Steam Loco Ash

westrain

Member
I know might be a silly question In steam days what did do with loco ash? Did they just dump somewhere or did they find some use for it?
John
 
Pretty sure in the olden days there was not much thought of recycling anything ... cement companies may have mixed it into their cement, but not probable ... just like coal mines, and steel mills, there were huge slag dumps and boney piles ... today they are finding that portable slag burners can generate electricity from the mountains of coal slag ... but coal ash is pretty much depleted of any useful byproduct
 
They also used the cinders as ballast in yards and along poorly or lightly maintained branch lines.
 
Just for interest on the subject : The ash pits in die steam depots were deep and had water in them , the ash robbed the water of all oxygen.
I know of a few workers who fell in the pits and drowned very quickly because they sank to the bottom like a stone. Others were lucky and either had something to hold onto or were helped right away.
 
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