TSC Coal 2016/2017

Since I do see references here to the nut being undersized at TSC this season, I may pick up a bag and see if the Axeman can tell the difference to regular pea.
As a matter of fact, the pea coal is a little on the large size this year anyways.

McGiever wrote:Since I do see references here to the nut being undersized at TSC this season, I may pick up a bag and see if the Axeman can tell the difference to regular pea.
As a matter of fact, the pea coal is a little on the large size this year anyways.

From the reports I've read over these last two seasons.. they can differ... so one bag may not be a true test... try buring a few tons.. I have.. burnt over 5 ton TSC last season and 2 or more this season so far. In the Rice category this year is the best only because of the bags they use..

As I'm working through the ton I purchased I believe a lot of the quality depends on where on the pallet the bag was located. The first bags the I burned were from the bottom of the pallet and contained the most fines obviously from handling. As I work my way towards the top of the pallet I'm seeing bigger more consistent size and less fines.

That makes some sense Al. Good point.

Yeah I made similar comment about that in another thread. They may even stack pallets and you can bet that bottom few layers of bags just gets crushed. Especially during transport on rough roads.

Even more "specially" if they're loaded on horse drawn wagons with wooden wheels on cobblestone roads.

I can tell you from burning many tons of Blaschak Rice over 2 seasons.. there is hardly any fines compared to the Blaschak..this goes for last years TSC coal as well.. which was Kimmels? or Reading? I don't know what this coal is in the new plastic bags with handles but it sure is nice stuff...

captcaper wrote:I can tell you from burning many tons of Blaschak Rice over 2 seasons.. there is hardly any fines compared to the Blaschak..this goes for last years TSC coal as well.. which was Kimmels? or Reading? I don't know what this coal is in the new plastic bags with handles but it sure is nice stuff...

Am I missing something here, or did you repeat the same vendor?

Lightning wrote:Yeah I made similar comment about that in another thread. They may even stack pallets and you can bet that bottom few layers of bags just gets crushed. Especially during transport on rough roads.

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Pallets of Wood Pellets BOOOOOOO and pallets of Bagged Coal YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! are shipped in one layer by truck using flat bed trailers and would be shipped in two layers deep in 40 foot box cars with air bag load separators if used.

The storage yards simply stack them and do not stack them in an overlapping pattern(running bond) or use plywood sheets in most cases as they do not think about the damage caused by the weight as only half the pallet weight 1,020 pounds+- would be set on each other pallet in a running bond pattern.

Simple settling over time while in transit due to vibration is an issue as well. A 53 foot flat bed truck with an R permit would carry 32 pallets of bagged coal that would continue to settle and pack from the time it is loaded to the time it arrives at its destination.

The great majority of damage occurs from poor handling techniques due to having broken pallets causing rips in the pallet bag covers and shrink wrap as they do not use a pallet separator cardboard layer when the pallets are stacked. if they were stacked in a running running bond pattern there would be fewer damaged pallets and bags.

IZZY, I will try to correct your mis-information.

#1- R permits are not issued for loads that can be broken down into a legal weight load,such as pallets of coal. The truck has to be no more than legal gross weight @ 80,000 #.

An R permit would be issued for a machine that is massively overweight & has been lightened up by "reasonable removal "of some items but still is over the limit. Or some big structural bridge beam,etc.

MANY semi trailers today ride on air suspension,so crushing the coal while riding the truck would be very minimal.

Every state is different and every county is different for R permits and temporary waiver permit exemptions.

We see this a lot where the local truckers around here do not hesitate game the system and overload their dump trucks and move through an area at the busiest time of day to avoid getting nailed for over weight loads requiring an R permit. Sometimes they do get caught though.

Almost all municipal 10 wheel plow truck around here is always overloaded with sand or salt too.

Some time today we have a 300 plus ton steam turbine generator coming through Ithaca from the GE plant in Schenectedy using the state secondary roads N.Y.S. RTE 34 to travel into Ithaca to Route 13 south and then on to Scranton and its going to cause a lot of headaches today if they get this far today.

It would have been simpler if they used Schnabel rail car to transport it but I guess they could or would not not do that.

We always told the drivers with flat beds that came for loads of salt to stop and retighten their tie down straps five or 10 miles out from the terminal as the loads do settle quite a lot.

This was long before packers started using vibrating pallet shakers to make the loads settle down and either using pallet bags and pallet shrink wrap to protect the bags and strapping bagged loads with 100 pound bags to secure the bags to the pallets as we did not glue the sewn triple wall paper bags together to hold them in place. We used Doboy Sewing Machines to seal the paper bags we used for rock salt packaging.

With Anthracite coal being a sedimentary rock it fractures along the plane of the layer of coal and soft and hard coal does grind and break over time while being transported due to its sedimentary layered structure as every layer is very thin and will fracture along the edges of the layer.

If you have a piece of stove or egg coal you can cut it at a very low angle with a saw and you will see layer after layer of carbon from the decayed plant matter that rotted from 165 million years ago creating bituminous, sub anthracite and anthracite coal.

Each piece of rock salt or broken coal will gradually nest over time with an adjoining piece and pack even tighter and any dust that is created falls down between the layers rice or larger coals
simply due to its layered structure.

That reminds me I better take one bag of my Kimmels rice coal and weigh it before I forget about it to see if its actually 40 pounds.

joeq wrote:

captcaper wrote:I can tell you from burning many tons of Blaschak Rice over 2 seasons.. there is hardly any fines compared to the Blaschak..this goes for last years TSC coal as well.. which was Kimmels? or Reading? I don't know what this coal is in the new plastic bags with handles but it sure is nice stuff...

Am I missing something here, or did you repeat the same vendor?

I burnt Blaschak rice for 2 yrs first when I bought my stoker then switched to TSC for the past 2 yrs now. Burnt Baschak Nut in a hand fired Harman for 8 yrs.. 20 yrs before the Harman in a Coal Cubby..

Are you saying the Santa rice, is better than the Santa nut?

lzaharis wrote:Every state is different and every county is different for R permits and temporary waiver permit exemptions.

This is one thing that's for sure. Each state is different when it comes to permit loads. Permit loads will not be moved in the state of Maryland on Sundays except on very rare occasions with police escorts. Most cities have restrictions on pernitted loads to where they can only operate at certain times of day. Permits are expensive and require special routing, and must be purchased for each state that is traveled through. The chances of anyone purchasing a permit to haul skids of coal to a Tractor Supply co. store is very slim. I can assure you that the truck will arrive at the store with no more than 22 skids.

windy hill hit the nail on the head when it comes to R permits. Another thing it says is the load can't be moved after sundown and before sunrise. The load also needs two escorts, sometimes state police to shut down intersections. Been there done that for some 22 years!!!