Guys, I've stumbled upon the motherload! If all of the following projects see the light of day, Britain is going to see at least 13 new steam engines entering service this century! Here's a list of the project sites (some of which have already been posted):
Kyle1987 wrote:Guys, I've stumbled upon the motherload! If all of the following projects see the light of day, Britain is going to see at least 13 new steam engines entering service this century! Here's a list of the project sites (some of which have already been posted):
Who'll be the first to propose a replica coal mine? 'corse it would all have to be authentic hand hewed -- none of that fancy machinery..............
No,Richard the NCM don't hew coal.More's the pity,because there are millions of tons of coal still underground.As we know,the reason it's still there is political,not geological.
Ferrybridge: Geology has a part to play, but the bit you are missing is economics. What happened to British coal in the past century is pretty much entirely due to economics. Yes politics has a part: Thatcher making an example of the NUM; and power stations that needed a reliable source of coal that didn't go on strike whenever Scargill had a fit (that is the main reason they started importing - the price was very similar, but imports were more reliable); but the writing was seriously on the wall long before 1979.
Coal production in the UK has been in decline since about 1913 - that was mainly economic. Cheaper energy (oil) available from elsewhere.
Despite the political elements (the 1980s) and environmental elements (1950s Clean Air Acts), British coal production makes a classic case study in supply & demand of energy resources. Something that was repeated in US & UK oil production, and is currently being repeated in global oil product today.
Aren't some steam engines oil powered anyway? Or is that just to ignite the fire in the fire box?
I reckon with modern technology you could always try and burn coal much more efficiently without a drastic impact on performance. Of course if we're going to start opening up pits again, they need to be economically viable.
There seems to be a lot of opencast mines opening up.Someone is hoping to open one up near Fairburn Ings.They seem to be still popular-i suppose it's a lot cheaper using that method.As long as there's enough to power our engines!!
richard wrote:
Coal production in the UK has been in decline since about 1913 - that was mainly economic. Cheaper energy (oil) available from elsewhere.
Despite the political elements (the 1980s) and environmental elements (1950s Clean Air Acts), British coal production makes a classic case study in supply & demand of energy resources. Something that was repeated in US & UK oil production, and is currently being repeated in global oil product today.
So, given the right circumstances then, Richard, and with clean coal technology, do you reckon there is a good future for coal mining in this country?
In another life, I work at a place powered by a Lancashire boiler and we burn Daw Mill coal, which is pretty good - foreign coal here in the UK has always had a bit of a dubious reputation, especially for locomotives.
Ferrybridge: Opencast is always a lot cheaper than deep mining.
hq1hitchin: I'm going to have to answer mainly from the perspective of the US debate. The problem with "clean coal" is that it means different things to different people. If you get a coal industry person to say what it actually is, then it is definitely not clean and they can only give long term airy promises of it getting cleaner.
Also, the cleaner you make it, the more expensive it comes.
Speaking more widely and putting my geologist's hat on: Development of more carbon-based power generation will be a disaster. The chattering classes and politicians tend to lag the scientific community by about 5 years regarding climate change. The optimists are currently saying globally we have to reduce CO2 output by 80% by 2020 if we are to avoid some "catastrophic" changes (major cities abandoned, south of France becoming desert, etc). Those are the optimists, yet no politician is anywhere near that. There are difficult decisions to be made and politicians usually avoid those until it is too late.
