Coal is sold in various sizes with names such as lump, egg, chestnut, pea, buckwheat, rice, barley, etc. Mine run coal, which wasn’t processed, had a large mixture of sizes. Tipples with multiple tracks many times had a different size for each track, which you can see in some pictures. When looking at pictures of tender loads, most of the ones I’ve seen have had a mixture of sizes like they were using mine run coal.
My late parents had a coal stove as an alternate heat source. The gave me a bag of coal some years ago that is a lifetime supply for modeling purposes. The real stuff looks best, just break or grind it into the size you want. For tender loads, I like to have a mix of sizes. Frank Titman used live loads (loose coal) in hoppers, but used plastic model coal. Evidently he used real live coal loads at one time before I knew him, but he said it made too much dust. He used real coal for tender loads and scenery uses. For a false load on a piece of plastic or form, the real stuff works fine and still looks best. If you are modeling anthracite loads, you need a glint to the coal which sand painted black won’t do. Around here, you can still buy coal by the bag, which would satisfy several modelers needs. Of course you can always have a ton delivered and go into business selling real model coal in small bags. P-B-L is an S scale suppler who sells the real stuff if you need to have coal from an actual D&RGW coal dock. What my parents used was fine for me. Dave Heine Easton, PA From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, January 25, 2013 12:35 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Coal Loads I wonder how these loads look compared to the old Blue Mountain Hobbies coal loads? I too need a few more loads. My coal loads for the SHS hoppers do not look as good as the Blue Mountain loads in my AM 2 bay hoppers. They have huge chunks of coal compared to smaller chunks in the old Blue Mountain loads. - Earl Henry, Nashville
