john creasing Wrote:
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> A few things regarding the Canyon. The steamers
> threw oil everywhere where as the diesels did not
> (sealed roller bearings on alco's and well sealed
> bath lube on f40's), crater is another story.
> However, for the last two years they ran steam
> they were using biodegradable animal fat based
> bio-oils for everything but the cylinder oil. The
> cylinder oil (though petroleum based) renders
> itself well to hydrocarbons decomposing in the sun
> light VERY quickly as it comes out atomized. That
> is it is broken down into VERY small particles
> that the sun will quickly attack.
>
> The "conversion" to burn veg should not be that
> extensive. In fact, all they HAVE to do is clean
> out the tank, fuel lines and replace every bronze
> component. See, the bronze does a pretty good job
> of absorbing the petroleum fuel oil(very porous),
> once WVO starts flowing past it a "film" begins to
> grow and continues to build and will cause
> problems. If they are wise they will put something
> better than a drooler burner in the thing. The
> burners referred to in the trains article a few
> years ago actually burned more fuel than a drooler
> regardless of the propaganda that stated
> otherwise.
>
> The work the locomotive is getting is likely more
> that of fixing the issues resulting from an
> improper conversion to oil lubrication on the main
> journals. Bronze other than that speced for crown
> brasses and a failure to line the brass with tin
> as is required on high speed high axle loading
> locomotives. For comparison, Flagg Coal could use
> straight crown brass bronze with now tin as it is
> slow and lite.
>
> The 4960 had almost 1/4 million dollars put into
> it in the course of the "oil conversion" on the
> journals. It failed repeatedly, first because
> militec was added to the bio-oil which broke down
> the animal fats and rendered the oil useless.
> Then, the failures continued, ultimately Xanterra
> was told it was going to be over $125,000 to make
> the 4960 right again. I don't know if they have a
> proper repair plan at this point or not but I
> would put money on the idea that these are the
> issues they are dealing with more so than anything
> that needs to be done to make the engine burn
> WVO.
>
> You want to know why Xanterra (yes xanterra not
> the current owner, steam was killed 3+ months
> before the sale took place) killed steam? Read the
> previous paragraph, the steam side of the railroad
> began deteriorating mechanically from the time
> Robert Franzen left.
So if I'm reading it right the reason they stopped steam service is because they were trying to make the locomotives too efficient?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2021 07:22AM by michael.
