Coal - How many of us have held and burned it?

[bluepuma]

Wondered how many of us have held coal, touched it, burned it. Growing up in Arizona and California after 1950, we never burned coal, never saw it there, just at my granparents in Tenn. where in '53, Grandmother cooked with it and heated the kitchen, baked with it in a potbelly stove. In Illinois our local power plant burns it in Hennepin. But, a lot of us have not touched coal in many years, so I wanted some and got it for Christmas. Neat feel, touch, like wood or very hard wood, not like rock, not cold. Thought it might be good to share coal experiences.

[orsonroy]

Growing up in Chicago, I never really ran into the stuff, until I started participating in two hobbies: steam railfanning and Civil War reenacting. Since then, I've seen, held, felt, burned and otherwise used coal on a regular basis. I've shoveled it into steam engines, burned it for heat, stoked it for blacksmiths, and used it as loads for mdel hoppers, gondolas and tenders. I've even smelled coal smoke coming out of houses that still use it for heating, up in central Pennsylvania.

Of course, I'm probably an exception, especially considering I'm only 33. I'm sure most "normal" people don't really know what coal looks like, let alone have ever touched the stuff. I pity "normal" people; their lives are so sheltered and lacking in texture!

[michaelstevens]

[8D]
I voted "have seen coal on train" since it was the only applicable option.
However, I grew up in England (in the 50's and 60's) where most families still had coal fires for heating their houses.
[:)]
And Yes ! -- I actually used to "cop rides" and "fire" (stoke with coal) real steam engines.
[:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

I see many coal trains on the Mopac (UP) passing through St. Louis, MO.

I have seen coal burning in the firebox of SLSW 1630 at the Illinois Railway Museum and in N&W 1218 at the NRHS convention back in 1990.

I have operated coal burning Live Steam locomotives where the engineer is also the fireman (12 inch gauge).

And yes, I have a bucket of coal for use on my model railroad.

I have never seen it used for cooking or heating in homes like was done many years ago.

Dale B.

[Anonymous]

I answered yes to four of the categories. I've seen coal off loaded at a coal dock for a power plant, I've seen coal trains (Cape Breton) I've seen coal used for heating and cooking (Scotland), I've taken the kids fossil hunting in coal is present in the seams at Joggins. And yes I have chunks of coal on the MESS.

[cacole]

You don't have a choice that fits my category -- when I was young we heated our house with a coal-fired furnace in southern Illinois, and we also had a cook stove in the basement that burned coal that we used in the wintertime. I remember my father buying coal by the ton, and it was a hand-fired furnace that had to be tended to several times a day. I'm talking about the late 1940s and early '50s here. Southern Illinois had a lot of coal strip mines back then, so coal was plentiful and cheaper than bottled gas (there was no natural gas available then) or electricity for heating and cooking. There was a water coil in the furnace that even heated the hot water in the wintertime. In the summertime, we had a small coal-fired water heater that had to be fired when hot water was desired. Ummm, is my age showing? [:D]

[jfraymondpa]

There is no choice for me either. I heated my home from 1986 to 1993 with coal. I stopped when we moved to a new house. Also as a teen I stoked furnaces, kept buckets full for the cook stoves and hauled ashes from homes for spending money. Coal heat is great, my wife loved it for raising bread and dry ing the laundry.
We live in NE Pennsylvania near the hard coal region.

-- John Raymond
Bearridge RR (BRR)

[ReadingBob]

Heck, up until I moved to sunny Florida four years ago I lived in the heart of coal (hard coal that is) country near Pottsville, PA. My house was heated with coal. We were close enough that you could feel the house shake when they were blasting over in the "strippin's" a couple miles away. We burned "rice" coal in our house. What fun, the joys of keeping the hopper full, getting coal delivered (means getting someone to move their car that's parked in front of the house on the street), taking out the ashes and living with the coal dust that seems to find it's way everywhere.

