N scale anthracite

[NtheBasement]

Found black "art sand" at Hobby Lobby and couldn't resist trying it out at $2.50 a pound. I previously used real anthracite but had to install dust filters to avoid black lung from all the dust. The art sand that I previously tried turned out to be full of iron filings, deadly to things like electric motors. This stuff is glittery (hence anthracite) and is probably broken glass. I gave it a shot on a flood loader run.

It is finer that the Woodland Scenics fine cinder ballast that I usually use and also twice as heavy. A typically full 25-hopper load of WS is 12 ounces. My two locos didn't have enough traction to load up the full pound of art sand, and when I added a third engine to the consist I still had six empty hoppers left when the loader ran out of art sand. Also the art sand has a shallower angle of repose than the WS, so the upper measuring chamber held too much and I had to reduce it's volume. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Dave V]

@davefoxx discovered this many years ago (something longer than a decade) and I've used it for N scale coal ever since! Tenders, hopper loads, spilled coal...you name it. And one jar will last longer than you will.

[peteski]

This looks very similar to "black beauty": a material used by road repair crews sprinkled over freshly sealed cracks in the pavement to cover the sticky sealant.

[robert3985]

I've use the Hobby Lobby "Art Sand" for years as coal, spilled at my Fairbanks Morse concrete coaling tower at Echo and in the hoppers there, and in various engines that have empty coal bunkers.  It's a little too "sparkly"...but just a little, and looks better than the small amount of crushed real coal I used before.  Both the real coal and the Hobby Lobby "Art Sand" don't appear to be quite fine enough to 100% accurately represent the real crushed coal used by UP for their steamers, but, the "Art Sand" is close enough since I don't have any prototype coal chunks or crushing information on the real stuff...only photos of engines and hoppers at both Echo and Ogden coaling towers.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[davefoxx]

@davefoxx discovered this many years ago (something longer than a decade) and I've used it for N scale coal ever since! Tenders, hopper loads, spilled coal...you name it. And one jar will last longer than you will.

Haha!  As @Dave V and I discussed back then, I repurposed a large to-go food container to store the black sand art that I bought at Michael’s.  I still haven’t hardly put a dent in it! 🤣. But, coincidentally, I did just purchase three HO scale coal hoppers that need this treatment. 

To the sand art and white glue!

DFF

[Mark5]

Works for contemporary I guess. In the "older" days, coal came in multiple sizes (lump, egg, stove, nut, pea, etc) - I imagine Anthracite was like that too.

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

[CONRAIL FAN]

Try crushed Kingsford Charcoal bricks for coal loads.

[robertjohndavis]

What area do you model? I wasn’t aware of unit train anthracite on CSX?

Rob

[Dave V]

Works for contemporary I guess. In the "older" days, coal came in multiple sizes (lump, egg, stove, nut, pea, etc) - I imagine Anthracite was like that too.

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

So... It depends. Even back in the good ol' days, sometimes coal was sorted to a uniform size before loading. Case in point; the coal breaker/washer at Mount Union, PA, when mine-run coal from the East Broad Top was transloaded into standard gauge cars on the Pennsy. The EBT hopper loads would be "chunky," but after sorting and washing, the outbound loads in Pennsy GLa and H21 hoppers would be uniform in size.

All that said, in N scale, coal is already so fine that to me at least, the sparkle from the play sand is more important than the uniform size, which is mostly unnoticeable to me. I feel like it's somewhat more of an issue in a locomotive tender (where I more often see a variety of sizes) than in a hopper car.

In HOn3, I used real rushed coal because 1) in that scale, the sand is bordering on too small and 2) on the Colorado narrow gauge, there was no uniform nothin'. Not coal, not ore, not ballast, just lumps and chunks and bits of all sizes.

[robertjohndavis]

So... It depends. Even back in the good ol' days, sometimes coal was sorted to a uniform size before loading. Case in point; the coal breaker/washer at Mount Union, PA, when mine-run coal from the East Broad Top was transloaded into standard gauge cars on the Pennsy. The EBT hopper loads would be "chunky," but after sorting and washing, the outbound loads in Pennsy GLa and H21 hoppers would be uniform in size.

