Coal?

Nick Dunhill

Nick Dunhill

Western Thunderer
Hi all
I have run out of coal for grinding up and sticking in coal spaces, who would have thought that living in a former centre of the coal mining industry (thanks Thatcher!) Maybe we have some in a museum in Barnsley or Rotherham somewhere.

Anyway does anyone have a couple of lumps of finest anthracite they would be prepared to post to me (all expenses paid of course.)

Cheers
Nick
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Hmm! I can help with that, Nick. PM me your details and I'll send a few lumps from our remaining stock of (smokeless) fuel here.

While I'm at it does anyone else here get in a lather about the lack of "home grown" coal in the UK? We're now importing coal from Poland. The cost of a ton of coal for a heritage application has increased from £260 to £460 in a year (apart from the cost of utilities which has quadrupled, but that's outside our remit here). We had a number of small coal mines, one of which could surely have been kept open for specialist applications. Instead we're importing coal from half way round the world and actually adding to the global warming equation.

Recently there was an application to open a new mine - successful I believe, but that has gone very quiet. Interestingly it wasn't the locals who objected, it was the environmentalists. Can they not see beyond the ends of their noses?

Please forgive the off-piste rant.:rant::headbang:

Brian
 
Northroader

Northroader

Western Thunderer
Why not pop along to your nearest preserved railway, you can usually scrounge some fragments lying around in sidings.
 
Rob R

Rob R

Western Thunderer
On holiday in Northumberland last year there was plenty of it washed up on the beach at Alnmouth (and I dare say a few others as well).
Nice rounded pebbles, anything from 1/2 inch up to 4 inch.
Go on, take the dog for a walk.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Rob R said:
On holiday in Northumberland last year there was plenty of it washed up on the beach at Alnmouth (and I dare say a few others as well).
Nice rounded pebbles, anything from 1/2 inch up to 4 inch.
Go on, take the dog for a walk.
Click to expand...
Challenging on a motorbike…
 
Rob R

Rob R

Western Thunderer
Nick, If you can't find any locally pm your address and I'll post you a pebble or 2.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
oldravendale said:
Hmm! I can help with that, Nick. PM me your details and I'll send a few lumps from our remaining stock of (smokeless) fuel here.

While I'm at it does anyone else here get in a lather about the lack of "home grown" coal in the UK? We're now importing coal from Poland. The cost of a ton of coal for a heritage application has increased from £260 to £460 in a year (apart from the cost of utilities which has quadrupled, but that's outside our remit here). We had a number of small coal mines, one of which could surely have been kept open for specialist applications. Instead we're importing coal from half way round the world and actually adding to the global warming equation.

Recently there was an application to open a new mine - successful I believe, but that has gone very quiet. Interestingly it wasn't the locals who objected, it was the environmentalists. Can they not see beyond the ends of their noses?

Please forgive the off-piste rant.:rant::headbang:

Brian
Click to expand...
Hi Brian,

Yes, as someone involved with a heritage railway, I think the desire for net zero seems to have halted common sense in its tracks. There is still a steam coal opencast operation in South Wales, the vast bulk of who‘s produce feeds the furnaces at Port Talbot. Chances are it will have to close in a year or two’s time, through lack of planning permission (certainly not lack of coal) and so the steel furnaces will have to be fed from coal shipped in from Colombia (one of the few countries that produces coal of the right quality). In terms of global warming, definitely a worse outcome, but in terms of the UK measuring its own emissions, apparently better…

I‘ll get off my high horse now…

Nigel
 
mickoo

mickoo

Western Thunderer
oldravendale said:
Hmm! I can help with that, Nick. PM me your details and I'll send a few lumps from our remaining stock of (smokeless) fuel here.

While I'm at it does anyone else here get in a lather about the lack of "home grown" coal in the UK? We're now importing coal from Poland. The cost of a ton of coal for a heritage application has increased from £260 to £460 in a year (apart from the cost of utilities which has quadrupled, but that's outside our remit here). We had a number of small coal mines, one of which could surely have been kept open for specialist applications. Instead we're importing coal from half way round the world and actually adding to the global warming equation.

