The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway trialled using "fake coal" on their first running day on March 13th.
The following extracts are taken from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Carriage & Wagon Dept's blog...
"The slightly longer than expected close season has still absolutely zoomed by, and it was great to have trains back running today. It was quite busy too with all four locos out either on trains or on test runs after their winter maintenance. Foremarke Hall came down mid-morning:"
"Today was also the first trial of the new 'ovoid' coal from Neath. A big lorry load turned up on Wednesday:"
"And it was just as well that we had all four locos out as initial trials of the ovoids fell rather short of satisfactory. Dinmore Manor missed its crossing point at Winchcombe and had to wait for Foremarke to help take it to Cheltenham and back:"
"Dinmore came off on the train's return to Toddington, and then at some point Foremarke was swapped out with P&O too!"
"4270 seemed to do ok but still wolfed a whole bunker down, normally that would see it through 2 days:"
"While at the end of the day P&O had completely run out having eaten its way through a tender's worth, and Dinmore, having filled up with some better black stuff, now played the part of rescuer to take the train back again!"
"What a palaver! Thankfully we've got enough Welsh to see us through the races without any drama, after that, who knows..."