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I have limited expirience firing full-sized steam (About 20 minutes or so on the Strasburg), but I know enough to say that full sized steam is another beast. I fire our locomotives (12'' gauge) the same way I have been taught and read on the full sized engines. In my expirience you can scale full-size firing techniques down to live steam, but NOT the other way around. Firing live steam, honestly, requires little skill when you have good coal. Live steamers typically have smaller fireboxes than are optimal, so more has to be done with less grate area, hence the need for high quality coal. (For these purposes I swear by Pocahontas No. 6) Of course what it comes down to is the man behind the shovel. You don't need A1-prime coal to get the job done (although it can make it easier) when you know what you're doing. Full sized steamers typically use lower quality coal than we do, mostly because they need more of it, it is less expensive, and most importantly it WORKS.   I could have gone on and on about firing techniques, but each person has different techniques which are most easily learned through hands-on expirience. For more on "standard" techniques I recomend "Firing with Bituminous Coal" by George Baker. Here is a free copy: http://rgusrail.com/manual/baker_fpi_2/index.html
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