Where does the best (and worst) coal come from?

Nowadays, we take graded lump coal for granted but that didn't use to be the case. A paragraph about coal from the BR test report on 7916 from May 1951 makes interesting reading
If you have a look at the LMS instructional film 'Little and Often on Youtubeand look at the coal in the tender, it paints a similar story.
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Interesting the test report - it accords with plenty of photos I've seen. I've got an overhead photo of a Schools class leaving a London terminus (so a front line passenger engine on an important working) and the tender is a mix of huge lumps and dust, with almost nothing in between. Crews must have spent a lot of time breaking coal, which just adds to the workload.

I'd often wondered if it was a specifically Southern thing, with railways having better access to locally-mined coal also having better graded coal, but maybe not. (A lot of coal on the SR was subject to long journeys and lots of handling before getting to each loco yard). By comparison, these days we have it easy with nicely graded lump coal!

Tom

 

Having seen pictures of coal stacks at loco sheds, I don't think that would have been possible with nicely graded lumps.

Possibly the railway management preferred large lumps, so that less was lost by reduction to dust during transit?

Reducing the workload for firemen was probably not a great priority during the period of plentiful cheap labour.

When I was first trained (by a former BR driver [ex Top Shed fireman]), I was told to stack big lumps around the coal rails to contain the small stuff. This increased the coal capacity, and allowed me to use the small stuff first with the big lumps to break up later in reserve.

 

If you go back to the early '50's, most coal was won by hand from the coal face. The best that there would be in terms of mechanisation would be an undercutting machine to take out the bottom few inches of the coal seam. The miner simply heaved the large lumps onto the conveyor and shovelled the rest, whether dust or small lumps. There was little in the way of coal preparation as it wasn't that necessary. It was also possible to segregate coal from different seams as it was generally loaded into tubs and taken to the surface in them before being tipped into a railway wagon. House coal would be about the only thing that was washed and screened as house fires aren't very good at burning slack (unlike steam locos and Lancashire boilers.) Coal Prep Plants came to the fore with mechanised mining as shearers and trepanners cut a fixed height and, if the seam varied in thickness, cutting of some dirt was inevitable. Loading onto conveyors and skip winding in place of tubs also meant that coal from different seams became mixed together.
I can see us going back to a coal supply of dust and boulders in the future if there is no market for the former. Coal producers need to be able to sell the whole product and, if heritage railways become the prime market, that's the only way it will work.

 

I have a recollection of being told that at one time Markham coal had a fearsome reputation for burning firebars.

 

Can't comment on that as I've know knowledge of (Welsh) Markham coal Incidentally, there were two Markham collieries (the other near Chesterfield) and a Markham Main near Doncaster so there was often confusion in origins.
Study of the Markham and Blidworth coals is interesting. The dry analysis shows that there is little difference in C.V. between them. The Blidworth certainly has much higher volatile content but has less ash. It's also worth noting the caking properties; the Markham being a caking coal swelling some 50% on heating.
If only we could get coal like this today!

 

Don't forget that then there at least a couple of collieries in Kent that supplies could be drawn from.

 

Jim,

I expect that the coal you are referring to was "Great White Tip" Welsh coal, basically the same as
Ffos - Fran as the present hole in the ground is a continuation of the older open cast workings.

WSR predominately used the following fuels, this is from memory and so may not be 100% correct:-

Early 1980's Lady Windsor, deep mined from South Wales.
Mid 1980's to early 1990's Daw Mill, deep minded from Midlands. Occasionally some Thorsby.
Early to late 1990's Great White Tip, open cast between Merthyr Tydfil and Dowlas (Celtic Energy).
Late 1990's to mid 2000's Russian deep mined, deep mined. (Eagle Energy).
Mid 2000's to date Ffos-y-Fran. (Hargreaves Wholesale).




The above picture was taken in August 2012 of the Ffos-y-Fran site, top central is a grey coloured bank which is the filled in Great White Tip workings, the A4060 road on top. The present coal working face is to the right of the photograph and it consists of 22 coal seams.



View of the strata showing the seams interspersed with rocks and shale.




Towards the bottom of the picture is one of the coal seams being worked, the seam is level with the truck on the right. Towards the left of the exposed coal an area is missing due to it having been mined out in the 1800's the access shaft is to the extreme left of the picture. All that effort to find out that someone has been there before you and pinched the coal! Users of Ffos-y-Fran will find timber in the delivered coal this is the remains of old workings.





