Repurpose culm piles

 
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Post by nut » Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 10:24 am

I was driving by the huge culm piles near Carbondale along the Casey Highway and Rt 6 for the umpteenth time yesterday. Everytime I see them sitting there doing nothing I can't help but think they can be used for something . When the Casey HW was built why wasn't it used for base material since it is basically gravel, slate and coal mixture. The savings in trucking cost would have been huge considering the highway parallels the valley where these piles lie. It came from the ground so why can't it go back in the ground? There are thousands of cubic yards of this material all over the coal region. Am I missing something?


 
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Post by k-2 » Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 11:50 am

nut wrote:
Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 10:24 am
I was driving by the huge culm piles near Carbondale along the Casey Highway and Rt 6 for the umpteenth time yesterday. Everytime I see them sitting there doing nothing I can't help but think they can be used for something .
We used to have the largest culm bank in the world(so they say) overlooking our town. They have been taking it in and burning it in co-gen plants to make steam
and electricty for years. Its getting smaller. Burns just fine as long as you keep it going full blast. NOT sure if they are still operating today. There is one by Natalie.

 
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Post by nut » Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 12:18 pm

Better than letting them sit there. That's the part I don't understand. I'd like some for my driveway.

 
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Post by k-2 » Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 1:03 pm

nut wrote:
Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 12:18 pm
Better than letting them sit there. That's the part I don't understand. I'd like some for my driveway.
They used to make electricity and feed a large complex of greenhouses hot water to grow tomatoes all year round .The greenhouses have since been dismantled but last i went by there the lights were on and looked like the were operating.

 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Thu. Mar. 02, 2023 5:26 pm


 
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Post by Sassanach » Wed. Dec. 27, 2023 2:20 pm

In the 1960s I would visit my relatives in Larksville, Kingston, and thereabouts. They never had to buy coal. Each morning they would walk over to a nearby culm pile and pick a pail or two of coal. That would last them for a day. I see on Google maps that those culm piles are gone now. I wonder if folks in other areas still do this.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Dec. 27, 2023 2:40 pm

Sassanach wrote:
Wed. Dec. 27, 2023 2:20 pm
In the 1960s I would visit my relatives in Larksville, Kingston, and thereabouts. They never had to buy coal. Each morning they would walk over to a nearby culm pile and pick a pail or two of coal. That would last them for a day. I see on Google maps that those culm piles are gone now. I wonder if folks in other areas still do this.
If you are looking at Google maps and they are missing it may be because they are overgrow and not very discernible. The white birch for whatever reason thrive in them and you'll eventually get other plant growth and trees growing. There is a bank and was a breaker across from where I live in Plymouth, operations would of ceased probably by the 30's. I have pictures from the 50's and it's still pretty barren. You wouldn't know it's there today unless you walked into it.

If they are truly missing they would of been carted off to the cogen plants mentioned previously. They would bring the ash back on return trip to fill in old stripping holes and help contour the land where a lot of fill was needed. A lot of these banks have been removed this way.

If you want a good example there was a bank where the HS is depicted here, to the south of the highway you can see the other half that was not removed. I don't know the time frame but it takes many years,

https://maps.app.goo.gl/TsAWFpAqsnjfJ8M8A

Here is one they are working on now :
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1hxTAy4L9RtPHnFq8


 
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Post by k-2 » Wed. Dec. 27, 2023 4:21 pm

Sassanach wrote:
Wed. Dec. 27, 2023 2:20 pm
In the 1960s I would visit my relatives in Larksville, Kingston, and thereabouts. They never had to buy coal. Each morning they would walk over to a nearby culm pile and pick a pail or two of coal. That would last them for a day. I see on Google maps that those culm piles are gone now. I wonder if folks in other areas still do this.
There is some usable house coal mixed in a culm pile depending how good the breaker was at separating the rock from the coal but in general most culm is not usable in a regular coal stove. There is quite a lot of rock in some of it. It still burns very hot but if you dampen it off it will go out. If you let it rip it will over heat your stove and the grates will sag . But its perfect for generating steam when burned in a fluidized bed furnace at high heat and thus making electricity. The culm is grey in color, but not the shiny black of good house coal.

 
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Post by Hambden Bob » Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 7:39 am

Many Thanx for "Refiring" this good read.. It sounds like "Local Resourceful Folks" have been burrowing into these Culm Banks forever..!!

 
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Post by tsb » Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 8:35 am

This one behind Shamokin is getting smaller every year.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ri6C1K78PwMJTCiX8

 
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Post by k-2 » Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 10:28 am

tsb wrote:
Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 8:35 am
This one behind Shamokin is getting smaller every year.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ri6C1K78PwMJTCiX8
Yes im sure the largest culm bank in the world is now in China or India and no longer in Shamokin PA.

 
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Post by Sassanach » Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 5:34 pm

Richard S. wrote:
Wed. Dec. 27, 2023 2:40 pm
If you are looking at Google maps and they are missing it may be because they are overgrow and not very discernible. The white birch for whatever reason thrive in them and you'll eventually get other plant growth and trees growing. There is a bank and was a breaker across from where I live in Plymouth, operations would of ceased probably by the 30's. I have pictures from the 50's and it's still pretty barren. You wouldn't know it's there today unless you walked into it.

If they are truly missing they would of been carted off to the cogen plants mentioned previously. They would bring the ash back on return trip to fill in old stripping holes and help contour the land where a lot of fill was needed. A lot of these banks have been removed this way.

If you want a good example there was a bank where the HS is depicted here, to the south of the highway you can see the other half that was not removed. I don't know the time frame but it takes many years,

https://maps.app.goo.gl/TsAWFpAqsnjfJ8M8A

Here is one they are working on now :
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1hxTAy4L9RtPHnFq8
Looking at Google maps again I see there are still culm piles in Larksville within walking distance. I don't see any in Kingston or even open areas. I'll have to check my relatives exact addresses and see where the culm piles were using Historic Aerials. I also remember seeing a giant smoldering pile just to the South of PA 115 driving down out of the mountain into Wilkes-Barre. It's gone now. I wonder if that was the pile where the high school is now.

As I recall the coal that was picked was pretty good. It was pitch black, shiny, and I didn't see any non-coal rock in the buckets. But I was in my single digit years then so my recall and judgement of coal might not be very good.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 6:12 pm

Sassanach wrote:
Thu. Dec. 28, 2023 5:34 pm
I also remember seeing a giant smoldering pile just to the South of PA 115 driving down out of the mountain into Wilkes-Barre. It's gone now.
That's near "Giants Despair", no where near the school. ;)
As I recall the coal that was picked was pretty good. It was pitch black, shiny, and I didn't see any non-coal rock in the bucket.
It depends on the pile, the older they are the more coal they will have in them. The one across from my house was probably started somewhere around 1900 and you can easily pick coal if you wanted too. There is dry a stream that runs between the bank and a dike. It will run with water during heavy rains and you can go pick coal right from the stream bed afterward.

 
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Post by tsb » Fri. Dec. 29, 2023 10:32 am

You can get historic views of these piles on Penn Pilot.
This is a view of Shamokin in 1942. Small version.
northumberland_112038_aqo_86_10.jpg
.JPG | 101.8KB | northumberland_112038_aqo_86_10.jpg

 
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Post by tsb » Fri. Dec. 29, 2023 10:57 am

This one is in Trevorton
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6C7x8HCq7iQQfTip6
It's a 360 view so you can rotate around.


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