A little bit of recycling

I was given a Weber Kettle Barbeque just before Christmas last year and when I was cleaning it out after the first use I noticed something interesting.

The ash from the coal briquettes was a nice light tan colour, now that has some potential I thought.

So out with a fine sieve and after sieving out the clinker I was left with something that could be useful as soil on the layout. I had an old 300um (.3mm) sieve from the laboratory I used to work in but I have seen reasonably fine sieves in the kitchen equipment section of shops. The ash didn't need any crushing I just sieved it as is.

I applied it to some areas around the Cassilis turntable where I wasn't happy with the soil colour. I used the Long Life Self Shining Floor Polish (actually a clear acrylic coating) as usual to glue it in place and the colour came out darker once dry but still acceptable. The soil has been down now since earlier in the year without any apparent negative effect given the unknown chemical nature of the ash.

Here is a photo of the result:

So now, who has a kettle barbeque?