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

I have always liked the "Hornby Approach" ... where they made tin inserts for a couple of their smaller wagons ... wouldnt be hard to bend up some light tin , belt it thoroughly with a small ball pein hammer and paint black

For the fancier bigger ones they used real coal chips glued into a block

A bag of crumbles and some PVA glue and you too could make drop in loads !

Fatman,

What a great idea.   I am pretty good with sheet aluminum, tin snips and metal bending, and I have a small ball peen hammer.   I will have several open top cars, so I plan to use all of the suggestions on this board for different cars.

I also think that I could print out one of the pictures that Steve sent to me,  on glossy  machine glossy,  with adhesive back, and then stick it onto a piece of tin, spray paint it with a sealer, and then put the piece in the car.

Thx,

Mannyrock

Years ago I bought a couple sets of O-gauge MTH LCL containers which work well with the tinplate 800 and 2800-series gondolas:

Making stuff is always more fun, however.

PD

Great photo PD.

But for the starter set Marx tinplate cars, those crates look too real!  :-)

Mannyrock

Old adage applies here: KISS: (Keep It Simple, Simon!)

Why no pics of what your working with?

@Mannyrock posted:

Great photo PD.

But for the starter set Marx tinplate cars, those crates look too real!  :-)

Mannyrock

Manny - You gotta give ‘em an overspray of clear gloss to make ‘em look tinplate-ish. You’re right, though, they might be too big for a 6” Marx gondola.

PD

For Marx 6 inch, small boxes of Dots candy, the kind that are available at Halloween and Easter work fine. remove the candy first to keep the ants away.

Rich,

Just working with the very common but attractive Marx 6" tinplate cars, the gondola, hopper car and coal car.  Tons of pictures on e-bay.

I will post pictures after I "fill them up".

Thx,

Mannyrock

Candy fillings probably won't work for me.

My grandsons range from  ages 1 to 5, and they would constantly grab the candy and pop it in their mouths, . . . ants and all. :-)

Mannyrock

Black marbles, or in season, Christmas trees!

Bob Nelson

On Santa's train, they carry presents ...

I put scrap toy train rail from various projects.  They work perfectly with the electro

magnetic crane.

Lew Schneider

You can use Pucci Plastic Beads from Bass Pro Shops.   I use them for making fishing lures and they come in 4 different sizes as well as an array of colors..