Conway Scenic Railroad (CSRX) discussion thread

[highrail]

"O.K. lets discuss coal vs. oil."

Do it somewhere else...some other thread.

[gokeefe]

There will not be a supply problem for coal in the future. Both soft and hard coals for various artisinal uses are all mined in the East and will never go away. Thus concludes the Great 2019 Coal Conversion Controversy.

[BandA]

Presumably you could also use hardwood, but you would have to use a greater volume to produce the same amount of heat. Coal fumes are really nasty, but CSRX is running a limited amount of trains and it is historically accurate and important. If you were in an urban area or area with poor air quality, or running trains every 5 minutes I'd say get rid of it! I assume burning coal is still cheaper than burning oil, is domestically produced, is not priced by a cartel, and does not give our enemies money to buy weapons. Steam operations would likely be grandfathered under any but the most extreme scenarios.

[John Smythe]

I did some checking & came up with this.

Bituminous coal has an 85% efficiency rating and throws out 30,600,000 BTU's per ton.
Wood, depending on what type and the level of seasoning only puts out roughly half that many BTU's. A gallon of fuel oil puts out roughly 138,000-150,000 BTU's. No sense in mixing apples and oranges here...we need a lower form of measurement. Not quite fair to compare a gallon of oil to a TON of coal. Anyhow...Let's run some math.

30,600,000 / 2000 (lbs) = 15,300 BTU's for each pound of coal (14 cents if bought at new place or 18.725 cents if bought it 40 lbs. bags)

Current cost of oil is 2.90 per gallon (for 138K -150K BTU's)

So, let's compare oil...2.90/.14 cents = 20.71 (lbs. of coal able to be purchase for EACH gallon of oil)

20.71 x 15,300 = 316,863 BTU's per 2.90 vs 138-150K BTU's running oil

Roughly DOUBLE the amount of heat for the same cost...

I love the smell of soft coal smoke.

[b&m 1566]

Just curious, what will the 4268 be when it's done? The NHN unit was a GP9R, will 4268 become a F9R? Will they keep the 7 and add a dash or something?

[backroadrails]

I don't recall the name of the trains article, but some tourist railroad uses a specialty wood pellet which is on the market. I think one other railroad was going to try it, but from what I have heard it is hard to tell the difference performance wise between the pellets and the coal they had been using. As for the 4268, I assume it will stay a F-7A since they are just adding a power pack to it, and it will have the same HP as it did before it was gutted.

[p42thedowneaster]

I think there is a valid argument to call it an F9 or F9r.

F7 had a 567B @1500HP.
GP-9 had a 567C @1750HP.
F9 had a 567C @1750HP.

[b&m 1566]

Yes that's, why I was asking because the HP is different. It will technically be an F9 not and F7 and since the NHN was a rebuilt 9 it was given the GP9R markings, so F9R would make sense too. However if 470 RR Club wants to keep the F7, could they and mark it as an F7-2 or whatever to distinguish the difference?

[Jonathan]

I'm going to chase the train for the trains, planes and automobiles event. I'm only throwing this idea out to people who might be chasing as well. Plan accordingly, don't rush to go to every popular spot along the line, just space your locations out. There's a lot of people that are going to be chasing
it as well

[NHV 669]

The train won't be going 50mph, there will be plenty of photo opportunities.

[John Smythe]

Please don't confuse the powers to be of The 470 Club, providing multiple choices for what they can turn the #4268 into will in this railfans opinion drag out the re-hab / rebuild project into becoming another Boston " Big Dig " project.

Just another thing to consider, at the start of this year we were I believe informed that the MEC #501 was to undergo an evaluation for it's worthiness to undergo restoration to operational condition. So far the only thing that seems to have taken place is that it's boiler tubes have been removed from #501 & installed into #7470 to get her up and running. Seems like we should be informed by someone as to what's the word regarding the inspection process. It isn't as if the CSRX employees would be doing this work & tying up manpower needed to get ready for the new season to begin.

How about someone to please bring us up to speed regarding this so called evaluation of #501? Thanks.

[gokeefe]

I thought it was stated that all work would be completed on #7470 prior to proceeding with evaluation of #501.

[John Smythe]

My source informed me that #7470 was fired up & run out on the hill and around the yard a couple of weeks ago. The only thing left to do was reinstall the insulation and jacketing. Someone in charge must be able to issue some kind of statement on this issue to clarify.

[backroadrails]

Actually they ran it on the valley train yesterday and to Conway for the father’s day celebrations.

[NHV 669]

She was on "static" display yesterday during the activities at Center Conway station, but under steam when I arrived shortly before the 1:30 Valley Train. The work being done hasn't been any secret, the various CSRX social media pages were posting about it wrapping up all week. Less than two weeks until she makes an attempt at the notch, barring any setbacks.