.

We had a hard time keeping a fire in 1702 one time on fireup. We actually fought it for about a day. The #4 (used motoroil) was cold, loco was cold, and we were atomizing with compressed air. We lost count how many times the fire flashed out of the firebox door. We decided to wait until moring when the fuel truck with warm fuel would arrive. Next morning, they arrived with cold fuel. Evidently the warm fuel was eating their pumps! After we were fueled we had the same problem. Lots of sludge in with the oil (and water). We finally settled on a Rosebud wedged directly under the burner until we had enough pressure to change over to steam. All this on a boiler you best not over fire if you wanted to keep your staybolts.

Incidently, the line heat and tank heat were plumbed to the same manifold as the atomizer and blower. When it goes back together, we will be able to run the line heat and tank heat as soon as we have steam, regardless of what we are atomizing with. . ..

Sometimes I would bend over backwards for a coal burner!

Ryan

Bret, Jerry has fired the last two EFD runs. He is by far the best Fireman I have run with. A clear stack all the way to Sumpter and back. Plenty of water in all the locations where it is needed, and a constant 145 to 150 #s steam. Most of our Fireman could stand to take lessons from him.

I still like the atomizer on first, then oil method. I am now familiar with the sound of the oil as it flows down to the burner. Sorta like an organ pipe being tuned with an adjustable plug. You can tell by the sound when the oil is gonna start to flow out the burner. I get no drips, and seldom get any startup smoke. Starting up the same engine all the time you get to know her sounds and settings.