All that said, in N scale, coal is already so fine that to me at least, the sparkle from the play sand is more important than the uniform size, which is mostly unnoticeable to me. I feel like it's somewhat more of an issue in a locomotive tender (where I more often see a variety of sizes) than in a hopper car.

In HOn3, I used real rushed coal because 1) in that scale, the sand is bordering on too small and 2) on the Colorado narrow gauge, there was no uniform nothin'. Not coal, not ore, not ballast, just lumps and chunks and bits of all sizes.

I don’t think the EBT shipped anthracite. A-coal could be found as mine run chunks if being transported from mine to colliery. Post colliery, it would have been shipped in sizes from pea to egg. In N scale mine run coal would be visibly different. The market sizes not so much.


L

[Dave V]

I don’t think the EBT shipped anthracite. A-coal could be found as mine run chunks if being transported from mine to colliery. Post colliery, it would have been shipped in sizes from pea to egg. In N scale mine run coal would be visibly different. The market sizes not so much.


L

I'm speaking in generalized terms about coal. No, the EBT shipped a very unique variety of high-quality, low-volatile, and low-sulfur bituminous, known as "Broad Top Smokeless." It was about as close to clean-burning to anthracite as you could get while technically still being bituminous, though it is sometimes referred to as "semi-anthracite." It was especially well-suited for home heating...it burned hot and clean but easier than straight anthracite.

Fun fact...the only other large body of economically-viable anthracite in North America outside of Pennsylvania is right here in Colorado, just west of Crested Butte. The D&RGW served it via the narrow gauge until 1955.

[robertjohndavis]

I’ve spent a lot of time studying the history of anthracite mining and transportation in northeast PA, which is why started reading this thread. I thought I was missing something, but it does seem the topic is more about B-coal rather than being A-coal specific. Sorry if I lost the plot.

[Dave V]

So to that end, would it be reasonable to expect someone could tell the difference between bituminous and anthracite in N scale? I know anthracite is generally glassier, but also that bituminous was often sprayed with oil to knock the dust down, so I'd imagine it'd look similarly shiny when shrunken to 1/160th...but I could be wrong.

Although I concede it'd be peak Railwire to model specific grades, sizes, and lithotypes of coal in N scale... 

[x600]

As a former NEPA resident with anthracite in my DNA, I don't know if if it was ever flood loaded.
 The breakers were the only way I've ever seen it loaded. Not dis-ing the model work, I just never seen any evidence
that this ever happened 1 to 1 scale.

Greg O.

[robert3985]

Well, this subject matter goaded me into doing some research about the type of coal used by Union Pacific to fuel their coal-fired steam locomotives, particularly in the 1940's and 1950's. 

To begin with, Union Pacific had its own coal mines in Wyoming at the time.  The Utah mines, mainly in the Coalville areas south of Echo Junction and served by the Park City Branch had shut down in the early 1930's with other Utah mines shutting down earlier.  The coal mines were operated by the Union Pacific Coal Company, established in 1890.  By the 1940's the vast majority of coal was mined in Wyoming at Rock Springs, Hanna, Cumberland, Carbon, Almy and Superior.

This is what interested me most...the type of coal UP steam engines used and its physical description.  The type of coal mined in Wyoming and used by Union Pacific for their steam engines, heating their buildings and electrical generation is called "low-grade sub-bituminous to bituminous coal."  Physical description is "dark brown to black" and "dull."

I found some photos, and the photos show it to have some gloss...not what I would consider "dull"...although not glass-like...but with definite glossy sections on each piece.

Photo - (1) Sub-Bituminous Coal:


Photo (2) - Bituminous Coal:


Neither photo looks "dull" to me.  This leads me to believe that the "Art Sand" I've got, although glossy, is a passable representation of the type of coal mined and used by UP.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore