Hello My Friends
In my introduction back in March I mentioned that I had purchased a coal burning Forney. I have since ran it at the Los Angeles Live Steam Spring Meet. It had never been run before and I was greatly impressed by how well the little tea kettle ran. A battery powered fan was used for draft. Some crushed and screened charcoal that had been soaked in lamp oil was used to get things going. Then Welsh coal was added . The fire took right off and the little engine was run for about two hours. Clinkers in the fire box eventually brought the fun to an end. Here is a snappy of an old Bozo (yours truly), stoking the fire.
One thing that I have found to be helpful when burning coal is to screen it. Here is a selection of screens. The screen, or mesh if you like, was bought from McMaster Carr. They seem it in 12" x 12" squares. The wooden boxes were made from pine lumber.
This screening does two things. It removes the dust, and by using one screen, and then another it sizes the coal. For instance the coal that seemed to work best in the fire box of the little Forney was 3/8"-1/4". Which means that the coal went through a 3/8" mesh screen, but not 1/4".
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Here is an assortment of screens.
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Here is some screened coal. I think this was the 3/8"x1/4" coal. This is all Welsh coal which seems to be the best of the best. If you are running small locomotives it's well worth the cost if you can lay your hands on some.
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Here is an assortment of screened coal. The coal on the far right is 1/2"x3/8" and is used for larger locomotives. The little Forney is an absolute hoot to run. It's a very well behaved and simple engine without a lot of things to go wrong. One of the main aspects of running steam successfully is how you service the engine after shut down. Blowing all the water out of the engine is important. Drying the out cylinders and boiler. And also of great importance is to flush the water out of the axle and hand pump. Compressed air is used for this. It doesn't take much to make those tiny check valves to go crook. So getting all the water out is important. Then getting some oil into the cylinders is a good thing. For this Marvel Mystery oil is good as it doesn't dry out or become gummy. I have been using this oil for laying up steam locomotives for ages.
![Image]()
I am looking forward to taking the little Forney to the Fall Meet at LALS. I hope to see some of you there.
Happy Steaming
Jack
In my introduction back in March I mentioned that I had purchased a coal burning Forney. I have since ran it at the Los Angeles Live Steam Spring Meet. It had never been run before and I was greatly impressed by how well the little tea kettle ran. A battery powered fan was used for draft. Some crushed and screened charcoal that had been soaked in lamp oil was used to get things going. Then Welsh coal was added . The fire took right off and the little engine was run for about two hours. Clinkers in the fire box eventually brought the fun to an end. Here is a snappy of an old Bozo (yours truly), stoking the fire.
One thing that I have found to be helpful when burning coal is to screen it. Here is a selection of screens. The screen, or mesh if you like, was bought from McMaster Carr. They seem it in 12" x 12" squares. The wooden boxes were made from pine lumber.
This screening does two things. It removes the dust, and by using one screen, and then another it sizes the coal. For instance the coal that seemed to work best in the fire box of the little Forney was 3/8"-1/4". Which means that the coal went through a 3/8" mesh screen, but not 1/4".
Here is an assortment of screens.
Here is some screened coal. I think this was the 3/8"x1/4" coal. This is all Welsh coal which seems to be the best of the best. If you are running small locomotives it's well worth the cost if you can lay your hands on some.
Here is an assortment of screened coal. The coal on the far right is 1/2"x3/8" and is used for larger locomotives. The little Forney is an absolute hoot to run. It's a very well behaved and simple engine without a lot of things to go wrong. One of the main aspects of running steam successfully is how you service the engine after shut down. Blowing all the water out of the engine is important. Drying the out cylinders and boiler. And also of great importance is to flush the water out of the axle and hand pump. Compressed air is used for this. It doesn't take much to make those tiny check valves to go crook. So getting all the water out is important. Then getting some oil into the cylinders is a good thing. For this Marvel Mystery oil is good as it doesn't dry out or become gummy. I have been using this oil for laying up steam locomotives for ages.
I am looking forward to taking the little Forney to the Fall Meet at LALS. I hope to see some of you there.
Happy Steaming
Jack
