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[quote user="wsherrick"] Bucyrus:All of the smoke is from unburnt volatile gasses.  The reason for this is the air/fuel combination is not proper and cannot be so while the engines are not working steam.  The air in the firebox must be at the right temperature also to burn the hydrocarbons, around 1700-1800 degrees F.  That is virtually impossible to achieve while the locomotive is not working steam. What I can't understand is why the railroad would keep the locomotives steamed up all night in ready condition.  This is terribly wasteful and unnecessary.  If they do this by feeding the engines overnight and do it properly there should not be that much smoke.  The qualilty of the coal is also a factor in the smoke issue, but I don't see how gradually firing the engine overnight would make that much smoke if care is taken with the firing.  Is the Railroad producing great clouds of smoke from this or are residents over reacting to any smoke period? If after the Railroad did all in their power to mitigate the smoke as much as possible and the whacko crowd still complains, then its time to draw a line in the sand I hate to say.  [/quote]I do not know why the D&S keeps the locomotives in hot standby overnight instead of banking the fires.I understand your point about the volatiles escaping unburned because the flames quench due to the firebox temperature not being high enough, and also your point that the engine is not working, so the firebox temperature is less than its maximum potential.  But if the locomotive is being fired at the rate of 500 pounds of coal overnight, is it not possible to make this fire burn efficiently?  After all, the coal bed is burning, so there is certainly sufficient temperature at the origination of the flames.  I would think that if the proper draft, both primary and secondary, were provided (by an external system not part of the locomotive), and the draft were pre-heated to a temperature that was at least as hot as the firebox interior, the fire would burn up all the volatiles, and thus be smoke-free.  I suppose another factor contributing to the smoke is the cool temperature of the coal being stoked.  Getting around that problem implies continuous stoking at a rate that perfectly matches the rate of consumption, as opposed to putting in an overcharge every few hours or so.  The remedy of continuous stoking suggests a portable automatic micro stoker that would continuously feed the low power fire of hot standby. Apparently the D&S intends to solve the overnight smoke problem by expanding their current engine house scrubbers.  There has been some discussion indicating that these current scrubbers are not as effective as was expected or desired.  The plan is to improve the scrubber system, including adding a scrubber to the ash pit.  The cost for this improvement is estimated at $500,000.  There is concern about the operating cost of this new expansion of the system since the present, more limited system already costs $15,000 per month for electricity.   In my opinion, if D&S drew a line in the sand over this smoke issue, they would lose.
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