Converting steam locomotives from coal to oil use..... discusses the conversion of steam locomotives from coal to oil, and how the conversion from oil to coal would have been more challenging. I have a proto-freelancing question. In 1909, New York passed fire prevention laws requiring locomotives in the Adirondack Park to burn oil from April-October, which would have coincided with peak passenger and freight traffic. How would smaller regional, short line, and logging roads have managed this AND keep up with operational demands? Would they have converted their entire stable to oil to meet the requirements, rostered extra locomotives in order to burn cheaper coal the other half of the year, or take on seasonal conversion of their fireboxes? Anyone have any historical evidence or examples?
Some of the earliest locomotive conversions did not replace the grate at all; they used material analogous to the lava rock in gas grills, which was brought up to temperature and the oil fuel sprayed onto it – very similar to later practice with ‘dual fuel’ systems in Australia and Europe where baseline firing was done with coal and the oil sprayed on when higher transient heat transfer or short higher steam demand was desired.
I believe we’ve had some discussion of the NYC oil firing in at least one of the threads on the Adirondack Railroad during the ARTA trail-conspiracy years – check the counterpart threads on RyPN too. I’m pretty sure NYCSHS has some drawings and material regarding the technical approach used, but it might be like pulling teeth to find it on their current excuse for a Web site. If you can contact someone like Tom Gerbracht, I expect you will get a good leg up on good technical answers backed up with detail.
“RyPN”?
www.rypn.org … then select ‘Interchange’.
‘Railway Preservation News’ – originally the ‘Web presence’ of the Locomotive & Railway Preservation magazine (“Eleanor P”)
I really appreciate the referral. On RYPN I was able to find the thread you were referring to and a post that stated that “engines converted between coal and oil, oil being used in the summer, coal in the winter.” Also that the D&H “had about six Ten Wheelers and a 2-8-0 (numbered 999!) that had narrow fireboxes assigned to this line, designed for firing either bituminous or oil.” That lead me to Shaughnessy’s book on the D&H for pictures of narrow firebox 10-wheelers and a picture of #999 at Saranac Lake. Then onto bridge-line.org and a note that “#999 [was] convertible between coal and fuel oil”. Exactly what I was looking for!
With my layout set in late March/early April, at least some of the tenders should have their oil bunkers already in place as the roster is readied for the upcoming summer season.