types of coal

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Fender
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Re: types of coal

Post by Fender »

Yes. A thin fire, frequently replenished by scattering the fresh coal over the fire, will make less smoke. However, from experience the Alabama stuff is still more smoky than good coal.

Another issue is the melting point of the ash. Coal that cokes (meaning that the ash fuses into a blob when burning, aka “clinkers”) is great for blacksmithing, but not so good for firing a locomotive. Ideally, the coal should burn to ash, which will fall through the grates into the ashpan.
Dan Watson
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Steam Engine Dan
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Re: types of coal

Post by Steam Engine Dan »

I agree, having a thin fire helps too.
steamingon
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Re: types of coal

Post by steamingon »

Pontiacguy1
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Re: types of coal

Post by Pontiacguy1 »

You can definitely smother a fire and make it produce more smoke, but there are some types of coal with a lot more volatiles, sulfur, ash, dirt, clay, etc... all in there. Thus some coals will produce a lot more smoke than other types no matter how you fire them. I used to use the Alabama coal from down around Jasper. It was good and hot, but produced a lot more smoke and also more clinkers, more soot, cinders, etc... Firing with that coal, if your stack ever went clear, you'd better be adding something soon because the fire would be getting on its last legs, about half burned out. A light grey haze at the stack (approximately 25% opacity) indicated a good fire and a good burn and would be what you would normally see if you were maintaining your fire depth. I then switched to the Pocahontas #3 seam coal, and the same firing techniques in the same locomotive yields a stack that is clear 50% or more of the time. When you first add coal, you will see some smoke, then in about a minute, it will go back clear. Only difference was the coal.

You must have some pretty good coal that you're using. That Pocahontas coal is about 14,000 BTU/lb stuff also. That may be what you have. Hope you have enough to last a while. I hear that it's hard to find decent coal out west.
Eugene Crowner
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Re: types of coal

Post by Eugene Crowner »

Years ago, I had a Harpur Mogul.

In the good old days in Los Angeles a foundry supply company along the Los Angeles River near the ATSF roundhouse sold Utah coal. It was quite smoky.

A friend gave me some coke from the widow of a patternmaker. I broke it up and mixed it with the coal, roughly 85% coal and 15% coke. I never did experiment with the proportions, but it burned well and cut down on the smoke.

One time a spectator asked me what I was burning. I said that it was a mixture of coal and coke. His head sort of jerked around. It took me a minute or two to realize that the coke he was thinking about had nothing whatsoever to do with coal.

Later a home improvement store way out here in California was selling small sacks of hard coal. I mixed it in the same approximate 85/15 proportions as with the coke.

One handy thing was a furniture manufacturing company not too far away putting out very short pieces of hardwood for anyone to pick up. Filling up a few big grocery sacks of their hardwood was just the thing for a nice fire in the fireplace. Being careful of my fingers and the edge of the axe, I would split off pieces. They were perfect to put on the grate underneath a layer of coal to get a fire started in the locomotive.

Eugene Crowner
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Bill Shields
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Re: types of coal

Post by Bill Shields »

ah...the advantages of living on the east coast on top of the anthracite coal mines...in Amish country where a large % of the population heats with coal..
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
pat1027
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Re: types of coal

Post by pat1027 »

"The old fireman's motto, little and often." It's an interesting video.

jscarmozza
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Re: types of coal

Post by jscarmozza »

This past winter my live steam buddy and I were fooling around with coal bricketts that we made from different proportions of bituminous coal and anthracite. We used an old lead pot and steel rod as a mortar and pestal to pulverize the coal into fine sand like grains and dust, then we mixed various proportions of the two coals with boiled linseed oil to act as a binder, packed the mix in a form to make the bricketts and dried them in an old toaster oven at 250 degrees for an hour. We burned the bricketts in my blacksmith forge and they seemed to burn very well, long with little smoke. We haven't tried them in our engines yet, but plan to this summer.
I have two 1" Atlantics, also this past winter, we made a set of rosebud grates for one of them and left the conventional grates in the other. We'll try to run with straight anthracite in the one with the rosebud grates and with whatever in the other engine. Should be fun to see how all this plays out.
10 Wheeler Rob
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Re: types of coal

Post by 10 Wheeler Rob »

If you do 50% mix of that hard coal with soft coal it will work just fine. That's what I burn in my locomotives. Gives less smoke and less flue build up.

Rob
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: types of coal

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Interesting video. I think I'd rather be the engineer.
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hoppercar
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Re: types of coal

Post by hoppercar »

I don't see how you guys are getting by mixing that anthracire with soft coal?...when the anthracite burns out, it leaves a large hard rock , and very little ash, that plugs my grates all up
chucketn
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Re: types of coal

Post by chucketn »

Just want to say I really enjoyed the video. My Grandfather was a Fireman on the Erie Railroad. He was later promoted to Hostler. I never knew how involved the Fireman's job was.
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