"Garage Mined" Coal Find

hank2 · Post by **hank2** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 1:32 am

Hello all,

I recently picked up about 3.5, 55 gal. drums of old mined coal. An acquaintance of mine has been cleaning out the home of his step-father who passed away about a year ago. I got it for a reasonable price. The guy had a large garage/workshop that held 4 old cars. He heated that space with what looked like an old Heatrola or something similar. He was an old railroad man many years ago and supposedly acquired the coal on a regular basis from trackside spills. Some of them maybe not so accidental. It came at a good time for me, as I was nearly out of the 3.5 tons of bagged Gale I bought last Fall.

I've been burning it from two of the drums, some of it mixed with my last bags of very red ash Gale and some by itself. The drum stuff seems very dense. It's mostly stove sized. A hod or 5 gal. bucket is noticeably heavier than the Gale or any other coal I have burned for many years. Has very low volatiles, slow to catch. Burns a long time, needs a lot more air to put out same heat as the Gale, etc. Ash is very white. I would say a bit more ash and fly ash than the red ash coal I have been getting the last several years. I would guess that I use about 20-30 % less in a 12 hour burn in my DS 1400. There's some left in hopper after 12 hours instead of a nearly empty hopper. ( after shake down). One of the drums is full of a full of very dusty coal and looks a lot less shiny than the rest, even if you wash it off. If you really whack a piece of that stuff and split it, it has distinct hues on the faces. Some blue, some yellow and some both. I have heard of peacock coal and was wondering if that's what this iridescent stuff may be. Is this low volatile, dense coal likely to be old deep-mined stuff from back when a lot of it was deep-mined, or maybe just from locations known for this kind of coal. Like Hazelton?

Hopefully I will finally get an outside coal bin built this year and mix what's left of this with nut sized that I usually burn and maybe add a little more volatiles to it. I like it. Needed to brag a bit about it.

Thanks, hank2

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 7:22 am

Any coal that burns & you get at the right price or even better free is great coal, like you said if you have some left just mix it in with known quality coal.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 7:22 am

Nice deal h2

Post by **coaledsweat** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 7:23 am

Not going up any stairs to retrieve it is a bonus.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 8:59 am

Great score!!! Any free coal is the best price coal. I hit some basement mines every once in a while. Unknown pedigree coal makes life interesting. I have never been unable to burn basement coal. It just took some ingenuity sometimes. I got a load of 10 buckets of coal that was just like glass. It was layered and would actually shatter if you dropped it. It had sharp edges like holding onto a lump of glass. Wouldn't burn worth anything without a TON of air going through it.

Anyway great find and happy burning.

Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

hank2 · Post by **hank2** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 12:13 pm

coaledsweat wrote:Not going up any stairs to retrieve it is a bonus.

That is the absolute truth!
About 25 - 30 years go, my first wife (ex), volunteered my services to an elderly couple. They lived about 10 miles from us and were replacing their coal stoker boiler with an oil fired model. They had about 3 tons of rice left in their basement bin and wanted it out, now. I also had a rice fired boiler. When I saw what was involved to get it out of that basement, I nearly declined the offer. I had to bag it up in about 60 lb. bags, carry it across a long big ranch house basement, up outside stairs to their yard and around to the side of their house. That was as close as I could get the little Ranger pickup I had. That was my hobby for quite a while and a sore back. I was lead to believe it was free, but turned out they expected some payment for it. I don't think they were satisfied with what I gave them for it. Delivered coal was about $75 a ton at the time. On the plus side, it was great coal.
hank2

Hambden Bob · Post by **Hambden Bob** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 7:50 pm

Nice Strike ! I'm enjoying the story that went with it.....Hank,Thank God she's the "Ex"

2001Sierra · Post by **2001Sierra** » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 8:50 pm

blrman07 wrote:Great score!!! Any free coal is the best price coal. I hit some basement mines every once in a while. Unknown pedigree coal makes life interesting. Anyway great find and happy burning.
Rev. Larry
New Beginning Church
Ashland Pa.

I used to get some in the early 80's when I started burning. At the time thought coal was coal and did not give much thought to the differences. No internet or forum at the time

With limited income it was all good, income hasn't got that much better but my knowledge of coal has gotten better for sure. Now I just need to live long enough to benefit from it