Cinders and Ash...

[Anonymous]

It could also be from a coal fired power plant.   At least an older one.

One closed nearby 15-20 years ago and they still use some of it for slippery winter roads.

I don't know if the newer plants produce cinders or not.

side note - there is a company trucking fly ash from a coal fired plant 30+ miles that is loaded to dry tankers on Ohio Central and is shipped to (I believe Georgia).

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Where I grew up, a cinder block was made from slag, and there was a small cinder block plant just outside Republic Steel's mill.  Slag cinders (1/4" to 3/4") were often used to surface alleys in our neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

I read somewhere (probably here) that the preferred material for RR ballast is broken-up slag from steel furnaces.  Now that most steel comes from overseas and slag is hard to come by, they are having to use actual stone.

[tatans]

 I lived in a railway town with huge facilities and lots of coal fired steam engines, guess what the town decided to do with a lot of the cinders and clinkers from the locomotives, instead of gravel or cement our sidewalks were paved with cinders, (we lived on the wrong side of the tracks) many years later the town decided to put in cement sidewalks over the cinders, these are the only sidewalks in town that have never had a crack in them, maybe someone should have learned a lesson. Ever hear of cinder blocks ? ?

[rrnut282]

By definition, a "clinker" is more rock than coal.  That's why it doesn't burn in the firebox.  Since it's rock, it should last more than 50 years, provided it doesn't get pulverized by the pounding of passing trains.  You're more likely to find it on sidings and yard tracks as mainlines will get new rock ballast during maintenence.

[Murphy Siding]

     Last week, I saw something that I am now wondering if it's possible.  In Wall. S.D. (home of Wall Drug) there was an old, unused turning wye near the grain elevator.  The tracks were ballasted with what appear to be *clinkers* from burnt coal.  Is it possible, that 50+ years after the last steamer in the area, that this could still be there?  Granted, it's very dry there.  Anybody?