Coal, for use on steam hauled heritage railways - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Mark A]

Peat is now out of favour for either fuel or for horticultural purposes, due to the environmental harm resulting from the large scale extraction of peat.

**snip**

Hard agree, even though I was the perpetrator of that particular peat product burning.

Mark

[GBM]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7m7n511vo

Train smoke is making us sick, say residents
Families living above a tourist railway believe thick acrid smoke from trains is making them ill.

They claim fumes from the Welsh Highland Railway has caused "considerable concern" on Rhes Segontiwm, in Caernarfon, Gwynedd.

Nia Davies Williams said: "People are getting sick. It's terrible, I'm very worried about our health."

The railway said the war in Ukraine was making it more difficult to get cleaner coal leaving them reliant on dirtier imports.

...........continues

[Mark A]

**Paddington Hard Stare at the design of the new station there**

Not sure how its contribution to the issue can be mitigated. Extend the roof over the platform perhaps. :-)

Mark

[TonyK]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg7m7n511vo

Train smoke is making us sick, say residents
Families living above a tourist railway believe thick acrid smoke from trains is making them ill.

They claim fumes from the Welsh Highland Railway has caused "considerable concern" on Rhes Segontiwm, in Caernarfon, Gwynedd.

Nia Davies Williams said: "People are getting sick. It's terrible, I'm very worried about our health."

The railway said the war in Ukraine was making it more difficult to get cleaner coal leaving them reliant on dirtier imports.

...........continues

It seems the Welsh mine supplying the best steam coal was closed for environmental reasons, thus leading to the environmental pollution.

[JayMac]

When I was on the Isle of Man last year the steam railway was using Colombian coal. Very smoky and a strong sulphurous smell. A driver told me that it burns well with a high heat, with better thermal efficiency and much less ash than the Welsh coal they previously used.

[ChrisB]

**Paddington Hard Stare at the design of the new station there**

Pardon? Please elucidate? What new station?

[Mark A]

Carnarfon's new and much remodelled WHR station, opened, was it 2019? Compared with the first station there, the track was taken further along beneath the retaining wall, and is now in a confined slot between the wall and the new station building. The arrangement possibly gives more opportunity for loco smoke to emerge onto the terrace above. Below, a Google Streetview link.

In its original guise, the WHR in its brief previous existence didn't enter the town at all: beneath the terrace there the through lines ran to the town's station where Morrisons now is, while maps.nls.uk shows the slate wharf and various connections to an engineering works for good measure.

Mark


https://tinyurl.com/mr3j9hce

[ChrisB]

Ahhhh, 'new'. Indeed, nearly 5 years old.

[Chris from Nailsea]

When I was on the Isle of Man last year the steam railway was using Colombian coal. Very smoky and a strong sulphurous smell. A driver told me that it burns well with a high heat, with better thermal efficiency and much less ash than the Welsh coal they previously used.

Finn is conducting his own scientific analysis of those alleged smells ... 

[broadgage]

The smoke pictured does look excessive and bad smelling, and yes smoke can look as though it smells bad ! A yellow/green/brown colour often indicates bad smelling smoke.

I think that they should consider smokeless fuel, either for initial lighting up, or for the whole duty. In the longer term electric preheating or even electric steam raising would help.