92 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



more or less committed to the use of coal as fuel, although under other 

 circumstances, oil would, in some cases, be the most logical fuel. 



How Oil Fuel is used in Locomotives* — ^The use of oil fuel in an engine 

 is very similar in principle to that of a great torch, the flame from which 

 passes through the flues and thus heats the water in the boiler. The 

 btuner, which corresponds to the torch in the above comparison, is 

 situated ia the fire-box. The supply of oil is carried in a tank in the 

 tender and is conveyed to the engine by pipes. The oil in the tank 

 is heated by steam pipes from the boiler, so that it will flow easily through 

 the pipe connection to the biumer. On the way to the bvimer it passes 

 through a superheater, which raises the temperature to approximately 

 200 degrees, so that it is comparatively hot when it mixes withthe steam 

 in the burner. The steam forms the atomizing agent and sprays the 

 oil into the fire-box ia very minute particles. The oil in this condition 

 bums readily, and makes an intensely hot flame. The oil in itself, 

 however, is sluggish and does not bum readily, it being impossible to 

 light it with a match. 



It is necessary to keep the flues clean, as oil deposits a heavy carbon 

 residue. This, however, is very simply and easily done by the use of 

 dry sand. Whenever the engine is wide open and exhausting freely 

 through the stack, so that there is a strong forced draught, a couple 

 of scoops of sand are sprinkled through the opening for that purpose 

 in the fire door. This sand serves to cut the carbon and cleans the InH 

 length of the flues, so that they are kept clean with very little work or 

 expense. 



Southern Pacific the Leader. — ^The first locomotive converted from 

 a coal burner to an oil biuner, in regular service, was on the Southern 

 Pacific, in November, 1900, and a number of comparative tests proved so 

 satisfactory that, in February, 1901, other engines were converted. In 

 about five years all locomotives on the Southern Pacific in California and 

 on the lines extending to El Paso, Texas, were converted to oil bumers.f 



The use of oil fuel by railways has steadily increased until, in the 

 early spring of 19 13, oU-buming locomotives were operated exclusively 

 upon 20,910 mUes of line in the United States, and 587 mUes in Canada, 

 and were operated in conjimction with a proportion of coal-buming 

 locomotives upon 4,720 miles additional in the United States. Thus, 

 in the United States and Canada, oil fuel is in exclusive or partial use 

 upon 26,217 miles of railway line. This is exclusive of portions of the 

 Rock Island, Frisco and Santa Fe systems, where, as above noted 



* Western Lumberman, June, 1912. 



t Railway Age Gazette, March 15, 1912. 



