Powerhouse Ash Disposal

[usairman737]

I'm trying to find information related to the Emmet Mine Powerhouse kit done by Model Masterpieces years ago.  I'm building it in S-scale.  It should generate lots of coal traffic.  

A general question occurred to me, what did they do with the ashes?  A powerhouse with two boilers like the one in the kit would generate lots of ashes. What was the powerhouse equivalent of a locomotive ash pit, and where were the ashes taken for disposition?  Any possible rail traffic here?  Did a powerhouse have an "ash dump"?

Gerry

[ComoDepot]

I wondered the same around Como, people burned coal and the commercial buildings did the same but the only place I have seen coal ash was on the grade.

My assumption is that it went to a pile, must have had a value for someone to come by and get it.

[Jeff Young]

It's hard to imagine them doing anything with them.  Pick a pile, any pile:


https://dspace.library.colostate.edu/handle/11124/10193

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Chris Walker]

Jerry,
As it is a bit hard to get the stationary boilers over the ashpit, they used an irish buggy, the Backhead have cleanout doors at the bottom below the Firebox doors.

Inside the Fifty Gold Mines Mill at Blackhawk.
X-60651

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/34298/rv/singleitem/rec/38

cleanout
X-8037

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/6433/rv/singleitem/rec/13

MCC-4843

http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/14256/rv/singleitem/rec/1

fresh ashpiles right outside the door, these stand out like the proverbial in the wider picture.
MCC-370

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/77714/rv/singleitem/rec/6

[Jeff Young]

Neat thing to model, though, complete with the plank to run the wheel-barrow out over the river bank on….

Cheers,
Jeff.

[usairman737]

When I was a small child growing up in upstate New York in the 1940s, our home was heated with a large coal furnace.  I dimly remember my mother asking me to "take the ashes out".  I have no idea what happened to them, as they didn't stay in the basement and were not dumped around the neighborhood.  I always assumed they were picked up by "someone" and carted away.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my disposal question.  Looks like they went into the nearest creek.  If that was too far away, as in Leadville, they were just piled around the property.

Gerry  

[South Park]

  I wonder how the fish tasted ?  Certainly high in metals content !

[Darel Leedy]

Back in the day, it was common practice to dump everything in the river.  The by-product is "coal tar".  The recent re-development of Confluence Park in Denver (the South Platte river and Cherry Creek) was delayed for a year when coal tar was discovered during construction near REI (the former powerhouse for the entire Denver trolley system).
They are just now beginning the abatement process to remove it from the river. Of course, the project will not be coming in under budget. Lol

[Jeff Young]

> When I was a small child growing up in upstate New York in the 1940s, our home was heated with a large coal furnace.  I dimly remember my mother asking me to "take the ashes out".  I have no idea what happened to them, as they didn't stay in the basement and were not dumped around the neighborhood.  I always assumed they were picked up by "someone" and carted away.

That reminds me… my grandparents in Danville IL had an alley behind their house where the trash cans were — but there was also an “ash can”.  Don’t know how it was emptied; perhaps it just went in with the trash?

[Chris Walker]

A more specific application view of the question which for some reason I couldn't find yesterday.  This is the Cook Shafthouse above the switchback to Central City, quite a way from the Creek.

L-68



http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/71163/rv/singleitem/rec/1