Construction of the following freight car loads are described on this page:

    A. Steel Beams

    B. Coal

    C. Crates

    D. Containers

A. Steel Beam Gondola Load

The first S-scale load I built is a set of steel H-column beams. These were a bunch of Plastruct parts leftover from an N-scale bridge kit that I bought a long time ago. I cut them in half to about a scale 32 feet in length. I set out to make them look like shiny metal, so I spray painted them with gloss metal spray paint (in a can). This went OK, but not great. Then I ran across the article titled "Essential Freight Cars: 26 - Freight Loads for Gondolas" by Ted Culotta in the December 2005 edition of Railroad Model Craftsman. This article covers the construction of several different types of loads. He suggested that the steel material be painted with a weathered black. I brush-painted Floquil's Grimy Black instead. The results are seen in the next photo. Some of the shiny "metal" paint can still be seen, but I think that adds character.

The first construction steps are always the most challenging because they lay the foundation for the entire project. The wooden spacers are a scale 4"x4", and were cut to length to match the interior of the target gondola for which the load is intended. I used the ruler to make sure the boards were approximately equidistant, and then used a metal weight to make sure each board stayed perpendicular to the first steel beam as I applied superglue to attach them.

After the bottom boards were attached to the first beam, I then superglued another four beams to the bottom boards, as shown in the next photo. I then applied some Bragdon Enterprises weathering chalk to represent the rust that happens as soon as steel is exposed to oxygen.

Each row of beams is separated by another set of 4"x4" boards.

I did this for three rows of steel beams.

After applying a final set of boards, the load fits perfectly into the gondola for which it was designed. I had also applied weathering powders to the ends of the beams. The load is not glued to the gondola so that it can be removed and another load can be inserted in its stead.

B. Coal Hopper Load

One of my PRR hoppers needed a coal load (actually it is a G-series car, so it is considered a gondola in PRR-speak). I wanted the load to be removable. The book "Detailing Freight Cars" by Jeff Wilson shows a simple technique for using foam. I had a sheet of foamboard available, so I cut out a piece to just barely fit within the car.

For the actual coal, I found a bag of "Decorative Sand" ("Black Coarse Sand", item #73054, made by Panacea Products Corp, Columbus, OH) at the craft store Michael's. It contains sand kernels that are about two scale inches in size, which is perfect for the finer run from coal mines. The material glitters a bit, which adds to the effect, I think. It is actual sand so it does have some weight to it. This might be good for cars that are a bit light. However, ultimately any material that looks like coal (or even coal itself) can be used.

Using a knife with no.11 blade in it, I carved the top of the foamboard piece to be shaped like the final shape of the load that I wanted. I then painted the top and sides of the piece with a black acrylic paint. While the paint was still wet, I poured some of the "coal" sand over the top. I let this dry overnight, just to be sure. The next morning, I flipped to load over to allow the loose pieces to fall off. This is what you see in the photo below. I couldn't quite get the camera to take the shot without using the flash, so the coal looks too gray in the photo. I did the work on a piece of glass, so that I could recover all the pieces of sand to be reused.

One thing I discovered (having never painted foamboard before), was that the piece had warped. I had only painted the top and sides of the piece. I then painted the bottom, but it didn't help. I thought about it for a while, but realized that I could manipulate the placement of the materials on top to make the load appear to be flat. The foamboard piece will rest on the crossbearers of the gondola. The curvature of the piece wouldn't be visible at the top of the car.

I then started pouring several thin layers of the sand on top of the load, immediately followed by drops of rubbing alcohol and drops of matte medium (mixed 50/50 with water). I let each layer dry for about an hour before applying the next one. I kept going until I had the shape that I wanted. The load is quite heavy now. Here's the load dropped into the car for which it was intended. By holding the car upside down I can remove the load carefully with the point of a knife. I have seen people using a tool with a magnet at one end to be able to lift the load out if a matching magnet is glued to the underside of the load. I might do that down the road. Note how you can no longer tell that the load was warped!

I built another coal load for an H21a in a similar manner.

C. Crates

Some of my boxcars have open doors (some are movable and some are permanently opened). Having an empty boxcar isn't very attractive, nor necessarily prototypical. I decided that some crates might be a good load (perhaps representing a less-than-carload load). I built a handful of crates using some blocks of wood as starters. This first photo shows some blocks cut to size using the table saw. Since I was dealing with about 1/2"-square blocks, it is a bit dangerous on the table saw. Since then I have found Hobby Lobby carries a bag of already cut blocks of wood about the same size. That made the process go a lot quicker, and safer (no table saw needed).

I then covered all six sides of the block with stripwood. I used scale 1x5 boards, cut to size and glued with yellow carpenter's glue.

Crates come in all different sizes, shapes, and configurations. I glued a set of boards along the top and bottom edges of the crates. A diagonal outside brace was added to make the familiar Z-shape. You can see the before and after in the next photo.

One little drop of glue was used to hold this crate in the B&O boxcar.

D. Containers

During the summer of 2011 Bill Lane designed and released a set of less-than-carload containers used by the Pennsylvania Railroad (and many other railroads). I bought a set of ten and they are shown here in a G24 gondola. These containers look like the ones the PRR classified as "HB4 - weatherproof, bulk freight".