Railroaders' Nostalgia > Another "not my own" story from steam days

The "story not my own" reminded me of one I heard from a fellow named Ray Pace who fired on the SP from, if I recall, 1942-46. Anyway, when I met him he was a school bus driver on my route. I found out he'd fired so I made sure to sit in the front row across from the driver's seat while he basically told me how to fire oil, this over many many trips back and forth to school Anyway, Ray told me of a cab forward fireman (not named) who boiled over a tender while the train was waiting to go over Beaumont Hill. It was at the base of the grade so I'm  guessing it might have been Bryn Mawr or Redlands. Anyway, the tender boiled over and really oiled up the tracks. That train was able to leave town because the locomotive was in front of the mess. As the train rolled over the oil it spread it out over quite a distance along the rails, making for very slick going.  Ray said nothing got over the hill that night until the MofW crews got out there to clean up the mess.
This is how I heard it.

Have fun, be safe,

Bruce "Doc" Jones  Sierra Madre CA

The old heads told me about a Fireman named Silverthorne that came down to SLO from the City to augument the firemans extra list. This was. when steam was on its way out. I hostled for him in the City many years later and I think  his Dad was a hoghead on the NWP. (Special  Steam Train when he retired)

Well, "Old Silver Balls" thats what they called him, caught an east train to SBA and it had a Mallet for power. He told the hogger, "Don't worry, I have fired them a lot" and off they went. They got to Surf and headed in and went up to the east end to wait. They were sitting there for awhile and the hogger asked him if he had the tank heater on. He had forgot to turn it down. Well, the hogger then told him to go back and check how much oil was in the tank. Well, off he went. Pretty soon he came back, covered from head to toe with a very warm bunker C. He not only forgot about the tank heater but forgot to shut off the air to the tank. They were pressureized with about 5 lbs. to get the oil all the way up to the firebox. You had turn the air off, and bleed it down before you unscrewed the pipe cap that had a marker welded to it. It showed how many gallons were left.

He marked off in SBA and went back to the City, where he stayed.


Nudge.

  I wonder if someone "in the know" could comment on how much of a margin there was between having the oil heated enough and overdoing it. Was it something that took a little skill or are these stories just examples of pure incompetence?

I've read in a number of articles that you should be able to hold the back of your hand against the tank.
If the tank was too hot to do that then the oil was too hot.

That would have been Marshall Silverthorn.  He really did fire steam for a long time on the NWP, including his father's last trip, and was local chairman for the BLE or the BLF&E  there.  I don't think he fired Mallets on the SP for any length of time though.

PHall Wrote:
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> I've read in a number of articles that you should
> be able to hold the back of your hand against the
> tank.
> If the tank was too hot to do that then the oil
> was too hot.

   That's true, but with the Malleys you were at the opposite end from the engine from the tank, so the hand test wouldn't work.  I understand they had a temperature gauge in the cab which showed the oil temp.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

Ray and some of the other guys I knew said you should be able to hold your hand against the tank for about a 5-8  count. Less than five was too hot, over 8 was too cool. As I recall the oil temperature had to be about 180 degrees F to flow well. There was also a heater up closer to the burner that put the temperature even higher before it hit the burner. Really hot oil did not fire well so it was pretty tricky. If you can lay your hands on a SP Firing and Handling of Engines manual it's all in there. There are also several tech books out there on oil firing. It's not as easy as it first appears. Hope this helps.   In the trivia department most of the modern ships run their big Diesels on bunker oil and I seem to recall it goes into the injectors at about 250 degrees F
Hope this helps, As always, correct me if I'm wrong - no flames, please.

Have fun, be safe,
Bruce " Doc" Jones  Sierra Madre CA