Steam & Excursion > This Engine's Crew Was Already Tired When They Left The Shop!

Wood burning steam locomotives  are popular today due to their rarity. Only a handful of such engines still operate in this Country.  However, back in the days of steam they were more prevalent, though still pretty rare by the 1930's.

While wood fuel is certainly cheap in areas where wood was easy to find near the tracks of a railroad, and wood tends to be easy on a locomotives firebox, it had one huge drawback.  That drawback was the labor needed to cut, split stack and load the wood into the tenders of the engines.  When labor costs of wood-burning railroads rose, the cost for wood fuel made many such railroads convert from wood to oil or at times coal.

Here we see standing at Austin, Oregon in 1939 Sumpter Valley Ry Baldwin 2-8-2 #18 all wooded up for the days runs.  One look at the tender of #18 and one can quickly see how much work #18's crew has already put in to simply fuel the engine for one day. 

Bob Hanft took this fine photo and said it was one of his favorite steam photos he had ever taken.  This also was the only chance he ever had to ride in the cab of a wood burning locomotive.  He treasured the experiance.

When Baldwin built #18 they provided a tender with a capacity for at least 4 cords of wood.  The crews at Sumpter soon learned that they could extend the range of the engine between being wooded up by adding side-board extensions we see here.  This nearly doubled the fuel capcity of the tender.  It also double the time it took to fuel the engine each time that was needed.

Again, wood fuel only works if you have cheap labor.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/17 11:30 by LoggerHogger.

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Were there ever any log fired engines that were super heated?

Hopefully they added a vertical standpipe to the water fill hatch.

Probably slab wood from a close by sawmill. Note the stack of wood near the front of the engine.staged.ready to toss up on the next tender.
Nice photo..I like the SV.
Roger Beckett

What would air cylinder above the crosshead be used for?  It's not a power reverse, I don't think. Too small for brakes.  Perhaps for the flangers?  If so, it's certainly an unusuall setup.  Anyone know for sure? 

-LD

Look closly at the running board just to the rear of the cylinder there is a bell crank attached to it and the rod from the flanger lever attached to it on top of the running board.

Is that a pile of Snow under the Firemen's side of the Loco or Sand ?   

If Sand , then turn off the Sanders.......LOL

miralomarail Wrote:
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> Is that a pile of Snow under the Firemen's side of
> the Loco or Sand ?   
>
> If Sand , then turn off the Sanders.......LOL

Snow

Martin

Labby Wrote:
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> Were there ever any log fired engines that were
> super heated?

Yea, Verily and Forsooth!

Note the build date, combustion chamber size, superheater and braking system.

Cheers,
Jack



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/17 11:43 by africansteam.

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In 1960 my summer job included cutting & delivering firewood. Five cords of wood is a large amount and my memory suggests the tender shown could never have held that much but of that I have no personal knowledge. My pay at that time was $1.10 per hour.

Thanks Jack!

Forgot all about looking up Brasil. 

One can still witness wood fired operation at Sumpter Valley, Heisler No. 3.

A cord of firewood is 4'x4'x8'  Assume that the tender is 8' wide and the pile of wood is 4' high.  There are four rows of cord wood on the tender so thats about 16'..give or take.  On a smaller tender it might not be 8' wide.
Roger Beckett

Were other disadvantages with wood burning locos the relative, limited amount of heat developed in the firebox and that the fire could be "knocked over"? The later point I have seen mentioned in very early real-time literature from rairloaders operating standard gauge, wood burning locos. I get the impression that by the 1880s most roads in the East had converted to coal or were in the process of doing so.

Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Thanks for posting..Still my favorite steam engine.........
...........Swede...........Albany,OR