See there web site and return to steam

Trevor Heath mentioned that back in July:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27809&p=128334

It also surfaced again here:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27945

Is there something new other than the couple of runs in September?

I think it's pretty obvious that if the trial runs work well there will be more steam train operations, at least on a special event type basis, but they haven't made any announcements like that, so it's only speculation right now.

If they have found a way to spin this situation to make a steam locomotive sufficiently 'green' for their corporate mission, I'll openly applaud it. Now for the economics... You know there's a portion of the ridership that has simply walked away without steam, can you capture it back and harvest it?

You'd be amazed how much difference that perception can make. The Savannah streetcar is working on a biodiesel mix with a percentage of recycled vegetable oil. The press pickup on that single issue has been amazing - completely out of proportion. It's even been christened "The Streetcar Named Deep-Fryer".
http://green.autoblog.com/2008/12/08/hy ... on-parade/

I've seen enough of a mess in some steam locomotive fireboxes just from burning waste residual oil - I'm wondering what it looks like with this stuff. I really hope it works and doesn't look like the inside of my backyard grille with the grease residue.

Randy, you don't REALLY burn waste residual oil in your backyard grill, do you?

Seriously, though, I was in 148's firebox a few times, after it had been run on used motor oil at both Black River and at Morristown, and don't remember any mess at all. I wonder if the locomotives you saw had been overfired, with just too much fuel to burn, or had been shut down improperly. Or were these engines fired with something heavier?

Used motor oil is used as a heating fuel in gas stations all over the northeast. There are a number of websites for converting your Diesel motored vehicles into "grease cars", to burn used fryolator vegetable oil. I would think that in the intense heat of a locomotive's combustion chamber, it would be pretty efficiently consumed.

And yes, I do think continued requests for steam operations in Williams, Arizona, would encourage the re-activation of steam locomotives. Greasey wheel gets the steam!

Naah, I don't, at least I'm not admitting that to my wife...

The firebox in question was set to burn diesel, when that shot up in price they started burning residual oil. Within about six weeks there was a noticeable caking of heavy carbon 'tar' on the lower half of the firebox interior; quite hard as well. Went back to diesel when the price went down. I have no reason to believe that it was overfired, there was question on whether the oil should have been preheated, sort of like Bunker C.

This is PA oilfield country, and when the price of gas went up in '08 some enterprising locals began burning wellhead gasoline in vehicles. Similar results. Moral: Just cause it burns at the well doesn't mean it burns well!

Be thank full there is steam running again.

"Is there something new other than the couple of runs in September?"



4960 has been converted to run on Bio Diesel.

It has already been out on the main (about a week ago, but apparently no one with a camera saw it...:)

I've no word on how successful the test was.

There are four runs scheduled in the month September, three public and one private.

TH

Technical question: are they still using the burner Nigel designed, or have they gone back to the flame thrower for use with the biofuel? How is it working out?

We dumped a couple drums of waste kitchen fryer oil into the tank once and the results were not satisfactory.

dave

Did it have the odor of a Big Mac? Or Kentucky Fried Nuggets?

Seriously, why were the results unsatisfactory?

dan

Fuel was 6 heavy oil cut with 10% diesel. Burner standard van Boden Engles setup. The kitchen grease sort of clumped together in wads and interrupted the flow, occasionally blowing through with a minor explosion, and what did burn didn't do it well and with an odd smoke. Might have been some chicken wings in it somewhere....not sure. We didn't try it again.

A somewhat filtered and more reliable quality source might be different. Just as used motor oil is to some extent processed in recycling as fuel, filtering out globs of gunk and letting the water drain, there is probably a process for reclaiming fryer oil for fuel.

I'm windering if vaporization or just atomization of a better used food oil is going to work best.

dave

Thanks, I suspected that clumping might have been the problem.

dan

Bio fuel (vegtable oil, some times soya) comes in a tanker cleaned and ready to use. Straight out of a fryer is asking for trouble.