Just got off the phone with Bob at Tartan... a truckload of Pocahontas lump is now up to the glorious price of, gulp, $115/ton delivered.

Bob says he expects it will continue to climb so if you still have some coal $ in your budget...

Remember the SR sign: Save coal!

Jim

http://nctrans.org
Wrinnbo@aol.com

> Remember the SR sign: Save coal!

And don't forget what N&W had stenciled on their tenders: "Black smoke is waste".

> Just got off the phone with Bob at Tartan...
> a truckload of Pocahontas lump is now up to
> the glorious price of, gulp, $115/ton
> delivered.

> Bob says he expects it will continue to
> climb so if you still have some coal $ in
> your budget...

> Remember the SR sign: Save coal!

> Jim

How soon before someone gripes at the increased ticket prices for photo charters because everyone wants "more black smoke"?

It always amazes me that some railfan “aficionado” will complain about something being changed and is not "historicaly accurate" and or "prototypical" then demand more black smoke when that WASN'T prototypical.

SS

Saturated_steam@yahoo.com

so what's the biggest contributer to the price increase? Is the increase in oil prices making delivery that much more expensive, or are there other market/productjion factors?

Is it time for another Porta to step forward?

> so what's the biggest contributer to the
> price increase? Is the increase in oil
> prices making delivery that much more
> expensive, or are there other
> market/productjion factors?

> Is it time for another Porta to step
> forward?
I'd suspect that the high crude oil prices are indeed having an effect on coal prices; any utility or energy consumer that has the ability to switch from fuel oil or light refined products to coal would probably do so and thus the demand for coal is probably going up. As demand goes, so goes prices.....

wichita_rails@msn.com

Another contributing factor is that many of our coal reserves were purchased by the major oil companies years ago. They have done a great job of controlling prices for years and it only seems to continue and get worse.

steamfan@crusoe.net

> Another contributing factor is that many of
> our coal reserves were purchased by the
> major oil companies years ago. They have
> done a great job of controlling prices for
> years and it only seems to continue and get
> worse.

That sure put's things in a different light Ron.

By the way, will we see you this week for the steam up?

G

greg@nospam.skittercreek.com

We just paid $123 a ton to get coal out of central Utah to Ely, Nevada. I don't have a good fix on how much we use in a day, but 3 or 4 tons seems about right, which is over $400 a day of 20 miles.

At MRSR we burned used oil, 300 gallons a day (42 miles)purchased for $ .30 a gallon, or $90.

I understand, though, that used oil has gotten more expensive as of last year, costing nearly $1.00 per gallon.

I did have to sit down or would have collapsed onto the floor after hearing about coal prices.

JaCK

nnry3@mwpower.net

Anthracite coal in central Pennsylvania has gone up from about $90 a ton to $115 a ton, based on a delivered price. I learned this just the other night at a local school board meeting, when they opened the sole bid received for 500 tons, more or less, of rice coal for heating at the high school/middle school complex. They currently use anthracite during the peak heating season and oil during the spring and fall.

The superintendent observed that this was the second or third year they had received just one bid. He said the smaller mines which provided coal to small retailers have pretty much closed up and the larger mines have all their coal under contract to large consumers.

My own observations of th anthracite business over the past ten years confirm that small family operations have been regulated out of business.

K4s1361@hotmail.com

…regardless of what produces those BTU’s. If you compare “average” oil, with “average” coal, it works out that 200 gallons of oil is pretty much equal (in BTU’s) to one ton of coal. So if you take the price of one ton of coal, and divide by 200, you will get the price per gallon that oil would have to beat. Our coal costs $58.00 per ton on the ground in Strasburg (I know, the Sun always shines on the SRC), so if we had an oil burner, we would have to find oil at $0.29 per gallon to compete. Guess coal doesn’t look so bad after all.

By the way, when we take the annual number of miles run divided be the amount of coal burned per year, we are getting about 19 miles per ton pulling about 500 ton trains up an about 1-1/4% grade. This includes firing up, setting pops, overnight banks, everything. Of course your mileage may very, depending on whether you drive more yard, or mainline miles. Please see the MPT window sticker for details...

Does your lower cost per ton result in buying it by the car load insted of the truck load?

jasonsobczynski@yahoo.com

> Remember the SR sign: Save coal!

fuel cost/efficiency has always been a major concern for railroads.

follow the link below.

sc 'doc' lewis

52 Ways for Saving Coal
utweyesguy@aol.com

Our coal is delivered via 18 wheeler, but the trucker has a paying backhaul that reduces our cost. Another cost savings comes from burning mine run coal. It comes in all sizes from dust up to pieces the size of desks, but if it will fit through the firedoor, it will burn just fine.

Strasburg Rail Road
kelly@strasburgrailroad.com

Kelly;

When ex. CPR 1201 was running (and, when I was involved with the running) we used to figure 10 gallons/mile oil, and 100gallons/mile water. These are imperial gallons, slightly bigger than US gallons.

So, if we assume gallons are equal, and your number of 200 gallons = 1 ton of coal, our figures give us 1 gallon oil for a tenth of a mile; multiply that by 200, and you get 20 miles/ton of coal.

Incredible how close these figures are to yours!

Our numbers also included firing up, goofin' in the yard, runpasts, etc.

> By the way, when we take the annual number
> of miles run divided be the amount of coal
> burned per year, we are getting about 19
> miles per ton...

John Stewart
Ottawa, Canada.

Its nice when the numbers actually add up!

Strasburg Rail Road Mechanical Dept.
kelly@strasburgrailroad.com