I believe this is simply a case of working hard with crap coal but others may have more input.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pangdae/1 ... otostream/

An awesome catch!

Air you not only breathe, but see and taste!

WOW. Downright hauinting.
That looks exactly like all the 'ghost train' stories you ever hear. If I was filming a movie about such a spectral railroad, I'd be filming that very scene.

So... What is the cause of that particular effect?

More: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOpKO_5rZ_4

My understanding (not from firsthand experience but secondhand) is that this is caused by a combination of really poor coal (lignite/peat levels) being loaded in a steam locomotive tender straight out of the mine/pit without washing or sifting. In effect, you're shoveling "flammable dirt" into the firebox, and it shows.

Show lignite or peat to someone from "hard coal" country, and he'll fall down laughing at the thought of trying to burn that stuff.

That pretty well puts a lot of traction engine spark shows to shame. Thanks for posting this. This is part of the magic of railroading that can't be emulated by any other transportation system.

I wonder if anybody has night train footage with GE's or Alco's with "flame at the stack"?

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

Here's a typical spark show in my area, using ground-up corn cobs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_DxxCPgdlY

(perhaps this is more for the Railfanning board) This fireworks display reminded me of watching the Santa Fe mail train, #8 going through Duarte CA (about eight miles east of Pasadena on the LA to San Bernardino 2nd District). It came through my area around 2:50 AM back in the mid-1960s, usually with an ABA set of Alco PAs. In those days, the trains had to take it easy going through Pasadena, with numerous grade crossings and residential neighborhoods. By the time they got to Duarte, the engineer had a chance to "crank 'er up" and the carbon in the exhaust system would burn out, bringing to mind the Biblical line about a "pillar of fire by night".

David Wardale pretty much confirms your description of the coal in his book "The Red Devil". He said the good firemen that he witnessed would pre-wet the coal almost to the point that they were hand-firing a coal "slurry". These guys were able to run without this amazing fireworks show. Apparently wetting the coal dust made it heavy enough to settle on the fire bed. The heat would then fuse the dust with the burning coal before it could be sucked off by the draft and most of it would burn on the firebed where it was supposed to burn.

The downside of this was that after some experiments, Wardale came to believe that this sort of coal might not work well with the Gas Producer Combustion System (GPCS) which was planned for the improved QJ2 locomotive that he was then designing for China Rail.

Has no one listened closely to the exhaust?

Yes, I did......it's one of the most effective diagnostic tools I know.

dave