Does anyone know who makes these coalporters? I've gone through them inside and out and can't find any manufacturer data and when I received them they were unboxed. Thanks Steve Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Those don't look to be the Kato cars. They have the unpainted trip pin, which is usually found on Micro Trains couplers. I just found something about a company called E&C shops. They make n scale, as well as Ho, coal porters that look to fit the bill. The tooling might be owned by Micro trains now, which would explain the trucks. This older listing on Trainz shows the Micro trains logo on the side of the box. http://marketplace.trainzauctions.com/offer/details/166740
The trucks are not a good indication of the source as they could have been changed. Both the Kato and Deluxe ones have the manufacturer's name on the bottom. That leaves the Athearn and LBF (or Huberts or E&C Shops as they both used the LBF tooling). From the look of the coal loads (look a bit like a hip roof), I'd say they were the LBF/E&C/Huberts cars. The Athearn cars had a more coal-looking load. As noted above, E&C sold them with MT couplers/trucks. I believe the LBF tooling is now with Intermountain for their Value Line cars. Adrian
Thanks for the feedback, the load looks more like a black flat tarp rather than a coal load. I'm trying to find out which brand so I can get better coal loads for the right car. Thanks again Steve Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That is the LBF/E&C/Huberts car with the geometric-looking coal load. It is actually not a bad representation of a flood-loaded car with fine grade coal straight out of the loader before it has had time to settle. All the others have granular-looking loads. Adrian
As someone else mentioned flood loaded coal is fine graded (very small size with a lot of surface area). It is used in power plants where it is blown into the combustion chamber and burned immediately. It is sort of like fuel injection in a vehicle. You don't need to buy new loads. Using the existing loads brush on white glue or matte medium and then cover them with Woodland Scenics fine cinders. That will give you the texture you need to represent the finely graded coal. Also one other note is that these cars are not loaded uniformly. Rather the load is humped in the front of the car and slopes downward toward the back of the car where it would be below the top edge of the car. As the train travels the load will shift to the rear and eventually even out over the length of the car. Otherwise they would loose a lot of coal between the mine and the power plant.
Thanks for the tips everyone, that explains the appearance of these coal loads then. I think I'll try adding some fine coal to the existing loads. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