Recently there was an application to open a new mine - successful I believe, but that has gone very quiet. Interestingly it wasn't the locals who objected, it was the environmentalists. Can they not see beyond the ends of their noses?

Please forgive the off-piste rant.:rant::headbang:

Brian
Click to expand...
Don't think smokeless is the same? Smokeless is usually crushed to a fine powder and compressed back in to cobs, when you try to break them up they just turn to powder, not jagged lumps or slabs like real coal does.
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
mickoo said:
Don't think smokeless is the same? Smokeless is usually crushed to a fine powder and compressed back in to cobs, when you try to break them up they just turn to powder, not jagged lumps or slabs like real coal does.
Click to expand...
Oh bu££er! Just checked and you are correct. Sorry Nick.

We're usually using logs and haven't used any solid fuel this winter so I'd forgotten. Silly old buffer.

However some sea coal sounds romantic.;) I'm old enough to remember the staithes on the coast in the North East and also the pit waste being dropped on to some wonderful beaches - well, in to the sea but not far from the beaches. Nature has done a wonderful job in cleaning them up.

B
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
Hi Brian,

Yes, as someone involved with a heritage railway, I think the desire for net zero seems to have halted common sense in its tracks. There is still a steam coal opencast operation in South Wales, the vast bulk of who‘s produce feeds the furnaces at Port Talbot. Chances are it will have to close in a year or two’s time, through lack of planning permission (certainly not lack of coal) and so the steel furnaces will have to be fed from coal shipped in from Colombia (one of the few countries that produces coal of the right quality). In terms of global warming, definitely a worse outcome, but in terms of the UK measuring its own emissions, apparently better…

I‘ll get off my high horse now…

Nigel
Click to expand...
Maybe, Nigel, it's time we asked the question of our MPs. It's the 50th Anniversary of the first trains on the GCR this year and I've been invited to attend the reception for the great and good as the only surviving member of the first Board. Not only that but I have to address the assembled throng which will include the MP. That's an opportunity to not be wasted!

I remain of the understanding that there's actually a new pit being opened despite objections from the environmental lobby, and I also believe it's for feeding the steelworks. There may be an undercurrent of common sense out there somewhere.

Saying which perhaps not. I drove past Drax power station the other day, in full production using wood pellets imported from Canada! Apparently it's carbon neutral.......

As a 90 year old friend said to me on Sunday - if we can work it out why can't the politicians?

Maybe I should stand.:))

Brian
 
robertm

robertm

Western Thunderer
Nick Dunhill said:
Hi all
I have run out of coal for grinding up and sticking in coal spaces, who would have thought that living in a former centre of the coal mining industry (thanks Thatcher!) Maybe we have some in a museum in Barnsley or Rotherham somewhere.

Anyway does anyone have a couple of lumps of finest anthracite they would be prepared to post to me (all expenses paid of course.)

Cheers
Nick
Click to expand...
Perhaps you should thank Mr A Scargill?
 
Mike W

Mike W

Western Thunderer
There are still local coal merchants and they do still deliver to houses - mine included. Might be worth popping in and asking them for a lump.

Mike
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
robertm said:
Perhaps you should thank Mr A Scargill?
Click to expand...
Nick Dunhill said:
I think history hasn't been too kind to Scargill either. The second historical character in this thread who thought his/her ideology to be more important than people's wellbeing.
Click to expand...
Mike W said:
There are still local coal merchants and they do still deliver to houses - mine included. Might be worth popping in and asking them for a lump.

Mike
Click to expand...
We need to be careful here, chaps and chapesses that we don't start getting too political. Just say that I was absolutely anti Scargill until Mrs T shafted the Notts miners who carried on working. As for the local coal merchants - live close to a canal and then your coal can be delivered by narrow boat.

All very simplistic and only my interpretation (having lived through it) but we should probably avoid going any deeper.

Happy to debate via PMs

Brian
 
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