Coal loads for MicroTrains 33' 2-bay hoppers?

[Maletrain]

Does MicroTrains still make coal loads for their hoppers?  I have at least 16 that need loads.  But, they no longer seem to be available from MicroTrains nor from Fine N-scale Products.

Yes, I can make a bunch, but these are going to get a lot of handling for Ops staging from loads to empties and back again.  So, a single piece of plastic would wear better than a lot of loose granules glued to a piece of plastic or balsa.

[mu26aeh]

Hays Bros has coal loads for 33' MT cars if you can't source from MT

[ridinshotgun]

Hays Bros has coal loads for 33' MT cars if you can't source from MT

Hays is all I use now if they make it.  Even it a manufacturer includes it with the car the hays are light years ahead of almost all of them.  I think I just bought a set of weathered MT coal cars that had what I think were hays loads when I bought them since they were not the usual plasticy loads they use.

[Maletrain]

I guess I will need to write Hay Brothers and ask what coal loads they have for MicroTrains 33' 2-bay hoppers.  Looking at N Scale Supply doesn't show any, and looking at their eBay store shows only a large lump load and not even any 3-packs of that.  So, 16 loads would be $64 +shipping.

[ridinshotgun]

I guess I will need to write Hay Brothers and ask what coal loads they have for MicroTrains 33' 2-bay hoppers.  Looking at N Scale Supply doesn't show any, and looking at their eBay store shows only a large lump load and not even any 3-packs of that.  So, 16 loads would be $64 +shipping.

He is super responsive and has a list of loads not on ebay.  He almost always responds within a day and typically shipping is less dealing through email than ebay.  If he doesn't have what you want in stock from his list he will make it.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

These are actually one of the things I've been planning on spitting out of my printer, but I'm having a surprisingly hard time making natural looking humps in Tinkercad.

[Mark5]

Fine N Scale still lists FNC-113 and FNC-115, but I don't know where to get them now that MBK was torpedoed:

https://finenscale.com/loads.html

I guess I will need to write Hay Brothers -snip- and looking at their eBay store shows only a large lump load and not even any 3-packs of that.

Hay Bros has quite a few loads available:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_dkr=1&iconV2Request=true&_blrs=recall_filtering&_ssn=haybros&store_cat=0&store_name=haybrotherstrainsandtoys&_oac=1&_nkw=microtrains%2033%27

Coal 3-pak: https://www.ebay.com/itm/296083704537?itmmeta=01HRR3NEXWAVZENW1W8DMXXHY1&hash=item44eff6cad9:g:808AAOSwDkVZ6-5B

[ridinshotgun]

These are actually one of the things I've been planning on spitting out of my printer, but I'm having a surprisingly hard time making natural looking humps in Tinkercad.

One of the guys in the club tried printing loads and they were horrible.  They didn't look right and they were light.  The resin held the edge over what I saw.

[randgust]

You guys are just working way too hard.

Get a basic shape, coat with white glue, sprinkle scale coal.  Spray again to get the glue to come up through, sprinkle again.   Looks way better than any printed or resin or plastic molded load.   

And the real kicker was how I did 30 coal loads in my YK unit coal train, the thin black foam stuff cut slightly oversize with scissors and bent to fit, as the weight from ANY molded, cast, or resin load in my unit train cars was an issue.  It's amazing how good it looks, easy to clean, easy to replace.  It's just a little reflective as it should be.

[Mark5]

True. Decades ago, I would cast the coal loads in plaster (from a simple mold) - then shape it and seal it. Paint the top black, then sprinkle scale coal on the top of white glue.

I model 1975 so not a lot of "flood" loading - most hoppers had "heap" loads.

These days I am lazy, but when I get a new layout under way I've got probably over a hundred hoppers - I will probably update this approach.

[Maletrain]

My loads are going to have the weight of a small nail, not matter where I get or how I make them, because I will be using a magnet to remove them from the cars for unloading during staging for op sessions.

I need at last 16, for now, and probably could use about 100.  So, cost is an issue at some point, maybe even at 16.  It is just that, these days, I seem to have even less time than money.

[bbunge]

You guys are just working way too hard.

Get a basic shape, coat with white glue, sprinkle scale coal.  Spray again to get the glue to come up through, sprinkle again.   Looks way better than any printed or resin or plastic molded load.   

This is what I do. I have a basic shape that I resize for various cars, then wet, sprinkle and glue ground up coal.  Not does it look better, IMHO, but you can mix it up; have some "run of the mine" loads (large, boulder sized pieces) and some cleaned breaker loads.  It also means that every car is a little different. At least for the period I'm covering (1920's through the 1970's) each car is going to be a little different.

I picked up a piece of B-coal at Strasburg and later picked up a piece of (semi) A-coal at East Broad Top.  Not only is the A-coal much harder to break up and grind up, but they look quite different in the cars.  The A-coal is flat and dull, the B-coal is more glossy and even sparkles some.

Bob 

[Mark5]

At least for the period I'm covering (1920's through the 1970's) each car is going to be a little different.

Very true. Coal came in multiple sizes, and some customers were very specific about the size of the "rocks".

https://appalachianrailroadmodeling.com/abcs-of-coal

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I’ve thought about doing what my dad did years ago and whittling some cores down out of balsa or something like that. But I keep having intrusive thoughts about programmatically generating “random” lumps perfectly sized for most cars (to then be covered in real coal, of course).

I’m sure I’d invest far more time into it then it’d be worth, but it’s a thing that FEELS like it should be doable.

[dem34]

I’ve thought about doing what my dad did years ago and whittling some cores down out of balsa or something like that. But I keep having intrusive thoughts about programmatically generating “random” lumps perfectly sized for most cars (to then be covered in real coal, of course).

I’m sure I’d invest far more time into it then it’d be worth, but it’s a thing that FEELS like it should be doable.

Going to be honest, would be a lot easier to just generate a couple lumps in blender. Slice them down to appropriate rectangles then do the glue and sprinkle method once printed.
Personally I would just carve the shapes out of XPS so theres a bit of randomness.