I was wondering if that was the goal. So, to rephrase: It's worth the trouble to deal with a muddy mess of fines at the bottom in fire potential reduction. Good choice to me!
SRK
John Bush Wrote:
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> Washing the coal pile was instituted this summer.
> The goal is to reduce the amount of coal that has
> been ground down to a very small size (fines)
> before it gets to the fire box.
> When the locomotive is working hard the fines tend
> to get carried up the stack still burning. That
> increases the chance of line side fire. This
> summer despite the drought we had substantially
> fewer than usual fire issues.
>
> John Bush