Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Thanks Tom!  Nothing like a blue sky to make things look like they make sense.

Got coal on the brain these days.  I've been pondering coal loads for a number of my empty hopper cars - I could run them all empty, but I like them better when there's a simulated load.

Some of them came with simulated loads, others did not.  What to do about the ones without?  I'd thought about going the purchase route, but once again, the cheapo in me didn't like that option.  Why does one load cost almost $10?  It's a piece of formed plastic, and if you really want to make that thing look good, you have to glue coal dust on top of it.

There's a guy on YouTube who makes them out of basswood with a foam top sprinkled with coal dust.  I was on my way to procure materials to do the same when I talked to one of our techs downstairs with a 3D printer.  After a few minutes of searching (there are a lot of people publishing files to create a lot of stuff in the Thingiverse) we found some 3D prints that would work for at least my 100-ton cars, so he's been printing me some of those in his spare time.  I paid him $10 and he's going to build me at least 10.  He also said he could scan in some of my delivered simulated loads from Bowser, etc. and then print out the duplicated load.  I like this solution!

I have the first three.  Right off the printer, they're reasonable, but require a little bit of either cutting or sanding to fit properly into a car.

   

I smother with Elmer's glue and then sprinkle with Woodland Scenics coal dust.  Wah la!