Could the closure of Kellingley Colliery affect supply of coal for steam railways?

[PaxmanValenta]

A lot of heritage railways across the UK depend on a good affordable supply of coal for their locomotives, as well as mainline steam charters such as the Tornado.
Now the UKs last big coal mine at Kellingley has been sadly shut down, that means there will be less coal available and the dependancy on foreign imports could prove more expensive for our heritage railways. Many years down the line could this mean that coal becomes unaffordable and heritage lines will struggle to run steam trains?

 

[NSEFAN]

My understanding was that foreign coal is cheaper but is lower quality, I.e contains more sulphur. I would imagine a bigger factor on price will be as more industrial applications stop using coal, there would be no reason to keep importing it en masse and so the price would go up. It is expected that all our coal fired power stations will be closed within a decade!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Does anyone seriously expect that those charged with the final closure of the coal mines of Britain would have even given a moment's though to the implications of their policy upon any heritage railway operations?

 

[anme]

Does anyone seriously expect that those charged with the final closure of the coal mines of Britain would have even given a moment's though to the implications of their policy upon any heritage railway operations?

I certainly don't expect that, and as far as I can see no poster in this thread has suggested that anyone did, or should have done.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Steam traction ideally needs Welsh steam coal - cobble size or larger - the Ffos-y -Fran opencast site near Cwmbargoed sources some ... (as well as some Ayrshire opencast sites) - Polish coal was imported - but rather dirty stuff emission wise.

Kellingley sourced small size power station coal.

 

[PaxmanValenta]

Steam traction ideally needs Welsh steam coal - cobble size or larger - the Ffos-y -Fran opencast site near Cwmbargoed sources some ... (as well as some Ayrshire opencast sites) - Polish coal was imported - but rather dirty stuff emission wise.

Kellingley sourced small size power station coal.

So Kellingley coal was not generally used for steam traction? So hopefully closure of the pit should not have any adverse affect on the future running costs of heritage railways.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

So Kellingley coal was not generally used for steam traction? So hopefully closure of the pit should not have any adverse affect on the future running costs of heritage railways.

Mechanically mined coal is not generally suitable for firing steam engines - too small (unless pressed into briquettes) - previous points apply. There are other sources as I said - a very small market in any case for a mine which used to produce (probably) many thousands of tons a year.

 

[Bevan Price]

So Kellingley coal was not generally used for steam traction? So hopefully closure of the pit should not have any adverse affect on the future running costs of heritage railways.

No - but the end of coal-fired power stations may have a knock-on effect. Producing / importing coal supplies solely for use by heritage railways might become uneconomical.

 

[Searchlight]

No - but the end of coal-fired power stations may have a knock-on effect. Producing / importing coal supplies solely for use by heritage railways might become uneconomical.

NO, Kellingley Colliery supplied low grade Power Station coal. Not loco coal. If loco coal gets too expensive conversion to oil is possible. Half of Russia s former steam locos ran on oil.

 

[krus_aragon]

NO, Kellingley Colliery supplied low grade Power Station coal. Not loco coal. If loco coal gets too expensive conversion to oil is possible. Half of Russia s former steam locos ran on oil.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway has converted its steam engines to oil (and back to coal) at least once.

 

[Bevan Price]

NO, Kellingley Colliery supplied low grade Power Station coal. Not loco coal. If loco coal gets too expensive conversion to oil is possible. Half of Russia s former steam locos ran on oil.

Yes, some steam locos could be converted to oil burning. But, the conversion would not be cheap, and many heritage lines would probably be unable to afford to convert enough locos to maintain existing service levels. As BR found out in the late 1940s, locos designed to burn coal did not always perform efficiently when converted to oil, and the conversion of some GW "Hall" class was short-lived.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The Snowdon Mountain Railway has converted its steam engines to oil (and back to coal) at least once.

As has the Ffestiniog, I believe. The amount of oil used by a full-size loco might be an issue, but not insurmountable.

 

[alexl92]

I'm sure that this has been put forward before but could Heritage Railways in the UK create some kind of company or system where coal for all heritage railways is purchased en masse by this single organisation from a UK mine, and this single company then organises the selling of the coal on to the Heritage Railways?

If all of them used one single supplier buying from one mine it may provide sufficient demand to have this one mine producing quality coal at a reasonable cost, surely?

Am I making sense?

 

[Phil.]

Last time I was there and asked, the RH&D obtained their coal from Poland - apparently it was cheaper than buying British.

 

[paul1609]

I'm sure that this has been put forward before but could Heritage Railways in the UK create some kind of company or system where coal for all heritage railways is purchased en masse by this single organisation from a UK mine, and this single company then organises the selling of the coal on to the Heritage Railways?

If all of them used one single supplier buying from one mine it may provide sufficient demand to have this one mine producing quality coal at a reasonable cost, surely?

Am I making sense?

I'm a director of the K&ESR I don't believe there would be any advantage to this.We spend around £170000 a year on coal and we have to get the best deal available. We envariably receive our coal as a truck load. In 2015 most of our coal came from Russia with a relatively shorthaul from the port. The balance came from opencast mines in Scotland.