Some time back there was a thread on tender swapping on the SVRy Mikes and on the various stacks seen on 19 and 20. This post relates to a comment by our operations mgr. Jerry Huck that 19 and 20 appear in a few old pictures with straight stacks like they have today, rather than the short diamond stacks shown in the builders photos, or the Rushton spark arrestor stacks seen in most photos. I found the answer to "why the straight stacks" back before they were converted to oil burning up on the White Pass.
Our carman Jim Grigsby and I were admiring 19 Sunday as it backed down the west leg of the Y at the end of the day. The breeze was blowing a little smoke our direction. Jim is a wood burning Heisler man and made some remark about the odor of the smoke from oil burning. I commented that after my trip this summer to the C&TS that I'd like to see them burning coal like they did on the White Pass for a while. Jim has been around the organization for years and was aquainted with Floyd Carpenter the last SVRy General Superintendent before abandonment and also son of U.S. Carpenter who was an engineer for the old SVRy for years. Jim said that Floyd said that 19 and 20 were ordered equiped for burning coal or wood. They came from Alco with both the straight stack and the short diamond stack. Duing the winter monthes when dry wood was hard to come by, the RR burned coal in 19 and 20. They would use the straight stacks at this time when fire hazard was not an issue, switching to the diamond stacks and later the Ruston stacks when burning wood in the Summer. He said they would sometimes fill the coal space in the tender with coal and also pile wood on the tender deck using the coal to help keep the wet wood burning. Sounds like a fireman's nightmare.
