[modeleng] Re: Clinker
- From: "Dave Beaman" <davebeaman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 23:22:53 -0000
Hi All,
I think Peter, Alan and Clif have covered ost of the advice I would give. I
have just got home after being a relief driver for my mate on his 7 1/4 loco
at our clubs bonfire party. The coal we started off with looked ok, had the
same sort of properties as Welsh steam coal, did it burn?.... Did it heck as
like. We tried all the tricks in the book to get the stuff to go properly
without success. We changed the coal but by this time, we already had
clinker and 400 passengers to carry. (along with other engines). The next 2
hours the loco steamed a dream, bright fire, plenty of water and the rockets
from the chimney were better than the firework display! The clinker at the
end of the evenings running, 5hrs worth, was horrendous. I have never seen
clinker like it in our small locos. The second lot of coal we were using was
an anthracite. That combined with the first load of rubbish caused all the
grief. You have to be very careful when mixing coals, different combustion
temperatures and characteristics can make things worse.
If I had to pick a coal for general running, it would be Daw Mill hard
coal. I have fired with this on the SVR many times and the clinker is
minimal and have even had clean grates at the end of the day. I have my own
private stock of it following a visit to the colliery but it needs breaking
by hand... The lumps are 12" squareish, or should that be lumpish. The
drawback with hard coal is the smoke, black face if you don't have a
deflector pipe but it smells great.
Thats my thoughts, change the coal.. Just before I finish, during the miners
strike, we had some coal from Shotton open cast pit for the SVR. This coal
lit up easily and made steam before running, it looked like Daw Mill hard
and smoked the same. My best mate was the driver on ex-GWR 4930, Hagley
Hall, he stuck for steam 3 times before the first station. An experienced
fireman was his mate and they managed to get back to Bridgnorth only
sticking another 5 times following a full return trip of 13 miles. Upon
arrival at Bridgnorth, 3 pairs of men, I was one of them, cleaned the fire.
The clinker was 12" thick in places and all had to be paddled out. It took
us an hour, working in shifts and wrecking 3 paddle shovels, to sort the
fire. Also the tender was shovelled empty of the Shotton S**t and recoaled
using coal from the back of the pile. No probs the rest of the day and we
found the only fire that could burn the coal without problems was the fire
in the station bar, the Railwaymans Arms. It goes to show that you can't
tell the standard of coal you need by looking at it.
Sorry for waffling on,
Dave.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Rickard" <the_viffer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 7:20 PM
Subject: [modeleng] Clinker
Thanks to all for responding to my smokebox innards question. You may
suppose that I will have a request for further and better particulars soon
but now for another wally question.
I've been pondering, I really should get out more, on clinker. I run my
locos. They steam well to start with. I poke the fire about a bit. I throw
out the really manky bits of coal before firing them. The pressure is more
and more reluctant to come up. I drop the fire and find loads of clinker.
Two questions. First when I look at the the fire or rake it how do I spot
the clinker? Second question what do I do save for pull it out, if I can
recognise it amongst the other white hot bits when I find some?
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