How much coal does a steam locomotive use per hour?

I don't have a lot of info on most locomotives, but I DO have firing info on the British 4-2-2 Stirling engines. They typically used about 60 lbs. of coal per mile when running at top speed. Since they ran at about 60 mph, that means about 15 lbs. of coal every 15 seconds. That is about 4 shovel-fuls per mile. Not bad. read more

Heavier locomotives would have needed much more coal per mile. Hopefully we will get some answers from people who are running locomotives currently at some of the steam operations, and we can get a good over-view of how much coal they use on the different locomotives. read more