Wood Firing a Chloe

[Kimball McGinley]

To Optigan: I wonder if Goldman's was the the wood-fired Pacific my wife and I rode behind in Fillmore, CA.? This was in 2004 at the short-lived club there next to old SP line.

[Harlock]

It's a bit small, but you can probably get away with it if you are not pulling too much. The main problem will be the smoke. The Chloe's exhaust tends to come out of the stack and right into your face. One of the reasons I propane fired mine when I had it. Chris Smith is wood-firing his LE American, and I think if he can get away with that, you can get away with wood-firing the Chloe. Did Marty make your boiler, and if so did he include the extra wide fire door opening?

Regarding coal in California, some of us are thinking of doing a group buy of bituminous from West Virginia, a pallet of bags. If you are interested in a supply, let me know.

I went to a TSC store in Nevada and as someone mentioned above what they sold was anthracite to use in pellet stoves as an alternative to the wood pellets. It was not selling well because no one these days understands the use of coal for home heating. In any case, I bought a bag of 'nut' coal thinking that would be the right size, but it turns out 'nut' coal is actually very large, fist-sized, and what I really wanted is pea coal, which is nut sized, in terms of actual physical size. I could not get the larger stuff to burn at all. You have to really break up anthracite to get it to burn. I even tried mixing it in with my australian char, which burns very hot, to no avail.

Since my Australian char supply has been depleted I have been looking around for different things. I can get free Utah cement plant coal locally, but the stuff is horrible, full of sulfur and burns with green smoke, lots of clinkers. I recently brought back three buckets of coal from the Hesperus coal mine in southern colorado. This is what the Durango and Silverton, Cumbres and Toltec and the Nevada Northern use and it seems to be really good stuff. If I like it, I am going to try to find out if I can get it bagged and screened. My supply came out of NNRY #93's tender bottom while the loco is being overhauled. I did see a convenience store on the Indian reservation near hesperus selling bagged coal from there, and I have been told they will sell it bagged at the mine.

I plan to test the Hesperus coal next weekend. I have been using char for so long I will have to re-learn how to fire the MEG on bituminous.

-M

[Harold_V]

What's the status in regards to Australian Char? Is it still available?

H

[optigman]

I believe that would have been Rogers USRA Pacific dressed in blue paint you saw in Fillmore. That engine ran extremely well and it only ever burned wood as far as I recall. I don't ever recall the flues having to be cleaned but once in a blue moon. The wood ash was also very manageable. As long as air can pass from under the fire it will burn fine. Also branches are typically denser than the sapwood or even the heartwood sometimes. Mountain Cedar branches burn great while the trunk wood is not dense at all and burns with very little quality heat. optigman

[BillF]

Since optigman mentioned mountain cedar, let me offer a warning, based upon many Boy Scout campouts in Texas: The smoke from mountain cedar is a very powerful allergen, and quite a number of people will develop skin rashes from exposure and an asthma-like response from inhaling it. Be careful.

[10 Wheeler Rob]

An alternative to wood is burn stove corn. It will require the addition of a perforated metal grate, which can sit on top of coal grate if its thin sheet metal. Needs to be feed often like wood, bit the smoke is much more tolerable.

[Cary Stewart]

Speaking of Eucalyptus wood in loco fire boxes when Short Line Enterprises used their V&T rolling stock in the filming of Mr. Lincoln the Cook 4-4-0 that they used was burning Eucalyptus cord wood cut down to fit. Strange stuff when burning. It not only makes smoke but also produces a gas as it cooks which make a very hot fire. And naturally everyones sinuses cleared up very nicely. My brother borrowed my nice new leather gloves. At the end of the day he handed them back to me with new holes where there were no fingers. He had worn them out firing for the day. Fun stuff.
Cary

[Harlock]

What's the status in regards to Australian Char? Is it still available?

H

The Auschar plant has been permanently closed. They apparently could not compete well in the international coal market. Australia's carbon tax did not help, although that was rescinded. They reopened the plant for a time after that, but then closed it again for good from what I understand.

Bill Dobbs at Train Mountain may still have some left that he would like to get rid of, especially now that coal is banned at TM. He imported a container load and that's where we all got it. Once that supply is gone, it's all gone.

-M

[Harold_V]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm not in the position to use any at this point in time, but I was favorably impressed when I first saw it in use, up in Burnaby. I could visualize how it could be used in conjunction with coal and coke for a clean, hot fire.

H

[jscarmozza]

Before acquiring my heat treating oven I used to heat treat in my coal forge with charcoal to get a clean hot fire. As a source of charcoal I made a charcoal retort from an old water heater and some 8" steel pipe, I can cook up a batch of charcoal in 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Recently I was disappointed to learn that my latest acquisition, a 1" LE Atlantic, had a boiler made with sil-phos solder and may be damaged by high sulfur coal. So I figured I'd run it on charcoal and see what happens, in a nutshell, the engine ran fine, it just uses a lot of fuel, but it fires very cleanly with little smoke or ash. I'm going to experiment with different mixes of anthracite and charcoal to see if I can extend the fueling intervals. The charcoal that I wind up with is almost pure carbon, very light in weight and reduced in volume from the original chunks of wood. In the process a lot of volatiles are baked out and I try to recycle them back into to heating fire or into the stack as they are very toxic. This isn't a recommendation, just letting you know what's out there.

[Dylerbiller]

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. I have one more question. Which wood species would be best? I think Eucalyptus would be too hot and sappy. Oak maybe?

[Fred_V]

Oak is probably the most popular but a friend has switched to pine. Says it is hotter burning but burns up quicker. He has had no problems with the sap. I joked with him about getting a chimney fire.