A seam of coal exposed.

Hope that I have uploaded the photos ok or this will not make any sense.

Andy.

 

Holcroft deals with coal supplies to S.R. in one of his books.

Paul H.

 

Fascinating pics, thanks for that.

 

I thought that I had read somewhere that Kent coal was unsuitable for locomotive fuel?

 

Thanks for you're interesting reply's Andy. i first came onto the railway in 1989 & i remember the Daw Mill, but I'm sure someone said we had Columbrian , obviously I or they were wrong. I've still got the very faint scorch marks on my leg to this day! Couldnt get away from the fire as we had a trainee with us that day , on one of the 45s

 

Coal from Chislet Colliery was certainly used by BR, the end of steam working was one of the reasons given for its closure, I believe Tilmanstern did as well although much of its production was exported, I can just remember the loading bunker at Dover.
Most of the remaining production went for coking with the steel industry being the main customer. The Kent Coal Field was one of the hardest to work and consequently it's products were expensive but of high quality. Snowdown, the deepest in Kent at 3000 ft, was said to be the most unpleasant mine to work at in the country.
Another bit of trivia, the miners at Bettshanger were the last to return to work after the 1984 strike due to a local dispute over men sacked during the strike

 

Jim,

We have had odd loads of various coals over the years on the WSR, including Columbian so you may be correct.

My offer to answer part of the thread question:- Possibly worst of all was either Rossington which was like combustible slate with fire crackers inside, or Tricatti (?) which was the same except that it lacked the fire crackers and did not burn.

Andy.

 

By the time I was involved with train working, it was just Betteshanger left. ISTR some Betteshanger coal going to New Hythe (Brookgate sdgs) for Reed's paper mill, and other trains to Brent sdgs (Cricklewood not Willesden) for the midland users.

 

The talk of lump size reminded me of the 1984/5 miners strike. All sorts of stuff appeared from God knows where. At least one delivery disgorged big freezer size lumps 6x3x3 (in feet not inches).

 

Don't know where that came from. Kent coal was certainly supplied to Southern Region sheds. Kent coal was quite friable, like Welsh.

Surprised about the Rossington, although it could depend on the seam being mined. Rossington was generally a coal of choice in the 1980's-early 90's. and was certainly used by the NYMR. I believe that David Smith bought a significant amount of their when the pits closure was announced. It did have chlorine in it, though.

 

Wife and I had an over night 4 berth sleeper Kiev to Odesa sharing with a old Ukrainian steamdriver his son and their home made vodka. Somehow the conversation got around to steam engines and it turned out he had then recently driven a charter steam train around the Carparty mountains. He was totally disgusted with the continual requests for thick dark smoke from the British contingent and said even with soft lignite coals prevalent across the Comcon countries any decent loco crew could and should avoid smoke if they knew what they were doing.
Brian

 

A decent fireman should not make excessive smoke, i can remember from my MHR days, having to run into Alresford and not being allowed to make smoke, or Blow off, so it was a case of fill in any holes on the run in, and build up the back under the door only , nothing along the sides or front and fire on the move little and often, in fact i took it as a bad thing if i lifted a valve, other than on shed that morning to check the safety valve did indeed blow on the mark, and would control my firing , my aim was always to give the driver the steam he needed when he needed it ,and to not waste it through the valve, At ALTON, it was the same situation, the ticket office would complain if someone was sat there with a safety up for any period of time, so again, you made your fire up, and balanced the presure with your water, the ideal situation was that you left Alton with a full glass and the valves just feeathering, i can safely say the only time i blew off at Alton was due to a late arriving coach party, and i kept it quite as long as i could.
The only time i used the firing irons were if i had a mound built up from a trainees attempt at firing, but prefered to not use irons, unless i had a badly clinkered fire,
Worse coal, i think it was either columbian, or russian, it sat there and took ages to catch, and was very dirty, on this i put nothing down the sides, and still smoked out Alresford, and i had the inspector with me that day, i could do nothing about it and the best, had to be scottish hards, fist sized, it was like rocket fuel we used to joke you just had to show it to the fire hole and the presure would rise.

 

It is largely "smoke & whistle" here in the USA. It is a new young crowd these days and they do not remember or have for that matter ever seen a properly operated steam locomotive.