How can I secure gondola & hopper loads?

I have some loose materials that I would like to use for gondola and hopper loads, namely, dirt, sand, gravel, sawdust, scrap metal, etc. I would like to glue (or hairspray) these materials together so that they don't spill. I could glue everything into the cars, much like the way I glue ballast in place, except that I want to maintain the ability to run the cars as empties or change out the loads. How can I secure these materials together without gluing them to the cars? For the dirt, sand, and sawdust, I could shape some hard Styrofoam that I have on hand and simply glue the material to the top of the Styrofoam. However, what can I do for gravel and scrap metal loads? I would appreciate any ideas on this subject.

 

Gravel would work just as well glued down. One of the tricks I learned about was to put a small magnet in the load so you could get it out of the car with ease. or you could bury a couple of metals chunks into the load and use the magnet to pull them out.


Tony LaLumia

 

If I put gravel in a gondola or hopper and drop in a glue/water mixture, wouldn't the load be glued to the car permanently? How can I glue the loads together without gluing them to the cars?

 

Use wax paper or some other form of release agent. If you used foam as a base, you could build a form box and do your glue work there and then fit the load to the car. Just glue a kind of thin layer of gravel or dirt on to the foam.

 

Thanks. Here's a youtube video showing a guy's technique. I'm not sure why I didn't think to search youtube earlier.