http://www.prslhs.com/> http://www.prslhs.com Preserving The Memory Of The PRSL
