I seriously doubt the website's statement https://www.steamengine4420.org/about that U.P. 4466 is "unable to be operated as California has outlawed the operation of coal fired steam engines." That's a lot of legislation for the one and only (formerly) operable standard-gauge coal-burning steam locomotive based in California in modern times.

Background:
The Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Western Pacific, and Santa Fe Railroads converted their far-western fleets of steam locomotives to oil burning before WW1. The reason is that heavy oil fuel oil ("bunker C") was much cheaper than coal in the far west.

More info from Don Strack:
https://utahrails.net/sp/sp-in-ut.php

1912
Oil as a locomotive fuel was first tested on SP as 1894. The design of efficient fireboxes and burners did not come until 1900. New locomotives were being converted upon delivery at about the same time, with the conversions becoming routine by 1903. In September 1901 the railroad announced that oil fueling stations would be built all along its 1500-mile route from Ashland in southern Oregon to El Paso. Southern Pacific lines across Nevada, from Sparks to Ogden used coal exclusively until 1909, after which conversion of locomotives and construction of oil fueling stations began. Oil became the exclusive fuel on SP in Utah and Nevada by 1912. (See "The Great Transformation" in SP Trainline, Issue 85, Fall 2005)

Coal-fired Locomotives on SP

"The first commercially significant oil production were in California starts in the mid-1890s at the Kern River fields, which are just northeast of Bakersfield. It takes quite a while to develop successful ways to burn oil in boilers. An early attempt results in a major loss-of-life boiler explosion on a San Francisco Bay ferryboat/steamer, and leads to demands to outlaw the dangerous new fuel. Early attempts at steam loco oil-burning design have the oil burner spraying oil forward towards the tube sheet, which dramatically shortens firebox life. So coal remains the preferred fuel for California locomotives until ca. 1910. S.P.'s conversion from coal to oil burning, including the massive capital investment in oil tanks, oil transportation, etc., is described in "The Great Transformation" by Arnold Menke, published in Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society's excellent magazine "Trainline". (See "The Great Transformation" in SP Trainline, Issue 85, Fall 2005)

"There is no coal worthy of the name in California. There were a few small mines such as the Black Diamond Mine near Mt. Diablo, but the coal quality was awful, and wouldn't have been mined anywhere else in the world. It was cheaper for the S.P. to buy coal that had traveled 13,000 miles by sailing ship, than to buy coal brought 800 miles by rail from Utah or Colorado. Coal for railroad locomotives, industry, and domestic use (kitchen ranges, fireplaces) was imported by square-rigged sailing ships from South Wales (Cardiff, Swansea, etc), around Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America - no Panama Canal until 1914). The 3-masted ship "Balclutha" - now on display at San Francisco Maritime Museum's Hyde St Pier, just down the hill from Ghiradelli Square - was built for this trade. For the return trip, the big deepwater square-riggers loaded at the grain warehouses along the Carquinez Straits near Port Costa. Grain was brought there by scow schooners - the San Francisco Bay Area local trucks of the 19the Century (the last one, the "Alma", is also at Hyde St Pier, and sails around the bay on special occasions) - from the Sacramento River / San Joaquin River Delta area, and by rail. You can still see the grain warehouse pilings sticking out of the water at low tide when you ride Amtrak between Emeryville and Martinez. Return cargoes also included canned salmon (mostly from the Alaska canneries), canned fruit, and canned vegetables.

"Coal was also imported by square-rigger from New South Wales (Australia) - British manufactured goods outbound to Australia, NSW coal to California, and California grain and/or canned goods back to Europe. Some coal was also imported from the Wellington Collieries on Vancouver Island (British Columbia). This trade generally used older square-riggers nearing the end of their economic life, as the coal was gassy and had a tendency to ignite en route from spontaneous combustion. Radio hadn't been invented yet, so a coal cargo fire at sea generally lead to the ship and crew perishing at sea ("and has not been reported since", in the newspaper parlance of the day).

"Steamships were not competitive in the California coal trade until oil-burning became general in California, and the Panama Canal was completed." (Doug Debs, Trainorders.com, April 29, 2011)


The California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) restored 0-6-0 U.P. 4466 to operation in 1984, per https://www.californiarailroad.museum/assets/carousels/CSRM-Public-Roster-7-19-2016.pdf

At that time, ICC/FRA boiler inspection rules allowed 4 years of operation, plus you could apply for 1-year time extensions. I do not know exactly when the locomotive was taken out of service - probably because the boiler certificate had expired - but certainly by the late 1990s or earlier.

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) boiler inspection rules 49CFR209 and 49CFR230 were significantly changed in 1999: https://railroads.dot.gov/elibrary/inspection-and-maintenance-standards-steam-locomotives.

U.P. 4466's boiler would have to be extensively inspected to comply with the new FRA code. Normally the boiler tubes are removed for inspection. All this can be done, but it takes a lot of labor and money.

- Doug Debs

To elaborate on what Doug Debs 2472 said, we can think of Union Pacific's Los Angles and Salt Lake Route into California as historically an oil field operation first, railroad second. The railroad's claims to the oil wells in the Long Beach area were massive; and in part why they fired their steamers on oil to begin with, it was the cheap and more readily available fuel source in the region.

Thank you all so much for the feedback about the Coal fired engine in California. We have removed the statement from the site until we can confirm with our historian it's accuracy.