Bill Shields wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:34 am
Does not taste as good as a box of even the worst chocolates
Could be used to make synthetic butter. Apparently tastes the same as real butter...at least according to the German's. Of course, YMMV.
The Penn-Keystone Coal was one of the options I investigated years ago. Another option would be Ffos-y-Fran, from Wales, also available bagged (IIRC, still available bagged for export)
The pricing on the pallet load and freight is interesting info. I was in Harrisburg and picked up 20 bags from Penn Keystone for $15/bag. A mix of the smithing coal and nut. Both burn nicely. Not much smoke and ash on par with other "Pocahontas" I've burned. The smithing coal has too many fines so I screened it over 1/4" hardware cloth. I think screened it would be great for locomotives with smaller fire boxes.
ive burned the keystone stuff, it's pretty good. agreed it is very dusty so once I sift it. it's great stuff. check out the nice plume with plenty of steam to spare
Curiosity won out and I cut into two bags. The first had been on the bottom of the pallet and had smaller coal with, (IMHO) a lot of fines. Will definitely need screening. The next two bags came from the middle and top of the pallet and had larger pieces of coal with minimal fines. I am told it will vary from bag to bag.
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)
I have seen a member at Mid-South doing this. I understood he mixed the fines into a mix of water and corn starch. then poured the mix into paper Dixie Cups to harden. He simply tossed the dried Dixie Cups thru the fire door. Not sure of the amount of corn starch to water and fines he used.
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)
Don Saager does this, how well they work depends on the locomotive. I tried them in my shay but the exhaust is too violent, so as they broke up they just went up the stack instead of burning up.
That's who Charlie was talking about. I've seen him use those, and it looked pretty neat, but not enough for me to want to go through the trouble of making them for myself. Now I've got enough coal to last me 10+ years, so I'm good for a while. Charlie also should have enough to last him about 10 years also, even with the bigger locomotive. That would be about 100 years worth of coal for the LE 4-4-0!
Many years ago I worked for a company called Murray energy and surface mined a fair amount of the #3 and #5 Pocahontas seams . There was some union issues and I split town when things got ugly .
But anyhoo when you buy coal from a specific seam it won't matter what company you buy it from , it's the same coal .
Quality differences will come how it was mined and processed . Most of the difference will come from the processing ... i.e. how good a job they do at the wash plant that washes and sizes the coal . And how many times it gets handled before bagging or loading out on a truck .
Another useless coal tid bit , the higher the seam number the deeper in the ground the coal is . In my area #5 and #7 seams are or used to be the sought after seams by the power plants for its low ash and suffer content
That's interesting. Decades ago, when live steamers in the South began using Pocahontas, it came from #1 and #2 and was considered the best we'd ever seen. Some years ago a cornfield derailment near one of our members left a supply of petroleum coke on the ground which was harvested and mixed with the Pocahontas to make a pretty hot mix.
I wouldn't advocate a person using coke in a boiler , but someone who wanted a few extra btu's to warm up with would learn that like charcoal coke isn't all that complicated to make as long as they arent expecting to make steel mill quality coke .
Another company i worked for in western pa used to get train car loads of "dirty" coke to run threw the wash plant from weirton steel .
One fellow thought he'd be smart and took home about a ton of it " for those cold january nights ".
Melted the grates out of the furnace and nearly burned down his house