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The color of coal

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Saturday, March 19, 2016 3:59 PM

Stix, I was once told that the PRR's firemen referred to their company coal as, "Real estate," out of (lack of) respect for its ability to form clinkers like chunks of armor plate.  That stuff in a blast furnace would have added a few percent to the iron output

Chuck [Modeling the (nonexistent) collieries of Central Japan in September, 1964]

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Posted by wjstix on Friday, March 18, 2016 9:22 AM

NittanyLion

Anthracite has a higher luster than other types of coal.  It is deep black and very reflective.  

Makes sense then that coal was referred to as "black diamonds" -  they're made from the same material (carbon), and coal could be very shiny.

NittanyLion

Anthracite has a higher luster than other types of coal.  It is deep black and very reflective.  Bituminous is a softer material and much duller.  It comes in black and a very dark brown.  Lignite is a brown gray.

Seems to me there's an old story about a fireman for a railroad that burned lignite coal taking a promotional test. He was asked a question about coal, and answered "I don't know, I've never seen it...our railroad burns dirt!"

Stix
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Posted by ACY Tom on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 10:16 AM

Thanks, Chuck. That helps.

Tom

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 5:05 AM

There was a Blue Coal dealer with a big bunker - almost like a timber coaling station - near my home in Da Bronx.  It was active into the mid-50s.

That bunker was at the head of navigation of Westchester Creek and received coal in barges.  The whole area was tinged with the blue coloring agent.

As of my last look at Google Earth, there's no indication that the place ever existed.

Chuck (Native Noo Yawka modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

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Posted by ACY Tom on Tuesday, March 15, 2016 12:52 AM

Chuck, I was just wondering whether they were still using the dye in the early 1950's, or if they had discontinued it by then. I know the home heat market was in serious decline by then.

Tom

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Monday, March 14, 2016 8:04 PM

The parent company of the blue coal operation went rather spectacularly bankrupt in 1976, a case which still isn't completely settled.  By that time the home heating market for anthracite had pretty much disappeared.

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Posted by ACY Tom on Monday, March 14, 2016 11:50 AM

Does anybody know when the Blue Coal outfit discontinued the use of added color?

Coal is also useful as a scenic feature because the stratification looks like sedimentary rock. However, don't forget that coal is not a mineral but an organic material. It will degrade over time if not properly sealed. Probaby the best way to use it is to make rubber molds to produce plaster copies.

Tom

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Posted by NittanyLion on Sunday, March 13, 2016 10:34 PM

BigDaddy

I don't doubt a piece of coal might be shiny.  Google up a picture of a coal miner....does he look shiny?  Coal is dirty and dusty and running it through a chute and into a hopper and then transporting it a couple hundred miles doesn't polish the stuff on top.

 

That's because he's covered in dust, not in large chunks with flat, reflective facets.  A pile of coal can take on a distinctly silver look from a distance.  It really depends on the size of the coal and the type.  Large pieces in a hopper do get shiny because, well, they have the area to reflect light and the airstream knocks the dust off them.  The much finer stuff looks just black.

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Posted by BigDaddy on Sunday, March 13, 2016 7:50 PM

I don't doubt a piece of coal might be shiny.  Google up a picture of a coal miner....does he look shiny?  Coal is dirty and dusty and running it through a chute and into a hopper and then transporting it a couple hundred miles doesn't polish the stuff on top.

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

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Posted by SouthPenn on Sunday, March 13, 2016 6:39 PM

Thanks for all your replies. I am making my own coal from ground walnut shells. I guess adding a little shine won't hurt anything.

South Penn
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Posted by peahrens on Sunday, March 13, 2016 6:11 PM

Not quite to your point, I can advise that plastic "coal" can be unrealistically shiny.  I picked up some real coal (Arizone Rock & Minerals medium coal #1133) at a hobby shop and upgraded my steamer tenders with the real thing.  I didn;t research to optimize my choice (for UP locos).  But much better.

 

Paul

Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent

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Posted by jmbjmb on Sunday, March 13, 2016 12:45 PM

mobilman44

As previous posters indicated, coal comes in different types, and while its all "black", it can be dull or shiny or rock hard or soft and crumbly.  Some could have the appearance of faint blue or red streaks, but a gloss or flat (better a mix) black is the color that seems right to me. 

The home heating coal I recall was shiny black.  Some so black it had a blue tint to it.  I don't mean the colored "blue" coal, but some bluish reflections something like you get from an oil slick on the pavement.

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Posted by mobilman44 on Sunday, March 13, 2016 12:13 PM

Hi!

I saw a lot of coal in my Chicago youth.  Especially in the fall, a truck would pull up to a house/store and dump the contents on the street, leaving some fellow with a scoop and a wheelburrow to tote the coal to the houses coal chute.  Sometime in the mid 50s, the coal was delivered in bushel sized canvas bags (open top) and the man would carry bag by bag to the chute and empty them.

As previous posters indicated, coal comes in different types, and while its all "black", it can be dull or shiny or rock hard or soft and crumbly.  Some could have the appearance of faint blue or red streaks, but a gloss or flat (better a mix) black is the color that seems right to me. 

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

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Posted by rrinker on Sunday, March 13, 2016 12:01 PM

 When coal was the big home heating fuel, the various major mining concerns each had their own special features for marketing - in addition to the Blue Coal, there was the red coal of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Co. Smaller coal companies had their own slogans and trade names for their particular brands of coal although I don't think any others actually put a colorant on the coal.

                         --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Sunday, March 13, 2016 11:51 AM

Cut and polished anthracite shines like obsidian.  Saw some carved into statuettes when I toured the Scranton (PA) area twenty years ago.

And then there was the joker in the deck.  Blue Coal was anthracite - but sprayed with a coloring agent as a brand mark.  To model it, crush some pool cue chalk and dip it in dilute India ink.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with pool filter charcoal 'coal')

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Posted by NittanyLion on Sunday, March 13, 2016 9:46 AM

Anthracite has a higher luster than other types of coal.  It is deep black and very reflective.  Bituminous is a softer material and much duller.  It comes in black and a very dark brown.  Lignite is a brown gray.

Basically, the higher the carbon content, the blacker and shinier coal gets.  Graphite is technically coal and has the highest carbon content of all coal types.  Look how black and shiny it is!  Doesn't really burn though, so we don't use it as coal.

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The color of coal
Posted by SouthPenn on Sunday, March 13, 2016 9:23 AM

I haven't been around a lot of coal, but it seems to me that coal has a shine to it. Or is this typical of coal in the eastern US?

 

South Penn

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