I used to work for a Bank that had a branch in Centralia, PA. For those unfamiliar with the plight of Centralia it's a small town in PA that has the misfortune of having a vein of coal run underneath it that's been on fire for 30+ years now. A big portion of the town has been abandoned because of it (including the branch of the bank). It's a strange sight to drive throught there at night or in the winter. The trees/bushes are burnt, you can see the steam rising when it snows/rains and in some places you can see the blue flame at times where it's reached the surface.

To top it off, my grand father was a coal miner (back before strip mining). I've been down in a "deep" mine once. There's an old mine open to tourists in Ashland, PA (right around the corner from Centralia).

[ndbprr]

All three types - anthracite, bituminous and metalurgical.

[Anonymous]

[xx(] not only have I got some, just like every other year I managed to get some in my Christmas stocking again this year!
Also burned it in fireplaces in Richmond for several years in place of wood.

[Anonymous]

I've got a coal fire at home, so yes, I've held it, burned it, dealt with the ash and dust! Coal fires are still popular over here, even in the days of central heating - mainly because there's something satisfying about creating heat rather than just flipping a few switches I suspect. Also, a lot of older houses already have fireplaces and chimneys installed, so if you have it, why not use it?

[bluepuma]

Thanks, Guys. Interesting responses, all. Expected some people grew up around plenty.

Moving to IL 4 years ago, was surprised to see the slag piles from the coal mines in North Central IL, Mark, Standard, tales of the Cherry Hill mine disaster, never remembered hearing about coal mines in IL. The slag piles I knew were from Copper, Gold or silver mines in the west.

Never realized there was coal in the Rockies along the Utah Belt or Denver and Rio Grande. but apparently would be shipped to the West coast for home heating before natural gas. Plenty of oil wells in Long Beach in 1950, local natural gas, oil burning steam. Had not heard of coal in the west until the find in Arizona around the '80s. I think heating before natural gas was kerosene. Another story there, before Coleman
stoves, lanterns. :)

Angeleno in...

[Anonymous]

I don't fit any of the above responses!

I use to do some blacksmithing, so I have held it and burned it, even if I don't have any now in the train room. Love the smell!

[Anonymous]

I have two 10lb bags of coal that I use for scenery on the layout or for making loads for hoppers. Got it at a mine in Black Diamond Washingon. Cost me about 5 dollars ;)

The guy was really nice and only filled the bags with the smallest particles so I didn't have to do too much to it.

Warren

[Anonymous]

I'm 53 years old, I guess this makes me an old timer for this question! We used to burn coal in the fire place when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s. It was my job to fill the scuttle and bank the fire with ash, so it would last most of the night. I remember Dad having a hard time finding coal towards the end. This was a processed coal, which was formed into briquets, similar to charcoal. This was in northern Minnesota at the lake when we were there during the fall and spring. Yes, it had a different smell than charcoal

[Anonymous]

Ah the warm dancing flames of a bedroom fireplace. Sitting around the soft glow of embers in the kitchen toasting crumpets on long forks. Roasting chestnuts on a coal scoop by the living room fire on a cold winters night. Doesn't that sound romantic? Not bloody likely. It was a right royal pain, filling scuttles in the freezing coal shed of a morning, emptying ashes, cutting kindling. I much prefer to push a button to keep warm.

The demise of steam is all very sad but I doubt many engineers regretted losing the romance as they sat back in their comfy heated diesel cabs.

[michaelstevens]

QUOTE: Originally posted by LightBender
Not bloody likely. It was a right royal pain, filling scuttles in the freezing coal shed of a morning, emptying ashes, cutting kindling.

On top of that -- think of all the noxious fumes (CO etc.) we were exposed to, in our own houses !!

Then there were the mining hazards -- black lung, repetitive canary deaths, permanent skin blackening !! -- and "Oh mi god, why do they sing so much ?" and -- "you're surely not going to let your daughter marry one ??" (e.g. Burton/Taylor)

LB's right -- we shouldn't give in to our delusional, romantic memories -- I mean;

"Let's not have a sniffle -- let's have a bloody good cry
Just remember the longer you live -- the sooner you'll bloody well die !!"

