Coal for 7mm wagons

Dog Star

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Until recently I have been able to fill my PO wagons with Welsh Steam coal from what got dropped from the coaling stage at Didcot - when such coal was available from UK sources. Now that coal for heritage lines seems to come from coalfields further afield, mostly from Eastern Europe, the appearance of such coal does not look suitable for early Edwardian coal trains.

Where do you get coal, real or otherwise, for filling 7mm coal wagons?

thank you, Graham
 
Mike W

Mike W

Western Thunderer
My local coal merchant lists a range of coals including Anthracite. They don't actually say where they come from, but one is called "Welsh Dry Steam Coal" so I'm assuming the clue is in the title, but maybe I'm being naive!
www.coalmerchantsuk.co.uk

Welsh Dry Steam - KG Smith & Son

Steam coal is an excellent quality fuel and performs exceptionally well on Railway Engines, traction engines, It is softer than Anthracite but is cleaner than traditional House coal.
www.coalmerchantsuk.co.uk www.coalmerchantsuk.co.uk
But are your wagons carrying coal for steam engines, households, industry or power stations? I know different railways sourced different coals, but that's about the limit of my knowledge!
Mike
 
K

Kevin MH

Western Thunderer
I recently bought a product from Britain of a coal substitute sold by a hobby supplier. I think it was Model Railway Professional Grade Extra Large Artificial Coal - EEZYLOADS But the dealer had four grades of the stuff he listed by size. I picked the third largest for my 7mm engine coal, 3mm to 5mm. It may not look like coal to you, as it is not. But it is not pricey, probably costs more to ship than buy.
 
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M

markjj

Western Thunderer
The model engineering guys sell bags of various weights of real welsh steam coal on ebay if it's any help. Most have websites to that you can buy from outside Ebay.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Activated charcoal, we had loads at work being chucked out (unused) from refilling filters some years back. It’s black and granular and about the right size for 7mm. Apparently, it’s used in fish tank filters, and is between £5 & £10/kg.
 
BrushType4

BrushType4

Western Thunderer
simond said:
Activated charcoal, we had loads at work being chucked out (unused) from refilling filters some years back. It’s black and granular and about the right size for 7mm. Apparently, it’s used in fish tank filters, and is between £5 & £10/kg.
Click to expand...
That what my product is but I’ve used it to filter the extraction first.

@Dog Star I can send you a bag for your expert appraisal if you’d like?
 
Dog Star

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Mike W said:
... are your wagons carrying coal for steam engines, households, industry or power stations? I know different railways sourced different coals...
Click to expand...
In the case of the FoD we are very lucky in that details of the contracts for Crawshays in the Edwardian period have survived and those details are available to modellers (PoW of the FoD, Pope, Lightmoor Press). From the details in PoW-FoD I have concluded that, for our models, some "full" rakes ought to be large lump (as for steam engines), some rakes as small lump (say 4" across for household) and some as pea (dross and such, less than one or two inches - no idea as yet how used). Ian Pope has, as usual, thrown a wide ball in that, at least Lightmoor, coal was found from different seams on different days of the week.... he is expecting that we shall have at least a Tuesday rake to alternate with a Thursday rake.

Tony (@Osgood) may have something to show in regard to such intentions to replicate the prototype.

regards, Graham
 
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