West Virginia Coal down South

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Harold_V
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Harold_V »

stephenc wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:55 pm I wouldn't advocate a person using coke in a boiler
Hmmm.
I dunno!
Ernie Allen of New Westminster, BC, Canada (deceased) used to run a mix of Drumheller coal along with coke in his 4-4-4 Jubilee, which had a Briggs type boiler. I do not recall the ratio of coke to coal. He had outstanding success with the combination, and no issues with burnt grates.

H
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Bill Shields
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Bill Shields »

Green coke...uncalcined coke is what you want. It is almost impossible to get today. Jim and I ran it in our Tich for almost 20 years without problems.

We used to pick it up alongside the contain tracks leaving the refineries in DE and NJ.
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stephenc
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by stephenc »

Blended with coal I don't think I'd have any issues with coke in a boiler , provided the person using it is intelligent enough to realise shoveling a fire box full of straight coke and switching on the blower is probably not a good idea .
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Pipescs
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Pipescs »

Back again,

A note to anyone purchasing a pallet of coal with the idea of simply selling off the the extra you don't need.

The original idea was to purchase 50 bags on one pallet, Originally i only wanted 15 bags or so with Pontiacguy wanting 20 or so. Well the wife convinced me that I should get two pallets to ensure I had enough to last me. This ended up leaving me with 50 or so bags to dispose of. I decided right away that I was not in this for the money, so I offered them up at the original cost.

They were literally gone in a day. Most people only wanted five bags with a two people wanting 10.

Needless to say this was not a bad experience at all. Definitely much easier than chasing down and mine and doing all the work of loading and bagging it yourself

Penn-Keystone Coal was a delight to work with.
Charlie Pipes
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Berkman
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Berkman »

How bad did the fines/dust end up being?

Lots of sifting etc required?
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Pipescs
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Pipescs »

I opened three bags and dumped them into bins. Not being very experienced at this, I believe one from the bottom of the pallet had a lot of fines and small pieces. This will burn fine in my small LE American with its 1.5 inch square fire door. The other two bags had pieces over one to one and a half inch size with much less fines. I am told the by the more knowledgeable members that this is quite normal for what they have bought in the past. Looks to be a bag to bag results.
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Steam Engine Dan
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Steam Engine Dan »

I tried burning coke once, course it was mixed in with my usual 50/50 soft and hard blend like I always do and it worked pretty darn good.
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gwrdriver
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by gwrdriver »

Burning coke at MSLS . . . . this took place 30-40 years ago and was a result of the beginnings of deteriorating coal quality and a trackside spill. I don't recall the mix they finally settled upon, but certainly some experimentation was involved. It could be hard on grates if you overdid it and in the end it was determined the best way to use it was to get a good coal fire going, to act as an igniter, and then add a little bit of coke to hot it up. That practice dried up as the supply source dwindled and those who were using it either stopped or passed away.
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Steam Engine Dan
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Steam Engine Dan »

a good plume to soothe the soul
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Jacob's dad
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Jacob's dad »

I grew up in West Virginia and moved after college. I shoveled more coal as kid than I want to remember. I worked for the power company while in college and got to work in the coal lab for a while and that was very interesting. We would test and blend different coals from around the country to not have to install scrubbers, but eventually they installed them and a few years ago they shut the plant down completely. We were able to test the coal, and the senior lab supervisor could tell me basically from memory where the coal was from and what seam just from me telling him what was in the test results, and that was a neat learning experience,

We have different steam engines and live steamers, so when we go to WV, depending on what we are doing and who we are visiting, we usually drag a trailer of some type with us and buy some coal based on what we plan to run in the future. This was 3,200 lbs of 5 block, where we made a special trip with a friend, that we both run in our traction engines and some of our live steamers. The bigger chunks are for the bigger engines and the smaller pieces we use in the smaller engines. We will be making a run again in the near future to get a load from a different vendor that is processed coal so the sizes are more similar and that is in the south western part of the state. After growing up there, and visiting many times a year for over 27 years, I am afraid that we are going to be losing our access in the near future so I want to stock up while I can. Even with family there, and the "good-ole-boy" system, if they stop selling to us, we do have a place where we can get coal from, but it requires a lot of work and at that point I will go to wood or oil. lol.
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Pipescs
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Pipescs »

While I was not there to see it today, I am told by Fender that the coal was used successfully at Eagle Point.
Charlie Pipes
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Pipescs
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Re: West Virginia Coal down South

Post by Pipescs »

Safety Note on buying coal this method. Ensure you have young people to help with the unloading and stacking.

After Pontiacguy and myself unloaded the pallets I am now Currently recovering from a blown out disc in between vert two and three. This has put me out of the shop for a month.

Recovering slowly.
Charlie Pipes
Mid-South Live Steamers


Current Projects:

Scratch Built 3 3/4 scale 0-4-4 Forney
Little Engines American
20 Ton Shay (Castings and Plans Purchased for future)
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