What do you put in your Tinplate gondolas and hoppers, that looks "tinplate"??

How about marbles?

There is an old Wolverine tin “coal” loader that loaded marbles with a swinging arm. No electronics just gravity and levers.  I’ll see if I can find a video and post it.

Here it is in action loading marbles.

@Mannyrock posted:

I have just received from a member a nice set of 7 Marx tinplate cars.  These include a hopper and gondola.   

What do you guys put in your empty transport cars, that keeps up the appearance of tinplate?   Real gravel, coal, or sand, etc. may, I think, detract from the classic tinplate look.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

It depends on the theme of the layout. On my Christmas layout, one gondola will have a load of small bottle brush trees, wrapped and dusted with snow for delivery to the local Christmas tree stand. Others will have sweets and small wrapped presents for my granddaughter. Making up loads is where you can have a lot of fun.

For a regular tinplate layout, how about a load of erector set parts? Pieces of old junker Tootietoy or Dinky cars or scraps of old tin lithographed toys? If you go to a train show, you can find lots of bits of junk under the tables. Or raid your parts bin.  I have lots of lanterns form prewar switches, old  (train car) trucks,  Gondolas carried a lot of scrap. Any sort of colorful Stuff could go in the hopper. Fish aquarium stones. Beads. Polished stones sold for flower arrangements, etc.               

@Mannyrock posted:

I have just received from a member a nice set of 7 Marx tinplate cars.  These include a hopper and gondola.   

What do you guys put in your empty transport cars, that keeps up the appearance of tinplate?   Real gravel, coal, or sand, etc. may, I think, detract from the classic tinplate look.

Thanks,

Mannyrock

Are they 6" or 3/16 scale cars.

Steve

My gondolas usually carry Lego people or whatever the plushie toys the kids are playing with at that moment.  One of the common sayings down stairs is "Stop the train" - as said in the polar express.  that way they can have their little friends get on or off. 

I think marbles is a great idea, and that loader is cool! For these weeks though, I would go with jelly beans.  I am sure someone will soon post the Marx trains Easter video showing the trains carrying candy.

My cars are the 6 inch cars.

I think that all of the ideas above are great.

To start out, I kinda like the idea of colored fish gravel.  It comes in bright reds, pinks, blues, and would look like real stone but maintain the color effect of the tinplate.

Black marbles sound interesting too.  Have they even made marbles since the 1960s?

Mannyrock

Its probably more than you want but American Science and Surplus offers a bag of 1000 assorted marbles for about $25.

JD: Tres cool marble loader! BRAVO, Sir! :-)

Wood barrels are a very common gondola load.

The small MTH wood drums are good for O gauge loads! :-)

I found wooden drums and barrels up at a local Amish market that look great in a hoppers.

There is an online company that carries similar items:

http://www.hobknobin.com/produ...od-doll-house-parts/

If you wanted a Christmas look they have wooden trees that you could paint:

Jerry

I use soft foam in 4-wheel 6-inch Marx tin cars to represent coal or gravel loads. I like to run about 10 cars in a train on O27 curves. Heavier loads would be a problem, causing derailments and straining loco pulling capacity. Foam loads also reduce train clatter.

Hi,

I found birch logs at Hobby Lobby that look quite nice. I used them to fill a Lionel #512. They can found in the Doll House section. I found other items for Station Platforms. (Benches, Lanterns, wooden buckets, etc.)

Michael

How about "tinplate"? Somebody has to ship the material the cars are made of!

Jim

The oversized Märklin fuel drums from the 1930s (on the left) are great ... but so expensive to buy today

@Jim Policastro posted:

How about "tinplate"? Somebody has to ship the material the cars are made of!

Jim

The tinplate mine!! I always wondered where this stuff came from!

That Marklin Leuna Oil drum is a jewel!

@JD2035RR posted:

Here it is in action loading marbles.

Most fun post I’ve seen in a while.  Thanks

These graphics can be printed and cut for Marx 6” cars. Print on high gloss photo type paper for a litho appearance.

Steve