Listening to my scanner and fire dept on scene with a smoldering fire in only one car. I will go out on a limb and say spontaneous combustion. Is this unusual and could there be other causes?
I’ll see your spontaneous combustion and raise you a vandalism!
Warm weather we’ve been having, isn’t it?
I suspect that there’s a lot more smoke than fire, regardless of cause. If it was spontaneous combustion, it won’t be easy to put out.
We once had a smouldering load of garbage at the hump, back when old box cars were used for transporting it. I’d rather smell coal smoke, I think…
At the cleaning track in La Junta, we had a pile of dunnage that smoked and sizzled all winter, no flames visible. Tore it apart twice with a backhoe - no success. Spring flood on the Arkansas River finally put an end to it. The pile was mostly coal, waste ore, the little glass balls from the Geneva ore cars and whatever the yard cleaner broomed-up.
I would agree with the cat’s diagnosis.
I once saw U.P. set out from unit train, a coal car that was smoldering. Local fire dept. put a lot of water into it. They kept feeling the side of the car and then dumping more water into it. They said they would remain on scene overnight to be sure it was out.
The general consensus of those at the scene was that someone had flicked a cigarette into it from an overpass. Whether true malicious intent vandalism, simple stupidity vandalism with no thought as to consequences, or just sheer stupidity on the part of the smoker there was some disagreement. There were a few that doubted that a cigarette could set coal on fire, but others said it was possible.
Coal spontaneously combusts, this is a real problem in stockpiles at mines and ports. I have seen some trains (which were loaded with old coal from the mine’s outdoor pile, where the fire started) with fires in 20 or 30 cars, small fires that is which usually put themselves out or smoulder and only leave a small grey patch of ash on top. Those fires are common enough we don’t think twice about seeing them.
As a kid, we used some coal for heating. I recall it being really hard to get lit. My how times have changed. Now the darn stuff lights itself.
Yes, a little coal smoke is not bad. I really prefer the smell of wood burning–except when I forgot to open the damper before lighting the fire (our dog ws really disturbed).
Remember that coal can start burning inside a mine.
Legend has it that the Titanic started its fateful voyage with a smoldering fire in a coal bunker which was deemed not to be enough of a problem to cancel the trip. Guess they should have stayed in port to put the fire out.
We go past the Fremont NE power plant when coming into town. Often you see them with end loaders going over the coal pile moving it around. When the plant runs a skeleton crew on holidays (such as Halloween [(-D]) they don’t do that and you can sometimes see little bits of smoke and little patches of grey/white ash. It never amounts to any flame or fire that I’ve seen, but it’s noticable if you’re looking.
They once had to unload a car of coal at Boone because it had caught fire. If you look at a loaded coal train, you sometimes can see the little spots of ash. You might have even seen it without really noticing because the spots usually aren’t very big. Of course, during the winter little white or grey spots might not be ash but something else. [:D]
Jeff
Straying a little off topic-- I seem to remember reading years ago about an underground fire in coal seams in an abandoned mine that had been burning for decades, in Pennsylvania, I think. Am I remembering right?
You are remembering right, and if I am not mistaken it is still burning today.
Laurel Run ¶ mine fire. Still burning.
Absolutely true. The cause of the fire was the coal hadn’t been properly wetted down before loading, the combination of coal dust and static electricity started the fire.
Captain Smith was informed of the fire, a smouldering fire, not a rip-roaring blaze, and was told it was nothing the engine room crews couldn’t handle, they’d get the fire extinguished. So, Captain Smith decided to acept the risk and proceed with the voyage.
Where the story gets hazy is just WHO finally put out the fire, the crew or the Atlantic Ocean.
And yes, coal isn’t that easy to ignite. My grandparents had a coal furnace into the 1960’s, and the procedure was to build a small wood fire and then add the coal to it. Or maybe it was that good Pennsylvania anthracite that was hard to ignite.
Centralia, PA - used to have a branch of the Lehigh Valley RR running through the western portion of it, too. See:
http://www.centraliapa.com/history.htm - 4th para.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
In the early 1960’s, there were many such mine fires, esp. around the Scranton, PA area. For a few years there was an effort to extinguish them, which was mostly successful.
- Paul North.
In Superior Wisconsin there is a mountain of coal that comes from Wyoming via BNSF that gets shipped out on lake boats. Every summer when I’m by there big sprinklers are hosing down the coal to keep it from smoldering.
You probably missed the chance of a lifetime- an ALCO locomotive came through Lincoln and you missed it.[:P]
Details! I need details!
(my scanner is police/fire only)
Details? I’m a little far away to tell you much, but um…where there’s smoke there’s fire?
Or an ALCO that thinks it’s a steam locomotive.
[:D]