ok...? Market forces are generally dominant, if it was a higher ROI for utility COs globally to use coal, they would. The ROI now favors natural gas and other alternatives. These firms have a limited amount of capital resources and investing them in non coal alternatives makes more sense.

Sure govt regulations have pushed it in that direction, but the nail in the coffin is the comparative ROI on Coal vs alternatives.

Well, someone has approved a new mine......
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55721919

Is "Coking" coal going to be suitable in BTU and price for the heritage lines to use in their steam engines?


Brian

I don't think it will, but its more the fact that a new mine has been approved by the Local Authority and the Government have decided not to interfere in the decision made.
The BBC seem to have picked this up late, as it was mentioned elsewhere a week or so ago when I did some searching around. No response from the likes of the Heritage Railway Association or other bodies as yet...

Coking coal can be used if you take advantage of the volatile gasses which boil out of the coal on its way towards converting it to coke, while at the same time using the good high carbon stuff left as coke on the grates..... or of course given enough air it might act just like coal, since coal is coked by heating in the absence of air. I'd consider overfire jets and a good draft, or GPCS. I think the original steam locomotives in the 1820s started burning coke of memory serves. The question would be how costly it might be - or if there's a lower grade than metallurgical the mine produces that would do for us they need to get rid of.

Aaaaannnnnnd it starts.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56949426



More at the link.

I am truly surprised that wet wood is sold with the expectation that it will be burned before it is given time to dry out.

Brian

Greetings:

I'm sorry to contribute to "thread drift", however, Valley Railroad (dba: Essex Steam Train & Riverboat) has burned low sulfur, low volatile, coking coal for decades, purchased from Castle Rock Coal & Carbon (Chuck Welsh: 636-575-1243). For about the last 15 years or so it has come from a strip mine in the Williamsport, PA area (please note that I own stock in neither Castlerock or the coal mine).

Expensive? Yes, but that is part of the cost of doing business while keeping the State of Connecticut (sulfur content 2% or less) happy and our neighbors who don't want to see any smoke (the amount of smoke produced is partially dependent on the volatile content of the coal, what we buy was less than 35% when I last bought coal) happy as well.

Remember that the firing practice in the US is quite different than the UK: here the firebox door is always closed except when adding coal (don't mention the "smoke latch" on Butterfly fire doors) while from what I have seen in the UK, the firebox door is almost always left open while running.

Be well,
J.David

I agree. I was taught that sucking cold air over the fire was bad for the flues. I don't know if that is true, but that is what I was taught, and from the in-cab UK steam video I've seen, they do seem to leave the firebox door open a lot. They also fire with some really large lumps of coal as well, far larger than, say Cedar Point would ever allow.

Funny you should mention that. Just last night I was watching a cab ride video of UK steam and I cringed at the way the fire door was left open even when working hard. I was wondering if it was a green crew or that was typical UK practice.

Generally speaking, the practice of locomotives here in Europe is to include what is called a smoke burner in the firebox (danish translation, might be different in England). Typically, it is a pressed sheet of steel that is formed into a curve, and looks like an elongated headlight visor. The purpose of the smoke burner, is to direct cold air under the brick arch when the door is open, allowing it to mix with the hot air from the fire. It also serves a second purpose in directing secondary air to where it can mix with the gasses and allow their complete combustion.

To my knowledge, locomotives that are run with the firebox door open, partially or fully, are equipped with this little feature. It is bad practice to do this on a locomotive that does not have it. I recall seeing a whole pile of them, and the forms to press them, during a shop tour of Tysley in Birmingham. My guess would be that the majority of GWR types have these installed or attached to the firebox door.

I have never seen a feature like this on an American locomotive before, but would love to hear about it should it exist.

Thread drift aside however, we in Denmark are following the plight of the UK heritage scene quite closely. We have been using coal from Wales and Poland, and are looking to try some from Germany shortly. I would like to go back to Welsh coal, but the issues of a stable market in the future will likely prevent that decision from being made again.

Google Gas Producer Firebox and Overfire Jets.

Adding to the drift, this is a very instructional video about British practices and equipment: https://youtu.be/6QwfBCDZqxY .........mld

At about 10:15, there is discussion about what I wrote. The film calls it a baffle plate, so that must be the UK terminology for it!