Steam & Excursion > RDG T-1 Coal Question

Did the Reading T-1s originally burn anthracite?  They appear to have the wooten firebox from the original 2-8-0s from which they were built.  I seem to recall hearing that Reading used a bituminous-anthracite blend for a while but that may be BS.  Can anybody confirm/explain?  Are there changes needed tp the firebox frpm anthracite to bituminous?

The Reading Company T-1's, as well as other Reading steam locomotives did burn a blended mix.  Somewhere I have a diagram that was put out by the Reading Company to show the correct method of how to load the two different coals into the same tender of a locomotive.  I want to say it was 40% anthracite and 60% bituminous.

No, there are no changes made to the firebox.

Anthracite is hard coal, bituminous is soft.  Pure anthracite in a locomotive firebox does not work well, because you can not extract the gases fast enough.  Anthracite does work very well as a home heating fuel, because it burns hotter, but slower.  Bituminous works well in locomotives because the gases can be extracted quickly in the combustion process.

To continue the good question on the same theme, in 1933 the West Jersey & Seashore (PRR) was leased to the Atlantic City Railroad (RDG) at a 2/3, 1/3 ratio.  The RDG supplied one locomotive tor every two that the PRR rented to the new company that changed it name to the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line.  At first the RDG supplied mostly Wooten fire box Atlantics, Ten Wheelers, and Pacifics.  Most of the coal was supplied from the Camden Terminal Coaling tower so the question is did the RDG engines receive some mix of coal or was it all soft coal which the PRR engines burned?  All the PRSL lines were in Southern New Jersey.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/22 10:03 by PlyWoody.

The "anthracite" burned in locos was supplied from the immense 
mountains of stuff too fine for the coal 'market', back-in-the-day...
The marketable anthracite was graded by specific sizes for either
domestic/commercial use, or for larger, industrial purposes.

In coal country of Pennsylvania, Young children were employed to sit next to an
inclined,  downward. -sloping belt and to pull-out the useable ( marketable) lumps.....
the leftover, fine stuff was piled  in immense mountains of fine coal called 'culm' ,
by the locals.

Huge "Culm banks"  still cover a lot land in NE Penna, like around Wilkes-Barre.

RR managers drooled over the prospect of burning the waste, & free culm in loco fireboxes.
The problem was that there was little or no oil-like components to anthracite fuel.  
It was fine for stoves and such, it was largely unburnables, bonded by carbon.

When anthracite burns, it burns slowly, with short blue flames, and soon turns 
into a white ash, of about the same volume.  Anthracite fires will not spread in lateral
directions---- to get more fuel to burn, you must land fresh fuel on top of burning 
coals.   Too much fuel and you can cool the bed down too much to sustain combustion.

inventor Wooten spent a lot of work tryimg to find the solution to burning anthracite in 
loco fireboxes.  When it burns, it releases lots of radiant energy.   It is the radiant energy
that boils the water.... so, early Wooten fireboxes had curved crown sheets and immense,
flat grates, used very low draft rates and were easily hand fired.

No anthracite burning locos were fitted with mechainical stokers, but two fire-doors
were common ---- evidence of the need for 'direct-deposit' of fresh fuel on the burning coals.

Locomotives were typically of small to modest size.  Larger articulateds were typically slow,
drag service and slow freight engines.  Pacifics,4-6-2s, were about the largest passenger
engines.

RR historian and steam loco owner, George Hart, told me of informal contests of
engine crews handling  Reading trains between Philly and Jersey City, including
any station-stops, with sufficent fires ---- that firemen did not have to add any coal
for the entire trip---- The feat was accomplished with precise team-work between
engineers and firemen, including carefully preparing the fire bed for the 90-mile distance.

Well into the 20th century RR companies tried blends using the culm mixed with
soft coal....for 'economic' reasons --- free fuel.   

2-8-0s with huge 100 square-ft grates were too slow.... so, Reading.decided to add sections
to the original boiler, replace the smoke-box with a long one, set the boiler on a cast, one-piece frame,
add a 4--wheel pilot truck, and a booster equipped, 4-wheel trailer truck & a large capacity
tender for fuel and water.  Those built under war-restricted products, like Timken's 
roller bearings ( for 12" locomotive driving-wheel axles) were equipped with oil cellars
on the driving axles.   Rollers, however, were applied to the smaller axles on all the 
T-1s.  Those built after WW2 , like 2124, were built with Timken, all-roller bearing 
axles.  (2124 survives at Steamtown, Scranton, Pa).

The T-1 class was a masterful design of compromise and engineering.   And siince a T-1 cost less
than a 4-unit FT set ( one T-1 cost less than a single unit, of the 4-unit set.  
The T-1 could out-perform a 3-unit consist of dismals....so, it would cost Reading 4, T-1 equivalents,
to buy a 4-unit set of FT dismals...in order to replace the work that was done by a single T-1 !

So, that's why eastern railfans flock trackside to see a marvelous machine still working HARD!
We salute our past-masters of the locomotive Arts!
Baldwin, Reading, their crews and officers...

