Loco coal...

How were colliery system locomotives fuelled when coal was produced on the premises? Usually from dedicated internal user wagons. I found a picture of Snowdown Colliery in Kent in the Industrial Railway Sheds book by Adrian Booth, the second edition, and it featured a 16t with an interesting modification...

The first 16t mineral wagon I built in OO a year or so ago was quite neatly assembled, but I'd used the Parkside/Peco transfers, and the white diagonal just looked too fat compared to the other models I've built since where I've hand painted a much neater finer line. This was deemed suitable as a donor... the end door was cut off before the transfers were picked off with a knife and the sides painted a rusty dirty colour (98 and 53). The raised ribbing was dry brushes and stippled with body colour and the LOCO hand painted in white. When dry this was washed with a mix of black (33) and chocolate (98).

A piece of grey foam was then cut to shape, and glued into the wagon with PVA. The interior has already been weathered in the original finish as a standard 16t wagon, so this was quite quickly covered in more PVA and sprinkled with loose coal. Some Woodland Scenics scenic cement was then dropped on to the load to hold it in place.

The result? A convincing and interesting addition to the layout, and one that can be used as a set piece / prop in photographs. Perhaps you have an older model that no longer meets your current standards? Could you modify it in to something specific? More soon...