Enjoy this. Don
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What gives with the “ fireworks “ of unburned coal from about 23:46 to 24:40. It looks like an awfully inefficient use of coal for their fuel. Is this by design, is something not set up right in the engine, or are they just putting on a show for the camera ?
@hclark6345 posted:What gives with the “ fireworks “ of unburned coal from about 23:46 to 24:40. It looks like an awfully inefficient use of coal for their fuel. Is this by design, is something not set up right in the engine, or are they just putting on a show for the camera ?
I'd hazard to guess the netting (which is supposed to catch stuff like this) has been removed from the smokebox because of clogging, which would degrade the locomotive's ability to draft properly. I don't think they're burning a high grade coal, either.
Rusty
Since that video is from March of 2014, I wonder if that operation is still using steam locomotives.
@hclark6345 posted:What gives with the “ fireworks “ of unburned coal from about 23:46 to 24:40.
Typical of the crap coal they use there.
It looks like an awfully inefficient use of coal for their fuel.
Steam locomotives are not all that "efficient" anyway, and when crap coal is used, that can happen.
Is this by design, is something not set up right in the engine, or are they just putting on a show for the camera ?
That, and other open pit coal mining operations in China, have exhibited the same "show" from their steam locomotives at night for some years. They are NOT "putting on a show for the camera".
The coal may be of a very poor grade, but it works, and it is free. This is REAL RRing in China on an industrial scale, not with what we people might be used to or expect in the USA.
@Jeff B. Haertlein posted:The coal may be of a very poor grade, but it works, and it is free. This is REAL RRing in China on an industrial scale, not with what we people might be used to or expect in the USA.
12 hour shifts in a filthy environment. I'll bet working at Sandoling isn't much fun.
Rusty
Seeing rows of large working steam engines is amazing. Don
And NO EPA rules to worry about!
From what I've read lots of scrap coal is use, material of inferior quality with a high concentration of coal dust. The particulate mater in the dusty coal is picked up in the blowers as the locomotives labor up the hill and partially burned cinders are exhausted through the stack. Makes the night shots look like a fireworks display. I don't know that my sources are particularly knowledgeable but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.
What gauge is that?
@Byrdie posted:From what I've read lots of scrap coal is use, material of inferior quality with a high concentration of coal dust. The particulate mater in the dusty coal is picked up in the blowers
What "blowers"?
as the locomotives labor up the hill and partially burned cinders are exhausted through the stack. Makes the night shots look like a fireworks display. I don't know that my sources are particularly knowledgeable but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me.
Quite logical.
@Rockershovel posted:What gauge is that?
Standard gauge, i.e. 4 feet 8 1/2 inches.
@Hot Water posted:
Perhaps I meant to say "draft."
Did you notice the coal stoker was a shovel?
Charlie
@Choo Choo Charlie posted:Did you notice the coal stoker was a shovel?
Charlie
No big deal. Many locomotives were hand-bombers, especially in switching and industrial environments.
Rusty
"Beautiful Color Film" , yes just what one would expect from a "gomerment" film, definitely not shot with a cell phone and smuggled out.
But not human stokers in 2014 in a heavy industrial mining operation? But labor there is cheap so they have human stokers and old, high maintenance coal powered steam locomotives.
Interesting movie in any case. Thanks for posting "scale rail"
Charlie
