Back a few months ago I made a mold of a good coal load (made in a more traditional manner), and from that made a number of good copies of the load, which will fit in Scale-Craft or Lionel hoppers as they are very nearly the same size.

This was a good simple project, and actually the only time I have made an open top mold. I just set the part on top of my standard molding clay base with the metal fences around it and poured. The material went down in some holes in the load and broke off, as seen in the original.

I was making some other parts around that time, so what I did was cast a load with each batch of parts. Finally, recently I was painting gloss black and used the final remnants of the spray can to finish up the castings. I think they came out well.

I don’t have any extras now, but the next time I’m casting parts in resin I’ll make more, it is nice to have a casting that comes out well every time!