represent peat as a load

[Andreas Weniger]

Hello everyone,
I would like to represent peat as a load in my trolleys.
Does anyone have any idea how I can represent this on a scale of 1:22.5 (garden railroad)?

Thanks

[Broithe]

I wonder if you could use an old 'black' inner tube, cut into thin rings and then snipped into sections to represent each sod?

That might be a bit thin for your scale, although a bike inner tube would be about right for 00. 

It's a long time since I saw a car inner tube, but they should be thicker.

Doing it this way would also produce the slight arc that you usually get as the sods dry out.

It would be a tedious process, but not too bad, if you're just wanting to produce the visible top layer -but, doing a whole wagon-load would take a while, without some sort of automation of the process.

Doing it by hand, though, would produce some of the variation that you would get naturally.

[Flying Snail]

Hi Andreas,

First question to answer is what type of peat you're transporting:

• If it's the milled peat like that transported in contemporary Bord na Mona trains for use as fuel in power plants (or in the manufacture of briquettes and peat moss fertiliser), then it will be powdery - almost sand like.
• If its the traditional sods of turf burnt in homes across Ireland and carried in the WW2 era turf trains to Dublin, then the sods will typically be rectangular/box shape about 10cm thick and 30 to 40cm long - this is what Broithe is describing above

Edited May 28 by Flying Snail

[Flying Snail]

• Here's a good picture of a Bord na Mona train hauling milled peat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonmacnoise_and_West_Offaly_Railway#/media/File:Bord_na_Mona_-_"The_Bog_Train"_-_At_Edenderry,_Co._Offaly,_Ireland_(14225837858).jpg
• And here's a fine turf train from the Emergency (WW2) modelled by David Holman on this forum: https://irishrailwaymodeller.com/topic/2849-davids-workbench/page/20/#comment-143420

 

[Hawkerhellfire]

I've seen matchsticks used to excellent effect in 00 to represent sod turf. Perhaps small lengths of lighting up wood darkened with wood stain? If its milled peat you want you'd best just experiment with some dirt from the garden. 

[David Holman]

Towards the end of page 20 of my Work bench thread, you'll see how I represented peat on a pair of 7mm scale turf wagons, using matchsticks.

[Andreas Weniger]

Hello everyone,
Thank you for your information and ideas. I had not expressed myself clearly. I meant peat sods. In other words, the “lumps” that have been cut.

[Flying Snail]

5 hours ago, Andreas Weniger said:

Hello everyone,
Thank you for your information and ideas. I had not expressed myself clearly. I meant peat sods. In other words, the “lumps” that have been cut.

That will be the sods of turf that Broithe, Hawkerhellfire and David Holman referred to in their advice.

Just in case any other readers are wondering, 'turf' in the Irish vernacular is what we call peat that has been cut from the bog for domestic fuel. And sods are what we call the rectangular 'lumps' of turf. 

 

Edited May 29 by Flying Snail