Urgent - future of coal in UK
 

From the Heritage Railway Association:

https://www.facebook.com/HRAUK/posts...060?__tn__=K-R

It is regarding a proposal for a new coal mine, which would become the biggest in the UK, with the Government set to make a decision on whether to give this the go ahead on 7th April (next Tuesday!)
The HRA wants people to write to the Secratary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to support the application, arguing that without this new mine, the Heritage Railway Sector will have to rely on imported coal.
The argument is that the Heritage Railway Sector massively contributes to the economy as a major player in the UK's tourist industry. Also, the environmental concerns should be seen as minimal as the environmental cost of importing coal would be higher than setting up the new mine in the UK. Also, the steam locomotives in use in Britain currently use around 26,000 tonnes of coal annually, from a total consumption in the UK of 12,000,000 tonnes - this equates to just over 0.2% of the country's coal consumption coming from heritage railways.*
* figures are from an article in the Times from 2017

Tony

Is that stating that steam trains only consume 0.2 % of british coal?

0.2% of coal consumption in Britain - I think the total coal consumption in Britain includes coal mined in the UK and also imported from elsewhere.
The figures were from a 2017 report in The Times newspaper. I assume that the majority is/was used for power stations, then possibly other industries, household fires, steam locomotives and other steam transport.

Tony

Well if such a tiny amount is used by steam locos is there a need for more mining?

G'day,
You lot are facing the same dilemma as us, courtesy of covid 19.
Global warming, OR, jobs and economic recovery.
Mining and construction currently the only facets making moolah here.
Coal mining here has been a very derisive debate, much in the same was as old forest timber cutting a few decades ago.
Tourism might begin to rebound, but definitely won't be the big economy it was prior to covid.
Regarding yer soot belchers consuming coal, you could convert em all to electric convection boilers.
Like the swish Swiss shunting types.
Pantographs on puffer billies.
Steve.

Let's hope an intelligent solution is found as I am an avid steam fan whenever in the UK.

Coal consumption in 2019 was roughly 7.9 million tons of which 81 percent was imported, mainly from the US, Australia, Colombia and Russia.
The largest user was the steel industry at 3 million tons followed by the generating industry at 2.9 tons. The other 2 million tons was consumed by other industries such as cement and brick manufacturers. Heritage railways consumed about 26,000 tons.
Even if the generation section stops using it permanently there will still be a demand of around 4 to 5 million tons annually. I would assume that the heritage sector will still be able to get hold of supplies for quite a few years yet. The only downside is the price per ton currently it's around the £250 per ton mark.

Cheers John

Could there be an alternative to coal for steam engines?

The reason for using coal in the UK was because there were such plentiful supplies here.
Oil-firing was common in some parts of the world where oil was more readily available and is said to be at least as efficient as coal.
Early US practice was to burn wood as that was the most readily available, but also later used coal and oil in some parts of the country.
I'm no expert, but from what I have read, it seems that coal & wood produce roughly the same amount of heat per pound, but heavy coal (anthracite) is up to twice as heavy as hard wood and therefore burns for longer (up to twice as long) making it up to twice as efficient. (Someone correct me if I've got this wrong!)
Oil-firing could possibly work in theory, but requires conversion of the locomotive and their refuelling points and requires a plentiful supply of oil. There have been instances where British based steam locomotive have been converted to oil-firing at times of national coal shortages. I believe the Festiniog Railway run most, if not all, of their fleet on oil.
I have also read that a company is experimenting with recycled fuel pellets.
I don't know if any of these would ever be a viable alternative here in the UK, once cost and the availability of the alternative fuels, and the cost of any necessary conversions and the installation of new refuelling points, are taken into consideration.

Tony

But also seeing as steam locos only consume 0.2% of mined coal then there should be no problem with supply.

I think the concern is that the current pits/surface mines have a limited operational life and with environmental concerns urging the government to eliminate coal use, then even if the heritage railways can secure an exemption from the environmental regulations, a continued supply would be needed - the new proposed mine would continue to operate after some of the others have ceased production. Without it, the heritage railways would become ever more reliant on imported coal.
There's a lot of ifs and buts though!

Tony

A lot of coal used on heritage railways is already imported Tony. I've thrown coal from Poland, and Russia over the past few years in the firebox of 337. It all depends on the coal merchants stock and price at the time of ordering on what coal ends up in the yards coal bunker.

Cheers John

The Don River Railway (Tassiemania) used wood in their soot belcher some moons ago due to the limited coal supply. But, they were only puffing a short distance at relatively slow speed. You would need a lot of wood and a good spark arrester to puff any distance at speed. Mind you, yer Pommy soot belchers might look good with Yankee diamond stacks. Our Aussie oil supply is reliant on mostly imports, whereas we got swags of black diamonds lurking underground. Hence, the Baldwin built NSWR 59 class Mikes, which lobbed down-under as oil burners were quickly converted to coal burners. There was also community angst at the gunge that erupted from them 59ers when still burning oil. To keep the flues clean etc, a handful of sand hurled into the oil burner fire box at intervals. This causing a sudden belch of gunge, which landed on backyard clothes lines. An hysterical mob two footer soot belcher was converted from burning bagasse (sugar cane pulp, the usual fuel for cane tramways) to oil burning. This did permit DOO (driver only operation) as the driver was able to control the oil burner firebox as well as manipulate the regulator. Yes, there are numerous blends of coal, depending upon the intended use. Our best steaming coal originates in the Hunter Valley region of NSW, Newcastle coal as it was dubbed. The worst coal being that dug up south of the border in our Mexico. BROWN coal, not only looking ghastly exhaust wise but also less thermal efficient. Ah well, if you lot don't want to bung pantographs ontop of yer soot belchers, you could bung solar panels on the carriages. We have the worlds first solar powered train percolating here in NSW, a two car dmu. Anyhoo, if you lot continue to import coal, don't do like the Nippons some moons ago and hide it under the salt water waves. Salt water don't do much good for coal, as they discovered. ALL fossil fuel will be on the "outer" if global warming continues to increase and cause global concern.
Steve.