The Steamboating Forum

Anthracite coal not as "user friendly" in lighting the fire, and in the Pennsylvania anthracite regions the steam locomotives needed to have fire grates about 150% of the size grates used with good Bituminous Coal burning locomotives. That is an unalterable characteristic of Anthracite. Anthracite is however very much "smokeless", and I assume it is is comparable to your England's Welsh Anthracite.

Wood firing is an acceptable substitute for coal, and I suspect the burning of wood and charcoal briquettes will come into more common use in UK steamboats.

One power plant I worked on in Bridgeport Connecticut burned imported coal exclusively. This plant was burning more than 140 long tons of coal per hour, running 24/7. That coal had to be imported from Indonesia, very nearly half way around the world, and was required because of its very low Sulfur content, at about 0.07% Sulfur.

"England's Welsh Anthracite"?????????? You have just enraged every Taffryn and Blodwyn in Wales who will be happy to tattoo your forehead with "Wales is a country and not part of England"!
OS

Old Steamer wrote: ↑Sat Feb 06, 2021 1:48 pmIf wood-firing is to be an alternative then will users of same - mostly I suspect USA brethren - give us the pros and cons? For instance, is a larger firebox required if wood firing, to compensate for the lower calorific value of the fuel?
Old Steamer

I have free access to steam coal for Vividus from my place of employment, but I burn wood that I have to cut and split myself. Dealing with wood while underway is so easy that I wouldn’t consider burning coal, unless on some death march of a lengthy voyage where wood to rebunker would be unobtainable. My VFT boiler is based on the design pioneered by Mike Condax, with a furnace about as tall as its diameter and short flues, so it gives flame more space to burn before being snuffed out in the flues, resulting in better efficiency.

A wood fire can burn as hot as coal, so no issue there. The lower BTU value per pound penalizes you in that you must carry perhaps three times the volume to travel the same distance. On the other hand, drift wood and deadfalls are easier to find along the way than coal suppliers are. Condax may hold a record in that regard, cruising the entire length of the Rideau Canal on wood found along the way, thanks to carrying a small chain saw in the boat. As he put it, “I traveled 200 miles on one quart of gasoline.”

Regarding coal availability in the USA, I will be surprised if it takes more than a few years for us to follow the UK in seeing the wholesale closure of coal mines, with the resultant lack of retail availability. A coal burning power plant 60 or so miles north of me that burned 1,000 tons every four hours for decades is currently being scrapped due to the lack of economy compared to alternative fuels and energy. In the west, persistent droughts and the resulting liability of expensive fires have resulted in at least three coal burning steam railroads (Heber Valley, Durango & Silverton, and Cumbres & Toltec) actively converting their locomotives to oil burning. Even in the east, I suspect that continuing to fire steam locomotives on coal will become untenable as seeing a visible cloud of smoke becomes less and less palatable to the general public, and they vote with their wallets and take their vacation dollars elsewhere. My employer has collected every piece of literature on oil burning that we can find to assist us when the day arrives that we must make the conversion.

"You have just enraged every Taffryn and Blodwyn in Wales....." My deepest apologies for my error here, I thought that land mass was all "England", my bad.

It may be impractical depending on how a boiler likes it and what residue it may leave behind, but since coal has gotten more expensive and difficult to acquire several people I know have converted their garage/shop stoves to burn dried corn. It's widely available, environmentally friendly, dirt cheap, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

fredrosse wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 3:30 am "You have just enraged every Taffryn and Blodwyn in Wales....." My deepest apologies for my error here, I thought that land mass was all "England", my bad.

You would probably have got away with it had you called it the 'UK', though there doesn't, these days, seem to be as much 'United' about it as there once was.

fredrosse wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 3:30 am "You have just enraged every Taffryn and Blodwyn in Wales....." My deepest apologies for my error here, I thought that land mass was all "England", my bad.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, I'm very confused about it as well. I think we tend to think of the separate entities as states as we have here in the ''United'' States vs "United'' Kingdom, instead of separate states there, it's separate countries. The Scots REALLY don't like it when people make that mistake.

One of the causes of confusion, I've watched a lot of British documentaries, they mention cities, but rarely which country they're in. I've since sort of learned which city is where.

Ron

TriangleTom wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 7:11 am It may be impractical depending on how a boiler likes it and what residue it may leave behind, but since coal has gotten more expensive and difficult to acquire several people I know have converted their garage/shop stoves to burn dried corn. It's widely available, environmentally friendly, dirt cheap, and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Amongst several of the modern steam car experimenters, ''corn burners' of various designs are being worked with. Some Arduino controlled feed and utilizing small computer fans as forced draft. They put out a tremendous amount of heat. As it is with wood it must be dried first which takes considerable time or expense if done artificially.

Ron

Thus the designation:
"Cornish Engines."

RussN

RNoe wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:53 pm Thus the designation:
"Cornish Engines."

RussN

Or Sheffield steel.