At 01:57 PM 23/01/2008, you wrote:

>Kevin mentioned coke as a fuel. In Victoria this was superseded by

>briquettes, made from brown coal (a local product, not subject to the

>devasting strikes at NSW black-coal sources). The grate needed was quite

>different. Briquette slow-combustion heaters and hot-water services were

>installed very widely through the 1950s. Arriving in a town late at night,

>the smell of burning briquesttes was distinctively Victorian. In the 1960s

>and 70s, there was a flight into oil heating (less work), then there was a

>flight into something else when oil prices rose.

>

>

>

>Regards,

>Roderick B Smith

>Rail News Victoria Editor


One of my memories of travelling by train in Melbourne in the late
50s early 60s was that just about every second station seemed to have
a yard, or at least a siding, full of briquette wagons, usually 4
wheelers I think.

Brian