Looks like the tender is almost ready for a nice paint job! Hats off to the crew on that olde gal!

http://www.mrym.org/401_pt2.html

it has had a paint job!



(while the 401 herself looks anxiously out of the loco. shop)

And a beautiful one at that.

That sight glass on the tank is cool!

WOW!!! I haven't seen those pics yet. I think 401 is actually smiling waiting for for her big return!

Well done!

Second test fire. Setting the safety valves in this picture. This was the boiler's first operating pressure steam test.

Is SR 401 an oil burner? What is the history on that?

Wesley

We've converted it to oil during the rebuild for ease of fueling. It was originally a coal burner.

I am so excited to see another SR loco returning soon to steam. Hopefully, we'll have two SR Consols in steam in 2010 including 630.

I did want to ask a few questions related to burning oil.

1. What are the benefits to converting to oil these days? I realize ash cleanup is not necessary with oil and firing is probably much easier to control. Smoke with 4449 almost seems non-existent.
2. Has oil always been cheaper than coal? In the past years of $100-$150 per barrel oil, how did it compare? At what price does it get cheaper to burn coal?
3. I would think it difficult to buy good coal at good prices in places like the Grand Canyon RR at Williams, AZ but not in states like IL. Does locale still matter?
4. I realize waste oil typically used is very different from a barrel of unrefined oil. Do waste oil prices follow barrel prices?

This may have been discussed on this board in the past but I haven't seen it.

Our reasons for oil are several. One being control of smoke. Our neighbors will thank us, but they won't know it. Notice I said control. I'll be the first to agree that a well fired coal burner will run clean too, but when things don't go as planned, and one has to shut off after a bunch of green coal has gone in, it's gonna smoke... alot. I'll also be the first to admit it won't "smell right".

Mommy, Mommy, it smells like a bus!!

Yes, an oil burner will smoke, but one has more control over where, when, and how much.

Coal in Illinois has become harder to come by, at least stuff suited to hand firing. Back in 1997, when 587 ran here, all we could get from Illinois mines was power plant stoker coal. The mines weren't set up to deliver anything else. It was pretty fine stuff, and worked okay once the fire was thick enough. Otherwise, it just got sucked off the grates.

Before we made a final fuel decision, we did compare coal to oil on a BTU basis, and coal (from vendors in VA and KY, including freight) was somewhat cheaper than used motor oil ($1.45/gal., when #2 diesel was $4.50) I don't remember the numbers, but coal had been following oil right up there pricewise. In the end, what won out was we had to handle the coal several times, then the ash too. Couple that with the abilitly to burn "biofuels" and such should that prove advantageous, sealed it.

Waste oils are, from what we have seen, much less volatile, at least right now. It appears to have a pretty substantial lag to the price of crude. The other thing about waste oils, as compared to crudes, is they generally don't require heating to get them to flow when cool. That's a help when one doesn't have a stationary steam plant to warm the engine prior to lighting it off.

GCRY (and the southwest in general) was traditionally oil fuel country due to lack of coal. But, another issue out there is they'd burn the world down if they burned coal due to hot cinders and ash, and the often tinder dry and windy suroundings. Especially in the pine forests at the north and south ends of the railroad. Heck, there's a shortline in southwest New Mexico where the local fire department banned two GP7's from venturing south of a certain point due to their penchant for throwing flamimg hunks of carbon out the stacks when worked hard, and setting the surroundings afire. There's a reason they were nicknamed the dragon sisters (or was it twins?).

Kent

Looks awesome! Thanks for posting.

Very impressive. You all are doing great things. I'm going to plan a trip this fall.
Nice job!

Kent, Awesome job! You guys must be like kids at Christmas finishing it up.............I don't think I could stop working on it if I was that close to being done. You have to post that pic you sent me of her sitting on the siding where you got her!

I would be interested in getting some technical information on the burner you used on this locomotive when converted to oil. The little Vulcan 0-4-0 locomotive that I engineer at the Georgia Agrirama was converted from coal to diesel oil about ten years ago. We were having a heck of a time catching the woods on fire during the hot dry summers in South Georgia. One time when the Tifton Fire Department was called out three times in a single day to put out the blaze, they demanded that something had to be done! Since converting to oil, we have not had a single problem.

With the price of diesel going sky high over the past few years, we have been looking into converting to waste oil. We can purchase cleaned and filtered waste oil in bulk for less than half the current price of diesel. A local dry cleaner has donated a large oil tank to the museum that they once used to fire their boilers - we are in the planning stages of building a pad and containment wall to hold the storage tank.

I would be very interested in any technical information you can provide on your burner and atomizer. I am not sure if the system we have to fire the engine on diesel will work with waste oil or not.

Thanks,

Keith Rucker
Tifton, GA

Kent, Thanks for the detailed reply to my questions. They were appreciated.
David Kaplan