Steam & Excursion > Oil fired locomotive question

I have experience with coal and even a wood fired boiler when bedding them down for a the night.  Banking the fire etc.

Is there a standard accepted practice most railroads (& museums) follow these days for oil fired steam?  

Thanks

 

Ironman Wrote:
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> I have experience with coal and even a wood fired
> boiler when bedding them down for a the night. 
> Banking the fire etc.
>
> Is there a standard accepted practice most
> railroads (& museums) follow these days for oil
> fired steam?  
>
> Thanks

1) Keep heating and adding water until the boiler is virtually full of water, and at maximum pressure.

2) Shut the flow of oil off at the tender safety trip valve, and open the firing valve wide open until all the oils is gone, and the flame is out. Then close the firing valve and secure the handle in the closed position.

3) Close any and all air intake dampers, and cover the exhaust stack.

Same as us Jack, but we also blew out and blew back the lines to get the oil out of them.  1522 had a tight boiler and we went a long time before refiring.   When she finally cooled down to about 25PSI, it was still enough to heat the oil and relight and bring it up slow.  Was handy when we were on display.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/24 12:00 by Frisco1522.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> Same as us Jack, but we also blew out and blew
> back the lines to get the oil out of them.  1522
> had a tight boiler and we went a long time before
> refiring.   When she finally cooled down to
> about 25PSI, it was still enough to heat the oil
> and relight and bring it up slow.  Was handy when
> we were on display.

I'm curious -- what do you mean by "a long time?"   

sf1010 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frisco1522 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Same as us Jack, but we also blew out and blew
> > back the lines to get the oil out of them. 
> 1522
> > had a tight boiler and we went a long time
> before
> > refiring.   When she finally cooled down to
> > about 25PSI, it was still enough to heat the
> oil
> > and relight and bring it up slow.  Was handy
> when
> > we were on display.
>
> I'm curious -- what do you mean by "a long
> time?"   

More than 8 hours. We sometimes went 12 1/2 hours.

sf1010 Wrote:
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> I'm curious -- what do you mean by "a long time?"   

And, how do you light off a cold engine?  That is, one in which the oil in the tender's fuel does not want to flow.

Or, is this a case such as the ship captain that was asked "What do you do if you find yourself upwind of a shoal in a hurricane?".  To which he replied, "You don't allow yourself to find you unwind of a shoal in a hurricane."

-LD

LarryDoyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sf1010 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > I'm curious -- what do you mean by "a long
> time?"   
>
> And, how do you light off a cold engine?  That
> is, one in which the oil in the tender's fuel does
> not want to flow.

 Well back in the old days, you hooked the locomotive up to house steam in order to heat the tender oil bunker, and provide steam for the blower & atomizer.

In the modern "excursion" era, when #5 power plant oil or reprocessed waste oil is used, a source of external compressed air for the blower & atomizer is all that is required.



> Or, is this a case such as the ship captain that
> was asked "What do you do if you find yourself
> upwind of a shoal in a hurricane?".  To which he
> replied, "You don't allow yourself to find you
> unwind of a shoal in a hurricane."
>
> -LD

When we lit 1522 cold at the Museum we used a big Hwy Dept compressor and had an overhead tank with diesel fuel in it.  We had put a tee in the oil feed line ahead of the oil feed valve.  We would light off on diesel, come up slowly until we had about 25psi which was enough to heat the heavier oil and then change over and continue bringing pressure up slowly.
Avoid force firing and bringing a cold engine up fast.  The boiler hates it.
 

I have found that modern waste oils are thin enough to burn when cold - at least if the amient temperature is above 50 degrees.  In this case an external air supply to run the blower and atomizer will get you started.  The oil doesn't want to atomize very well when cold, so one has to be careful not to let too much oil dribble out of the bottom of the draft pan and cause a fire hazard.  Once steam starts getting generated, open up the tank heater wide to heat the oil.  By time you got 50-75 lbs of steam in the boiler, the oil was heated enough to burn better, and you had more than enough pressure to run the blower and atomizer on steam.

Some places I've been around don't bother to heat waste oil.  I have found that it needs to be warm to the touch to atomize correctly.  So, in Alamosa,CO you ran the oil heater a bit every day, on a typical summer day in East Texas, you didn't need the heater at all, as by the end of the day, baking the hot sun, thhe oil was over 100 degrees.