I have visited a lot of oil-burning steam operations in the US, and virtually all of them were burning waste motor oil....basically a by-product of Jiffy Lube and other similar operations. The exceptions would be the Grand Canyon Railway, where as noted in a previous post, they are using some sort of blend with vegetable oil, and the White Pass and Yukon, where as of my last visit in 2011, they were still burning Bunker C. I have photos of myself during the rotary operation in which I was pretty well spotted up with the black stuff. I think the waste oil is much cleaner, although the BTU value may be lower.
Thanks for the photos of 493, Jerry! The D&S folks appear to be rolling right along with the re-build.....which in this case, really is a re-build, not just a 1,472 SDI. The great thing about this is that the D&S shop is one of the few in the country that is pretty much equipped to do most if not all of the work themselves. I have little doubt that we'll be doubling the roster of running K-37s to two by next summer. I really hope it works out for them. I think it will reduce the fire hazard area significantly around the ROW.
/Kevin Madore
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2018 02:55PM by KevinM.