Welsh Steam Coal

6024 has recently been burning genuine Welsh Steam coal for the first time for many years. It comes from the from the Ffos-y-Fran opencast site near Merthyr. I gather that the lump size is rather small and it is quite friable (like most Welsh steam coal), but it burns well and is economical in use. Has it been tried elsewhere ?

David

 

I read somewhere that they will be able to supply it for another 10 years to the preservation movement

 

Written in Old Glory No 254 page 6

Brian

 

I think quite a few of the welsh narrow gauge lines are using it - Fairbourne certainly is.

 

I think there are one or two lines using it, hopeing we can persuade our railway to take it

 

I can personally vouch that this stuff is rocket fuel although typically with welsh its not a "sitting around" coal.

Stan

 

The problem with using this coal has not been due to it's suitability as this was proved to be suitable on the DFR some years ago. The problem was that of distribution as no lorries were allowed to transport the coal only rail. It's good to see that commonsense has prevailed and this coal is now available to the preservation movement

Cheers Dave

 

Hear, hear, I've also heard its good, I can remember when we had the last of the 'Lady Windsor' in the traction engines. Hope our railway gets it too(ive asked them before) What price is it delivered?

 

We use this stuff on the Talyllyn (I think) and it's wonderful. Burns forever, doesn't make much smoke and doesn't make much clinker. You need to give it some time to heat up properly and be careful not to over-fire as it mushrooms out as good soft coal does. And it's soft! You can almost break the lumps up in your hand.

 

Good Welsh is super for maximum effort but can eat firebars, especially if it clinkers. Rather expensive!

The new build "Wren" at Kew Bridge Steam Museum, which I drive from time to time, has a very free steaming boiler but a fairly gentle life. Thus Welsh coal produces excessive steam wastage and a good sample of Polish coal, producing little smoke but plenty of heat, has proved to be better.

P.H.

 

If it produces 'excessive steam wastage', dont put so much on !!

 

Rather too easy a reply to my previous post I am afraid. An earlier post said Welsh coal is not a "sitting about" fuel but this describes just perfectly the situation at Kew Bridge. "Sitting about" is followed by periods of intense activity which tend to be unpredictable.

The "Wren", "Thomas Wicksteed" is a remarkably free steamer and the only way ultimately to keep her quiet is to let the fire get very low. Obviously it is highly undesirable to run her with the grate partially uncovered so the ideal fuel is one with a quicker response time than Welsh. The Polish fuel produces plenty of heat with little smoke, responds quickly and the consumption is very low.

P.H.

 

The old man told me that Clay Mills pumping station got some columbian steam coal for their Lancashire boilers a while back, and when they used it the whole thing got out of control the amount of heat the fire was making. They just couldn't believe it produced so much heat. Has any of this stuff found its way to railway applications?

 

I think the best coal I've come across out on the road was "Columbian black rocket fuel"!

It came in huge lumps and just sat there throwing out heat. I'd be going down the road with the damper closed (and yes, it does seal properly) and the needle hovering on the red line the whole time. In the end I gave up sweeping the tubes - there was little point when all but nothing came out when you passed the brush through! ...and by the end of the day there'd still be no signs of clinker on the bars.
:flame:Wonderful stuff

The only down side was the cost. I could only find it from one merchant, and they were charging £300/ton loose at a time when i could get perfectly reasonable Russian for £200/ton bagged and delivered from elsewhere. It was lovely coal to burn, but I couldn't justify the cost against the alternatives.

 

I've tried the welsh and found it slow to steam, good when working, but awfull for sitting round with. As has been said low smoke. The lumps are small which means it burns quicker and hotter than larger lumps. A very thin fire was the order of the day.

On Saturday I burnt some, some Columbian (as described by ian), some Russian and some non descript house coal. In terms of my preference (which was the easier coal to fire with and make steam) was Columbian, House, Russian, Welsh, in terms of smoke it was Welsh/Columban (no smoke), russian, house.

As you can tell I'm not converted.

 

The danger is that "Russian", "Columbian" and "House" aren't very exact definitions.

Whilst unfortunately it is fairly precise to just refer to "Welsh Steam Coal", there is still more than one Russian, Columbian and Polish mine digging out steam coal! Even within the same mine different seams can produce vastly differing types of coal. This doesn't help maintain consistent supplies.

The same situation exists with 'House' coal. The Columbian I burnt a couple of years ago was being sold by the coal merchant as 'house' coal for burning on an open grate. Some house coal can be the filthiest lumps of sooty tar imaginable, yet others will burn and steam well, it's a game of roulette to just order it! Going back to the same merchant for more of the same works until their stocks run out, then it's down to chance as to whether they restock with the same stuff. Likewise with Polish/Columbian etc., once a new ship load has been imported and gets into the system it's a bit of a lottery as to whether it's actually the same coal as the previous Polish/Russian/Columbian coal that you'd been able to get.

Fortunately in practice it doesn't seem too much of a problem - going back to the same merchant and asking for the same stuff seems to usually end up with black lumps with similar characteristics!

 

Tried the welsh at Toddington last year, ok stuff, but as reported earlier, goes to dust when sat on the ground / in tenders and also burns very hot so it did mess up a few firebars. Back onto the polish/russian/foreign - there all about the same price now, the coal merchant has a bit of a stake in all of them and so you cant get away from the increasing prices! Usually order 30 ton lorry loads but expect Winchcombe to take 15 ton loads - which you've guessed, is dearer!

 

Sounds like a problem with the fireaman, rather than a problem with the coal - maybe you should fire more economically

 

Perhaps you should have read posts 6, 12 and 15 before sending this post. There is absolutely no point in using a hotter fuel than necessary for a given purpose.

P.H.

 

A skilled fireman will keep the safety valves just feathering