Re: Coal Question

Nearly all of the coal burned in Durango came from local mines. Presently the coal for both the C&T and D&S come from King Coal, in Hesperus.
Before the 1960s a lot of coal burned on the narrow gauge came from Monero coal.It was considered good coal, but was slghtly red in color. Old Timers who worked out of Alamosa complained about Walsenburg coal, as it was low btu. There are three grades of coal burned in locomotives: lignite (the lowest btu), bituminous("soft" coal), and anthracite. Engines that burned lignite worked best in Belpaire fireboxes. Burlington was a big consumer of lignite, and a lot of their older power had these fireboxes. Bituminous varies widely in quality. It depends on how much of it is coal, the size of the lumps and whether it was high or low sulfur content. The narrow gauges all burned bituminous Anthracite (hard coal) burns slowly but generates the most heat. It was favored in mills, and had some railroad application back East, where there is a lot of it. Engines that burned anthracite required Wooton fireboxes ,which had lots of grate space.