Western Railroad Discussion > Hauling out the Ash

A by-product of burning coal is ash. And there are two types of ash, "Bottom Ash" is the heavy, sandy, gritty type. And "Fly Ash", the stuff that would normally fly out the stack. The Centralia Steam plant has extensive scrubbers which were upgraded in 1996 to become the cleanest plant in the nation at the time. The captured fly ash has a value as a additive to cement that makes it very dense and almost impervious to water. Romans figured out long ago that combining concrete with volcanic ash makes dense concrete, and that is why so many of their structures have stood the test of time. We only relearned this more recently, and that is why many concrete structures from the 30's and before are so worn down. A couple times a week the local would come up to the Centralia Steam Plant to swap Ash Cars (really just Cement Hoppers). In all the years I worked there, I only photographed the local on the branch a few times.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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Nice shots Ted!

Great shots and good info about the ash and cement. I never knew that. Thanks for posting.
Bill Pyper
Salem, OR

Great pics, were these taken recently? Nice to see some variety on a coal train and that kit-bashed ex-GP30 still running!

Fly ash is also mixed with soil to make really stable ground. It is used in road construction quite abit and anything that needs to be firmed up. upkpfan

wjpyper Wrote:
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> Great shots and good info about the ash and
> cement. I never knew that. Thanks for posting.
> Bill Pyper
> Salem, OR


What Bill said, Ted. Always enjoy your stuff.

--Tom