The LNER Encyclopedia

I had not realised that matters were so serious.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22681141

Thank Thatcher for that. Thats why there is at least 100 years worth of coal buried under the UK in flooded, concrete capped mines and we import the bulk of our coal from Poland and China.

Oh well, we could always go over to oil burning!

Solario wrote:I had not realised that matters were so serious.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22681141

This non story has been discussed on other groups as well as in the following links:

http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/news ... ay/?ref=nt

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rains.html

It's not a serious situation, it's a non story.

A spokesman for the Keighley & Worth Valley (in an article sensationally entitled "Coal crisis threatens Keighley's world-famous steam railway") is quoted as saying:

“Our supplier in Scotland hasn’t been affected so we’re currently OK, but some railways are in a critical position and facing the prospect of having to close". So they're under no immediate threat themselves.

A spokesman for the Severn Valley is quoted elsewhere as saying:

“When Scottish coal sent under we were scratching around for anything which was suitable for steam trains. We were trying to find anything which was black and burnable. There was some Russian coal and we had first dibs on that. We believe we have found a long term supplier, but if we hadn’t we would have had to shut down over the summer”, so they've got things under control

and all you seem to be left with is the North Yorkshire Moors saying:

“We are having problems with supplies which is having an impact on price” (so they're obviously planning to jack up their fares and need an excuse)

and Vintage Trains claiming:

“Now there is no supply. We were using coal coming out of a pit in South Wales, but that is no longer available. Everyone was trying to get that coal. Everybody is experiencing difficulty in sourcing coal from the UK."

"Sourcing coal from the UK" are the important words here. There's plenty of coal available from Poland, Russia and the USA and claims that it's unsuitable for steam locos are simply nonsense. A number of UK heritage lines have been using coal from these sources for years.

The "problem" which seems to be showing up here pretty clearly is that prudent soundly run railways have entered into long term supply contracts and have continuity of supply as a result, whilst others thought they'd be clever and have been playing the spot market. Now that's gone sour they want to blame everyone except themselves.

One of the main issues is the rising cost of the coal and the variable quality.

I've noticed that, probably since the demise of the NCB, steam locos on preserved railways emit a large amount of uniformly sized fine unburnt coal when running. You will notice this if you lean out of a moving train - you're bombarded with it. This didn't happen in the days of BR. I had put this down to not using steam coal but soft stuff. I'm therefore puzzled that the railways seem to be saying there's not a problem. A lot of coal must go through the tubes and up the chimney without providing any heat.