I have numerous Thomas ‘troublesome’ trucks and felt that they are incomplete without a load. Requiring numerous loads, I decided to make several masters and will engage a friend to produce rubber moulds. To date, I have the masters for a two hump coal load, an overfull coal load and a ‘junk’ load. By varying the colours of the load, then coal, ore, rocks or gravel may be simulated thus giving numerous different loads. The only convenient material to model these loads will be casting plaster, as resin casting is a black art generally requiring a vacuum evacuation method and materials are generally quite expensive and very unforgiving resulting in lots of wastage. The plaster casts will have a hollowed out section to minimise weight as much as possible. Depending on the outcome, I may offer excess loads for sale on eBay at sometime in the future. Bachmann will be releasing a truck with coal load at the end of the year, however, whether the load will be available as a separate part is doubtful.
