Full Steam Ahead: How the Railways Made Britain
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Оглавление
Peter Ginn. Full Steam Ahead: How the Railways Made Britain
Copyright
CONTENTS
INDEX
PICTURE CREDITS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
About the Authors
About the Publisher
Отрывок из книги
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the men, women and children who have given life, limb or time to the creation and preservation of Britain’s railways.
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Steam engines require the very best stuff – the clean-burning coals that will not coat the firebox and boiler tubes with tar. They also need coal that is highly calorific, giving the engines the energy they need to work, and they need it to have a very low water content. From the very beginning of the era of steam railways, south Wales had a reputation for producing top quality ‘steam coal’ – particularly the area around Merthyr Tydfil. Domestic fires do not have quite the same need for high-end anthracite type coals; they might burn better using good coal, but they can work on much cheaper, dirtier, wetter and less calorific types. The cheapest varieties of coal are the brown coals that are halfway between peat and anthracite, but even the best ‘house coals’ are cheaper and of lower quality than ‘steam coal’.
Consequently, throughout the days of steam travel, there was a thriving cross-country trade in different types of coal. It was perfectly common for a colliery that produced mainly domestic coal to have to bring in steam coal in order to fire its pumping engines and locomotives.
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