Just saw last night a show on pbs about an excursion train. The locomotive
burns a mixture of diesel fuel and used motor oil. the used motor oil gives
them a constant plume of smoke. And for those of you in other countries,
many steam locomotives were converted or built originally to run on liquid
fuel (the only ones that kept with coal were railroads with on line coal
mines). The fuel was referred to as bunker (insert grade letter A through
yuk) oil. It came from refineries, where it resides on the list of what you
get from crude between diesel fuel/kerosene and asphalt. Nasty stuff, often
steam pipes were run the the oil tank in the tender to keep it flowing
during cold.
But remember, most smoke is the result of a lazy or incompetent fireman.
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Fildes
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2013 12:16 AM
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] Steam trains running this summer
The local tourist railway that runs through my back yard deliberately burns
lower grade coal to get a good plume for the punters. We're on a slight
uphill section for downline and so the outbound services put out a fair
amount of smut and cinder. It's a source of some annoyance, especially in
the bushfire season. There have been words exchanged.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
Author/Publisher: The SLR Compendium - http://www.blurb.com/books/3732813
On 12/07/2013, at 3:18 AM, Paul Braun wrote:
>
> The funny thing is that the photographer-friendly plume of smoke and steam
> is really the by-product of a poorly-running engine... when things are
> burning properly and cleanly, you barely see anything coming out of the
> stack. They just pump extra steam into the smokebox so you get a heavy,
> opaque mixture of steam, exhaust and ash that looks pretty for photos, but
> is terribly inefficient.
--
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