Scenerio: derailment of coal train. XXX number of coal cars spilled onto ground.
Cleanup as usual. Big broom and dustpan. OK? Now what. The coal is all cleaned up and now you have ?
Lots of coal, dirt, ballast, grass/weeds, maybe a beer can or two, a dead rabbit, etc? I would assume you would load it into coal gons. Are these gons yours (BNSF in my case) or KCPL ie, which were the original gons they were in.
Dirty coal? Does it need to be cleaned before going to the plant? Surely you wouldn't want ballast rock in with the coal? (I know - you aren't Shirley)
Tell me about life after a spill.
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
In the spills I'm aware of around here, the utilities don't want coal that has been on the ground. Probably do (uh, make that "DUE") to contaminants.
Norm
Most pick up coal gets loaded out in trucks to a reclamation plant where it gets 'cleaned' and sold - who buys it, I have no idea.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Most pick up coal gets loaded out in trucks to a reclamation plant where it gets 'cleaned' and sold - who buys it, I have no idea.
Johnny
Last time we had to pick up a lot of spilled coal loads, they dumped it in roll on/roll off dumpsters, took it off to be cleaned then sold as salvage...our claims guy paid for the original loads long before that happened, what we get from salvage is ours as recoupment for the salvage effort.
23 17 46 11
I think Johnny had my next answer: what kind of a salvage company buys the coal?
So, there was this ad on Craig's list: Tons! of freshly washed coal for sale. Big color selection. You haul.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding So, there was this ad on Craig's list: Tons! of freshly washed coal for sale. Big color selection. You haul.
I think coal dealers took a page from Henry Ford's playbook where he said of car buyers "They can have any color they want so long as it's black".
Norm48327I think coal dealers took a page from Henry Ford's playbook where he said of car buyers "They can have any color they want so long as it's black".
HORSE FEATHERS!
From my family's part of the world, a few miles south of Hazleton.
Anthracite Power!
Hey! Dat's too purty to burn.
Co-generation plants, among other places...
The big utilities don't want it because they typically crush and powderized the coal and blow it into the boiler as a coarse dust. A foreign object in the coal may cause the crushers (rollers) to not crush part of the coal making clinkers and a poor burn, plus any ferrous objects might cause a spark which would be bad in a coal dust laden environment. Many utilities sell the fly ash as a commodity so they (and their customers) don't want contaminents in the ash.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusmanThe big utilities don't want it because they typically crush and powderized the coal and blow it into the boiler as a coarse dust. A foreign object in the coal may cause the crushers (rollers) to not crush part of the coal making clinkers and a poor burn, plus any ferrous objects might cause a spark which would be bad in a coal dust laden environment. Many utilities sell the fly ash as a commodity so they (and their customers) don't want contaminants in the ash.
Personally, I can't imagine that any 'reclamation plant' would leave tramp iron or any 'casual' environmental contamination (for example, residue from firefighting foam) in the coal they treated. You will note he did NOT say it would be conveyed to an end-user as if it were 'run-of-mine coal' scooped up by Hulcher and indiscriminately sent in gondolas for an end-user to scoop out and classify.
I'd wonder more about how many 'co-generation' plants still use coal, are within economic distance of a reclamation plant, and would find it worth the trouble to accept a couple hundred tons of 'special' coal (on the reclamation plant's warranty of fitness) just because of a cheaper price or special offer. Even a simple Venn diagram with all the necessary variables that would have to be satisfied to 'place' wrecked coal would have very, very few plants in the critical intersection ... and the stockpiled reclaimed coal would have to be comparatively cheap indeed to be worth the perceived risk (unless, of course, you could find a greater-fool purchasing agent.)
I did some quick goo-search and only actual reclaimation business was Hulcher. I seriously doubt Hulcher cleans and resells reclaimed coal.
I was curious as to how far coal from here would have to travel to be recycled - but found nothing. Hazarding a guess that there might be something in Colo or Wyo, or east of us in maybe Illinois?
Are there any retail coal operations? 30 years ago when I lived in Gilette Wyoming there was a couple places you could buy coal.
Murphy Siding Are there any retail coal operations? 30 years ago when I lived in Gilette Wyoming there was a couple places you could buy coal.
They still exist around here. Still some homes in the town that burn coal. Find even more if you go up into anthracite country.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
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