The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-10-06
OIL AS A FUEL
DRIVES OLli coal

| OAKLAND, Cal, Sept 27.-Oil as
fuel has proved such success ON al
the lines of the Southern Pacific that
| general orders have been issued for the
! conversion of all the engines into oil
burners as soon as possible. Coal will
be abandoned absolutely. Within a
! year the Southern Pacific will be on an
/ oil basis solely
The order win affect all the divisions
of the company. The local division
| generally known as the Western, is in
the lead in the number of oil-burning
engines. The Sacramento division
comes next and the Los Angeles divi-
sion third. All of the divisions are US
ing oil for about one-third of the traf-
fc
The local division now has sixty
three oil-burning engines. There re-
main eighty-three yet to be converted.
1t is estimated that within eight
months all of the engines will have
been converted and the use of coal on
the Western division permanently a
bandoned. During the month just pass
ed the oil-burners on the local divi-
sion travelled distance of approx
mately 100000 miles. The coal-burning
track The grand total travelled by all
engines passed over SO6,752 miles of
engines is 5O6,752 miles.
These figures do not include the Sac
ralnento and Los Angeles divisions.
During a corresponding month last
year the mileage was a little over $780,
coo. The gain of this year over last
is something over $4,000 miles per
month, which is fairly accurate index
to the increase of business. 1t requires
on an average 1000 gallons or about
twenty-four barrels of oil for every 100
miles as compared to five tons of coal.
The saving on every hundred miles by
using oil ranges from SIC to $40. The
total saving for the 900 miles trav-
elled by oil-burning engines represents
from $4,000 to $4,000 per month.
The company has expended upwards
of S., 000, 900 for oil. The investment is
a good one, however, the saving effect
ed will have paid for the enormous ex-
penditure long before all the engines
have been converted into oil-burners.
On the Western division alone the saw
ing per month when all the engines
have been converted will approximate
$75, 600 When the other coast divisions
use oil exclusively the total sum saved
will be upwards of $1,000 per month
The company's profit on oil is lessen
ed by the fact that when oil was hrst
introduced as fuel the company entered
into q number of contracts at twenty
FIVE cents and fifty cents a barrel. Since
the contracts We're signed, oil has fall
en- to as low as 20 and 25 cents
barrel Thus on much of the oil used
the company is paying from twenty
five to fifty cents more per barrel than
the market price. Notwithstanding TINS
fact the enormous saving arising from
the use of oil is sufficient almost at the
present time to provide a million in
dividends annually To the saving Ell
fected by the use of oil in locomotives
must be added the saving arising from
the oil-burning passenger and freight
boats The opinion of those best in
formed is that it will take ten months
and possibly year for all the locomo-
tives on the Pacific Coast to abandon
coal All the engines which go into the
repair shops at Sacramento, Los An
geles or Oakland, come out as oir-burn-
ers There are very close to $50 OIL
burners in use on the three divisions.
a