Hi!

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RickKelley
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu. Jul. 21, 2022 7:05 pm
Location: Elkhart, TX
Baseburners & Antiques: Estate Caboose Stove
Other Heating: Wood, Propane

Post by RickKelley » Thu. Jul. 21, 2022 9:26 pm

Hi - -
Brand new member, and not sure I belong here. I expect an experienced member will set me straight in short order - - -

I was born in Connecticut, in 1945, where most everyone heated their homes with 'fuel oil', except the neighboring McKellars (of Scotts decent) who had a remarkable central heating system based on an auger-fed, coal-fired furnace. It was remarkably efficient, quiet. As their paper-boy I was quite impressed with their house that maintained a constant 70 degrees, all year round. Then there were the Railroad tracks that ran in front of my house, with beds of porous black and red-tinged cinders that very much part of my childhood.

When I was a newly-wed in 1969, I lived in Scotland, and rented small houses where a central fireplace and built-in water reservoir provided home heat and hot water. Coal was "gooey", stuff, that was inexpensive, burned hot, threw-off lots of soot that clogged the chimney, and had to be cleaned from time-to-time. It was so different than anything I had experienced, I was fascinated by it. There was (of course) a decades-old distribution system in place to make sure it was readily available. Bottom Line- It fulfilled a basic need - - - efficiently.

So "Coal" is part of my life, and I have wondered how it was so casually 'put aside' - - - how the coking-ovens were shut-down, and the miles-long trains feeding the Nation's power plants vanished. I have wondered WHY they vanished, and whether or not their demise was a good idea - - - either here, or in developing nations.

I ended up here chasing an article on 'Estate Caboose Heating Stoves' that linked to this site. I inadvertently bought one of those to use as a heat source in a smoke house!

The article is interesting, but I'm REALLY interested in encouraging US interest in fossil fuel in general, and coal in particular.
If what I am looking for is completely outside the scope of your forum, please advise.

 
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freetown fred
Member
Posts: 30293
Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
Location: Freetown,NY 13803
Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut

Post by freetown fred » Thu. Jul. 21, 2022 9:52 pm

Nope, ya belong right here R. Ask away. Welcome to the FORUM my friend. :)


 
Hoytman
Member
Posts: 5997
Joined: Wed. Jan. 18, 2017 11:30 pm
Location: swOH near a little town where the homes are mobile and the cars aren’t
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 354
Coal Size/Type: nut coal
Other Heating: electric, wood, oil

Post by Hoytman » Sat. Jul. 30, 2022 12:22 pm

Welcome aboard!
That “Estate” Caboose stove was made decades ago 25 minutes from my house.

I’m eventually going to have one in my house on display and functional to be rotated out with a few others. Just because they were made in such close proximity to me.

 
lincolnmania
Member
Posts: 2684
Joined: Fri. Jan. 26, 2007 9:55 pm
Location: Birdsboro PA.
Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 350
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: reading allegheny stoker
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: alaska kodiak stoker 1986. 1987 triburner, 1987 crane diamond
Coal Size/Type: rice

Post by lincolnmania » Sat. Jul. 30, 2022 8:49 pm

Welcome!
I was not real sure about coal either when i moved to my friends repurposed commercial building 17 yrs ago and it was heated with a pot belly coal stove, a sears coal stove and a hand fired coal furnace from the 1920's. the coal breaker was 1/4 mile away and we were getting coal for 105 a ton. i fine tuned things and converted my part of the building to automatic coal burning heaters, one was an auger fed furnace and the other was a carpet fed stove. dialed them both in and kept my room comfortable and the shop at working temps for about between 8 and 16 tons of coal a year, yes it was a lot but the building had zero insulation and was heating about 4,000 square foot.

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