Natural Scenics Brand Coal. What size for 00

[Fettster42]

Lots of companies seem to be carrying this and looks good but the size grading is as clear as mud!

Anyone used it and have a recommendation for sizes for cost wagons and tender/bunker use?

TIA

Leigh 

[The Johnster]

Coal isn't just black rocks you know.  In fact some of it isn't even black, more grey or brown.  Coal from different coalfields, different parts of the same coalfield, and even different seams at the same pit has different calorific values, friability (how well it goes with chips), acid and sulphur content, and other properties, and on top of that is processed after being raised to remove waste material, then screened into different size lumps, then washed in order to minimise the dust.  An industrial customer was able to specify the calorific value, friability, acidity, and sulphur content to suit his own boiler or coking needs, and domestic customers were able to specify size and clean-burning ability according to budget.  Anthracite, which has been subjected to heat and pressure while deep in the Earth's crust, is used where low smoke emission and very high calorific values are required, but it is more expensive; it is comparatively smooth with shiny flat surfaces.

 

As a very rough guide, power station coal can be quite small in size, steam coal needs to be capable of being shovelled or conveyored/hoppered into boiler fireboxes, loco coal being more critically screened for size.  Loco coal to be used with coaling towers needs to be screened for friability, and the GW/WR's use of Welsh Steam coal meant that they did not use such towers, and friability is an issue with export coal tipped into ships' holds as well.  For modelling purposes, I would go for a fairly fine product, varying the sizes in wagons of household coal destined for local goods/coal yards and using a uniform size in block main-line trains, especially power station/MGR traffic.

[Fettster42]

So in answer to my question @The Johnster have you used the natural scenics range coal? Is it any good and what size do you recommend for 00 gauge? 

[Wheatley]

I think the gist of m'learned friend's answer was "It depends". It would help if they put the seive sizes on the description. 

 

In the meantime "Small samples available upon request."

[fulton]

Am using the Natural Scenics Mine Run Coal Fine, to me it looks the part for tenders/bunkers, would probably use their other sizes, for coal wagons to give some variety, maybe with a grey or brown wash. I have a bunker of real coal, anthracite, but messy to grade and use.  

[The Johnster]

On 08/04/2024 at 22:11, Fettster42 said:

So in answer to my question @The Johnster have you used the natural scenics range coal? Is it any good and what size do you recommend for 00 gauge? 

 

I use the real thing, mined by Tomparryharry for me at Big Pit, Blaenafon.  This has several advantages, in that it looks remarkably like coal (not everything scales down in this way but geology does, by and large, as does wood, something to do with fractals).  It can be crushed as fine as you like and the resultant debris comes in handy to represent the finer grades.  I require it to be removed from and replaced in the wagons as part of the operation, and this is achieved by the usual method of making up card platforms that fit loosely inside the wagons, pva-ing the top, and spreading the coal on it. 

 

But in general I would suggest lumps between about 1-1.5mm in size for loco, steam, and export coal, smaller for steelworks or power stations, (power station coal was more or less dust by the 1980s), a bit bigger for coking or gasworks coal.  My photos of Cwmdimbath show that quite a lot of my loads could do with being a bit finer; do what I say, not what I do!

 

Coke does not look like coal; it is greyer and less shiny.  It is also lighter, which means the wagons carry more of it in terms of bulk, hence the coke rails on smaller wagons and the big LMS/BR hoppers.  Coal wagons in service very rarely carried less than the full load, up to within a few inches of the top of the sides; it was in everybody's commercial interest to get the most economical use possible from the wagons.