Coal affecting track

[mike morley]

A year or so ago I added a coal heap, locos for the use of, to the loading bank on my quarry siding.  I never did get around to adding the dust, spillage and stray lumps that would probably have accumulated actually on the track, yet ever since it has been noticeable that the track in the vicinity of the coal heap needs cleaning far more frequently than the rest of the layout and is much harder to clean.  At times I've come close to having to scrape the tarnish off the railheads.

Most steam-era layouts have real coal close to the track somewhere on them, yet I've never heard of anyone else suffering this problem.  Any thoughts on the subject?

[Michael Hodgson]

It's basically the same question as weathering - how good one is at getting a realistic in-service finish rather than fresh from the paint shop appearance.  Some are much better than others at that, and many of us don't even try feeling we don't have the skills!

 

So well done for making the effort.  I doubt they made much effort on the prototype to scrape off the tarnish though.

[Hroth]

Aromatics outgassing from the real coal affecting the track? (just a guess!)

Provided its not affecting running tracks, you may as well leave it alone and call it "natural weathering".

 

As its in one place all the time, the coal will have more effect than real coal in loco bunkers.

 

Edited February 10 by Hroth
mistype

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

Aromatics outgassing from the real coal affecting the track? (just a guess!)

Good guess. This really happens, such that mined coal with the desireable high 'volatiles' content  steadily loses the easy ignition the volatiles provide, which is so useful for steam traction economy. If volatiles content falls significantly, a crew will find it more difficult to time firing for those route sections where a major power iincrease is required; because they cannot depend on rapid ignition.

 

 

[Wheatley]

Coal is acidic so my guess would be something to do with that, possibly leaching through whatever you used to glue it down. It doesn't happen on other layouts because all the variables on yours are just right.