I'm so glad the I got to operate, maintain and travel widely with 2102, 
And I salute Ross for the preservation of the 2101 and the 2100
Soon,  we may get to see the TWO operating T-1 engines together, again!
1962, Here we come!

​Wes Camp

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/22 00:48 by wcamp1472.

The RDG 4-8-4 could run fine on pure bituminous?
Like when PRR borrowed them?

RDG coaling towers always came in pairs?
But tenders only had one coal bin? Crews were
supposed to load anthracite and bituminous
into the one coal bin? So as the engine ran,
it would get soft coal for a while, then
hard coal?

 

In my experience with stoker-fed coal burners, different coals tended to mix.

If you take the time to ‘trim’ the coal in horizontal layers, the screw feed tends to mix the varied coals evenly.

Typically in fan-trip use….. like, where
most of the tender coal-space will
be empty. with the “original” coal pile will be clustered at the rear of the hopper,
out-of-reach of the stoker screw.

So, it would be pretty evenly burned.
The two fuels may burn at different rates,
Also, the stoker firing table & multiple jets sends the coal
over the grates in a well distributed pattern.

With big engines, I prefer to fire by maintaining a very deep, well-coked
‘Heel’ across the back of the grates.

Engines tend to prefer strong drafts….with fan trips, and modest train weights,
it was tough to get engines strained hard-enough to make a decent draft……
it’s the way they were designed.

So, to compensate, we’d reduce the the “active” grate area to match the
trailing train-weight. The active area on locos with ‘finger grates’,
tend to burn a thinner fire.  

You reduce the active grate area with deep layers of low.burn-rate 'coal banks'.  
The banks are deep enough to block cold air flowing into the firebox, over time the
banks will burn into a single, glowing mass od coked coal.  You intermittently add more,
deep layers onto the coked coal to keep it lively enough.  

The hottest, quickly burning area typically is the forward 3/4 to 2/3 of the total grate area.
 You want that area thin and flat.   With constantly shaking 'finger grates' a stong draft will
 send fine ash up the stack, while heavier stuff sifts to the ash pan below.  The falling ash 
is cold and all the burnable carbon and volatiles are long gone..  Again, you will regulate the 
amount of coal in the rear banked area to suit the track profile and the engineer's throttle setting.
The individual fingers rattle and sift the fines —— the fines typically go up the stack,
and some cold ashes sift into the ash pan.

If you're very familiar with the track area you're traversing, it's so much easier to keep the
firebed prepared for the anticipated needs ---- it takes time for the firebed to adjust to varying 
depths of active stages of burning coals.   That's why being familiar with the territory is key
to being a 'professional grade' fireman.   You can the most of your time watching the tracks ahead,
keeping the cab floor cleaned and calling the signals and assisting the engineer ...... without constantly
meddling with the fire.

But, varied coals are a problem with light trains…. With many trailing cars, they pretty much burn
EVERYTHING gets blown out the stack—— they almost “fire themselves”…

That’s why I encourage big trains for Big engines,

W.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/22 06:13 by wcamp1472.

Here is a coal mix chart for the Reading Company.  May help you with your question

---

In the years when Bill Benson owned  the 2102,  we burned soff 
coal from various sources.   

The stoker and firebox loved ALL of it.
We got the lowest miles/ton burned on 'light-moves'
( on the main lines with no trailing cars)    
And our best performance with other heaviest trains..

The  harder you pushed them, the hotter they 'fired' !!

​W.

In the years when Bill Benson owned  the 2102,  we burned
soft coal from various sources.   

The stoker and firebox loved ALL of it.
We got the lowest miles/ton-burned on 'light-moves'
( on the main lines with no trailing cars)    

And our best performance happened with our heaviest trains..
The  harder you pushed them, the hotter they 'fired' !!
The hotter is the superheat to the cylinders, and the less coal and
water were consumed.

​W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/22 16:48 by wcamp1472.

I would say the mixing happened in the coaling machine (coaling tower). For example, an old-time, railroader friend told me that on the Wabash they would mix "screening coal" and "lump coal" for the steam locomotives. A ratio of two cars of fine, screen coal would be mixed with one car of lump coal. The switch crew would get the appropriate car numbers on its switch list in order to know what cars were lump and which were screen. The crew would spot the cars on the gravity track so the coaling machine operator could roll the cars down, one by one, with a hand brake, spot them and dump them in the pit for the overhead conveyor.  Clarence said the screen coal came from Decatur, Illinois. I would presume it came from the coal fields in Illinois. In photos of hoppers at a coaling machine, hopper cars with various road names can be seen. Of course, I'm not referring to Antracite.

That being said, I wonder if the fine coal would work it's way down to the bottom of the tender with mostly what you would have left, if you consumed most everything in the tender? From what I understand, railroads were known to be cheap on coal, even so in coal country, even if they owned the mines.

Victor B.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/22 12:58 by wabash2800.