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My understanding is that anthracite works very well in a steam locomotive if you can get it.
I'm pretty sure the coal I got in Idaho was from Wyoming.
There is/was a poster on here "The Coal Man" and he had some interesting observations on using coal for space heat. Have not seen him in several months.
Railroads burned whatever coal was local to their territory of operations. It was either purchased on open market or from mines they owned. Thus often steam locomotives that burned coal were designed to handle whatever would be used.
Anthracite burns clean, hot and long, but does not ignite easily and requires a deep fire bed with good draft from below. This would often mean firebox would have to be designed especially for hard coal or at least could accommodate.
Semi-bituminous coal burns hot, bit less clean but ignites quickly.
Coal region of Kentucky, West Virginia and PA provided really good stuff to burn in locomotives. Out west in Wyoming, Montana and other areas things weren't always so great. Again a railroad would either order or design/build themselves steam locomotives that burned whatever coal was local to their territory of operations.
Delaware Lackawanna & Western RR whose main business was hauling anthracite coal out of PA over years exploited the clean burning fuel by having various locomotive designs using Wootten fireboxes.
When burning anything but good hard coal "little" and "often" applies. Doesn't matter what boiler or furnace is producing steam or heat for, principle is same.
Good thing about hard coal is one builds a good deep fire that once properly going burns slow thus not requiring frequent fresh supply of coal. This is why hard coal is preferred for stoves, ovens (it is sometimes called "baker's coal"), residential and or some large boilers or furnaces.
A friend of mine from the very far NE corner of Montana has a reclaimed coal pit on his families homestead. For decades they supplied the local Westby area with coal to heat with. Had an old mechanized shovel and small tipple and scale. It was a soft coal but it was about all there was in the prairie.
The old shovel is on display at a farming/equipment display in Plentywood MT. The old coal pit is now a large pond with wild grasses all around. Steep and stepped- perfect pheasant habitat.
It’s cool to hear the stories from my friend about his dad and grandpa running that even while they farmed their land. Very, very tough immigrant family.
A friend of mine from the very far NE corner of Montana has a reclaimed coal pit on his families homestead. For decades they supplied the local Westby area with coal to heat with. Had an old mechanized shovel and small tipple and scale. It was a soft coal but it was about all there was in the prairie.
The old shovel is on display at a farming/equipment display in Plentywood MT. The old coal pit is now a large pond with wild grasses all around. Steep and stepped- perfect pheasant habitat.
It’s cool to hear the stories from my friend about his dad and grandpa running that even while they farmed their land. Very, very tough immigrant family.
It's like our mothers always said when we refused what was on the menu: "when you get hungry enough you'll eat it"
When you're cold enough you'll burn what you can get to make heat.
I'm not sure I can get coal around here, when I was in Idaho Falls I bought it in burlap bags, I guess by the pound. I got it from an outfit that mostly dealt in petroleum based fuels.
Not sure burning coal in my Waterford wood stove would be such a great idea anyway.
It did work well in that dirty old "old school" fireplace insert there though. There in IF I mostly burnt cottonwood and maybe some pine, good firewood was hard to come by. A big fire in evening would still have the house pretty cool in the morning, but if I added a couple of grapefruit to cantaloupe sized lumps of coal, these would still be making good heat 8 or even 10 hours later, and made re-kindling the fire very easy. That thing was a pig, I was always brushing out the chimney. Probably the people who own that house now are still using it.
Around here there are a lot of pruned branches from fruit orchards, which is really ideal fuel for my stove.
We are almost out. Waiting for the gates to open after the rains to start hauling rounds back down the mt.
I'm surprised you burn much wood there in San Diego. The times I have visited that area, I certainly got the impression that the climate was very mild. What kind of wood can you get there? Do you have to buy it or is wood from public land available more or less free? I remember in Idaho we could get wood off public land nearly free, a small fee for a permit. But it was mostly just pine and not real great firewood.
[quote=M3 Mitch;64950802]Who else on here heats primarily with firewood?
/QUOTE]
No, it is bad for the environment and causes people with allergies and asthma to suffer. No reason to burn wood.
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