100 Octane Wood, Sagebrush and outhouses

Hi Ted,
We use wood that comes from the local Durango area. Usually, our pilot (an interesting railroad term in a thread dealing with airplanes) with the railroad arranges for the supply. In the last several years the wood has been superior. We often call it Atomic wood.
The wood used is mostly split logs about 18 Inches long. These catch fire more quickly than round ones. However, in certain desperate and trying circumstances.....such as when the fuel is death wood (really green stuff that will put out a fire rather than make one), we have been known to break out the chain saw from the caboose and attack some nearby dead tree. However, there have been times when we pulled up old flat car decks, sagebrush, scrap lumber, or anything that would burn, that we could use to get us home.
I remember one time north of Needleton we had some really lousy wood and had to stop. We found some large scrap boards along right of way. The passengers were hanging out of the windows wondering why we were stopped. One of the crew cracked that we were going to cut up General Palmers old outhouse for fuel. To my astonishment, some passengers thought we were about to cut up a historic artifact! God help us if we ever have some tree hugger on board.
Dan Markoff