The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-08
O%IL-BURNING LOCOMOTIVES.
Boston a Names Newly Equipped En-
CINE for Use in HOosac Tunnel.

Keene On. H. Sentinel.
The Boston & Maine roads Vauclain
compound consolidation freight engine,
which has just been equipped at Keene, N.
H., with appliances for burning petroleum
as fuel, has been given some further tests
with quite satisfactory results and has
been sent to the Hoosac tunnel for regular
work. If the engine proves satisfactory
there other oil burners will be equipped to
haul trains through the big bore" The
alterations required to transform an ordi-
nary locomotive built to burn bituminous
coal into an oll-burner are much less COM
plicated than would at first seem probable.
Engine 1915 simply has q different frebox
lining. a CRATE with one or more compare
lively small air apertures, an oil tank with
s-team-heating coil and a burner with the
with oil and steam.
The oil tank holds $50 gallons Of petro-
leum and occupies the ordinary central
coal space in the tender. With this GUAM
uty OF oil the engine will probably make a
trip of fifty or seventy-fve miles with a
full load. Tests have not yet determined
the approximate quantity per mile used on
this engine. The oil burned looks like a
thin lubricating oil of a yellowish cast. It's
specific gravity is 7S-1O0ths, or SO degrees,
Baume's scale. A slight air pressure is
carried on the oil tank 10 maintain a con-
slant How TO the burner, and by means of a
steam coil the oil is kept warm in cold
weather. a float Indicator and dial indi-
cate the quantit OF oil in the tank at all
times and a guage shows the air pressure.
A safety valve set at about ten pounds is
provided. Pipes controlled bv globe valves
on the freman's side of the cab lead to the
oil burner in the locomotive frebox.
The burner is a small affair made of brass
and placed in the back of the fire box below
the door. 1t has a central steam space con-
Meeting with a steam pipe from the boiler,
said space having a slOt-shaped opening
two inches wide by one-sixteenth of an inch,
and pointing when placed in position toward
the fue sheet. Above and below the steam
slot Of the burner are similar apertures
connecting with the oil SUNNY mines a
blast Of steam is turned on. oil is admitted
10 the burner from the tank, and as the
steam escapes the oil mingles with IL. The
resulting spray or steam and oil is highly
inhammable and bursts into a mass of
flame of high intensity. which fills the fire
box. The forward end and sides Of the fire
lined with fire brick, which become white
hot and aid combustion. There Is also an
ordinary FIRE brick arch near the fue sheet
with a combustion chamber beyond II A
small round opening I'm the burner provides
a pilot flame for use when the engine is not
at work. and the intensity OF the main
flame may be gagged by controlling valves
from Q 10 Its maximum intensity.
Engine 1915 steams very freely with the
new fuel and makes no smoke and very lit
tie Odor. The ordinary n~ettings in the smoke
box beneath the stack are removed. a sim
pie petticOat pipe directing the blast of the
exhaust through the funnel. Smoke. Gin
ders and Objectionable gases seem TO be en-
tirely eliminated. and II now looks as if OIL
burning engines would almost entirely re-
move the smoke ane gas. which have thus
far been a serious drawback to the opera
tion OF the Hoosac tunnel. where something
like one hundred nurse power is consumed
In operating vent'lating fans. In spite nt
these appliances engineers. hremen and
wOrkmen are frequently overcome by the
gas from the cotl-burning engines. while
coke burners make a still more dangerous
aud sudocating gas