I never thought about it like that but the block coal does add a unique element.
I like the look of Atlas but Gargraves is appealing. I'll probably buy a chunk of Gargraves and experiment with it soon. It would be great if I could chop a bit off the ties and thin them up. I can always put the Atlas that I have under hills and such if I decided to make the change. I still have concerns about getting Atlas but I haven't come up short so far when I check stock. I have two of their switches and I'm not impressed with those. Wheel flanges jump the track and I got dead spots everywhere. I bought them used so I'm going to assume they're damaged. Otherwise I figure it's from the era when Atlas had bad switches.