I read (doesn't mean its true) that anthracite coal was often very difficult to light. Is this true and if true, what did the RR do to get a fresh fire lit in the firebox?
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yes, anthracite is very difficult to light, but nothing burns cleaner. i use a 70/30 mix of anthracite and bituminous coal, but before any is shoveled into the firebox, i get a good bed of coals going with wood soaked in fuel oil. once the fire is hot enough, it can be sustained with coal from that point on. this is for 1:8 scale, but i'm guessing any boiler would require a similar routine to get a fire going.
cheers...gary
The "Anthracite Roads" did NOT burn 100% anthracite coal, since it burned so very slowly, thus the reasons for such huge fireboxes. Generally a mix of 60% to 70% bituminous, with the remainder being anthracite and/or anthracite fines, was used by such roads as the CNJ, Reading, DL&W, O&W, etc.
It's really not to hard to light if you have time. We start with a few shovel full of Anthracite coal on each corner then added wood and oil, light let simmer for a while then started to add a few shovel full of Anthracite as needed. We ran our small tank engine 0-4-0 at about 90+ lbs. of pressure. It took about a good hour and a half to get up to operating level. After that on our runs we used about 2-3 shovels of coal depending on the weather, humidity etc. Here are some pics from the Pioneer Tunnel in Ashland, Pa.
inside firebox
Replacing tubes
72 old tubes and scaling,
Happy HENRY CLAY and MOM
Back in the days of steam, the shop 'fire tenders' would shovel in some coal and oil soaked shop rags and throw in a couple of fuzees.
I'm surprised that with 60-70% bituminous, there wasn't a lot of smoke to bother Phoebe.
"My dress stays clean and white on the road of anthracite." Phoebe Snow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...Snow_%28character%29
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anthracite coal has a carbon content from about 92 - 97%. the stuff i'm burning right now is very high grade and must be in the high 90% range, but i've also gotten coal advertised as anthracite that was probably in the low 90's. the same goes for bituminous. it's carbon content should be at least 70%, but the bituminous i'm getting from Kentucky burns very cleanly without producing many clinkers. once in a while i mix in some Utah bituminous and i can definitely tell the difference in the lower quality when i clean out the firebox.
to sum it up, coal will fall into only a few major categories, but its chemical composition from mine to mine or probably even vein to vain will definitely vary somewhat.
