Leo,
I don’t think that spontaneous combustion was very common it hoppers, but it
certainly was a concern with large piles of stored coal. I believe it is the
weight of the coal on the portion oat the bottom that tends to ignite. The EMD
plant in McCook always had a large coal pile in the back part of the plant
which was used for heating purposes. They had a bulldozer assigned to the coal
pile to continuously turn it over to prevent such fires. The day that the
Titanic started it fateful voyage, there was a fire in one of the coal bunkers
that they were battling. This was not an uncommon experience on coal fired
ships. I think that, because there is not enough weight in the coal in a hopper
car, fires were probably not very common. Of course, the fire could have
started from an external source such as a cast off cigarette from a passing
train. John Mitchell might have more comments of such occurrences.
Bill Barber
Gravois Mills, MO
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