(Starting a new thread because it's off-topic for the one where the subject arose).
Apparently some of the American railroads used anthracite in locomotives, and at least one made much of it in their publicity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Snow_(character).
There's an article on the subject (published in 1940) here; if you don't have institutional access to JSTOR, you have to register in order to read it, but it's free. (Currently the later pages are refusing to load for me, but hopefully this is only temporary).
It seems that the slow combustion rate requires a large firebox, which was one reason for the development of camelback locomotives. I'd guess that the large size of American locomotives made large fireboxes more feasible than here.
Does anyone know if anything similar was done elsewhere in the world? Wikipedia indicates that Russia and the Ukraine have significant stocks of anthracite (as does China, although my impression is that their domestic steam locomotive industry built a few designs in large numbers rather than experimenting with anything out of the ordinary).
Anthracite (and trust me , I know a bit about it with a father who did 44 years down an anthracite mine , (and ended up as Duty Manager) , is not loco fuel - slow burning and pure carbon almost. Great for brewing and slow combustion.
Apparently some of the American railroads used anthracite in locomotives, and at least one made much of it in their publicity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Snow_(character).
There's an article on the subject (published in 1940) here; if you don't have institutional access to JSTOR, you have to register in order to read it, but it's free. (Currently the later pages are refusing to load for me, but hopefully this is only temporary).
It seems that the slow combustion rate requires a large firebox, which was one reason for the development of camelback locomotives. I'd guess that the large size of American locomotives made large fireboxes more feasible than here.
Does anyone know if anything similar was done elsewhere in the world? Wikipedia indicates that Russia and the Ukraine have significant stocks of anthracite (as does China, although my impression is that their domestic steam locomotive industry built a few designs in large numbers rather than experimenting with anything out of the ordinary).