Coal sucks !!

[8D]

[pondman]

Having been born and raised in the coal country of Pa. and southern teir of New York. My dad trucked it all over the area when I was a kid growing up. And I was all the time in coal bin moving it around to get it all in the bin. cooked with heated with it too ...and as far as the ashes went in the winter time sold then for cars on the hill by the house for .25 each bucket full so I could have spending money ............even been down in coal mine shalf to boot !!!!!!!!!! no fun i can tell you that too .......

[BNSFNUT]

I remeber my grandfather firing to old coal furnace. I thought it was neat and then we moved into a house when 14 and it was heated by coal fired hot water boiler.
It was fired by an under fed stoker (an Iron Fireman brand) had an large bin to hold aprox. 800 LB of rice coal, and you can guess who got to fill it. I carried coal in a bucket from the coal bin to fill it, it was about 80ft each way I learned to not let it to low. I also had to empty the ash from a 20 gal barrel about twice a month.
The system was replaced with oil in 1974 when coal and repair parts became hard to get.

[Anonymous]

I held one. It came in my stocking for christmas[:D]

[Paul W. Beverung]

Well, lets see. I've got 2 tons of it on hand for my 7.5 in gauge 4in scale live steam locomotive. I haven't run in a while. Seems the B & B gang had to dig up the main to get power to the new depot,[ full size]. My Grandparents heated there house with it, and I can remember watching it being delivered many times.

[Anonymous]

My parents house was heated by a coal furnace. I shoveled tons of coal and ashes.
We would play in the coal pile and slide down the coal chute to the coal cellar. Needless to say our mother wasn't to happy about that.

[joseph2]

No choices for me.15 years ago my job was using a payloader to move coal at a powerplant.I love the smell of coal burning but it wasn't fun getting a clinker out of a boiler's cinder hopper.

[ClinchValleySD40]

I've held it, used it, burned it, hauled it. I've run too many coal trains to count, so not particularly fond of it.

[lupo]

my son has a lot of pieces of coal he picks up at various historical-railroad sites and
until the late 70's My parents house was heated with coal and my mother cooked on it,
I shoveled it for them and the cat used it when it was wet or cold outside . . . . . . .
I remember coal, but I prefer a gas-stove, central heating and cat-grit
and the block of coal in my engine display

[Anonymous]

all i have is a clinker

[Anonymous]

Grew up in a town where the local RR station burned coal in a pot-bellied stove. I was fortunate enough to see 6 -8 steamers run through in a day. Nothing like the smell of coal smoke. Last steamer ran through my town in 1963. A few years ago I found some along the rail line, in the ballast. Took it home, put it in the fireplace, and had myself a "nostalgia party".

[Anonymous]

I too grew up in coal country - Scranton and Carbondale. In fact I was living in Carbondale when (in about 1950) a whole block sank 15 feel as a result of shoring giving way beneath it. My job as a kid was to fill the automatic stokers (we had two of them). What luxury. Remember those times with fondness.

The railroad I model is the noe defunct O&W which used to haul coal as a major revenue source.

[CBQ_Guy]

My grand mother burned it in her coal furnace in the basement up until sometime in the 1960's when the land lord had the burner switched over to natural gas.

I wanted to play in the coal room "climb the mountain", split it to try and find fossils, etc. back then when I was just a wee model railroader, but grandma wouldn't allow it as she said I would be a mess from all the coal dust. I used to watch the coal man run his wooden chute into the coal room window in the basement, and deliver a load.

[rf16a]

I have seen and held coal but have never burned it.
I have seen many coal trains while railfanning the Altoona/Cresson PA area.
My first train ride when I was a kid was on a train powered by Strasburg Railroad 2-10-0 #90.
I have a great amount of respect for the hard working people who mine and have mined coal. Hard and dangerous work. When you see a coal train, or run a model of one, or use electricity from a coal fired power plant, think about those miners, past and present.