Quote
Joe:
From what I can tell, Oregon has made coal fire illegal so the present-day Sumpter Valley Operations are forced to fuel #19 with oil which is A-OK with me. In my post above, I was simply stating my opinion and I'm not trying to prove a point. I get that not all locomotives can't use their original fuel source like Sumpter Valley but I can not agree if someone is converting a locomotive to burn oil for the hell of it especially if coal fire is legal in the state/area they are in.
Hi Joe. I should start off that say you are of course welcome to an opinion. I just thought it was a little "extreme" since I can never thing of a good reason to scrap any locomotive. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. However, I would
agree 100% that changing any historical item "just for the hell of it" with no viable reason would be a poor choice in my opinion if historical preservation is your goal. But I would rather see the D&RGW 340 and the RGS 41 burning oil then see them scrapped.
As for the SVRR, I can tell you that the #19 burned mostly wood mixed with some coal back in the day and since the other engine running on the SVRR still burns wood today, I can tell you that Oregon wouldn't have had a problem if the 19 burned wood/coal today.....most of the time. So, back in 1996 when the 19 was rebuilt, the SVRR was not
forced to use oil. It was a choice, mostly driven by the ease of firing and the fact that she was already converted to oil by the WP&Y and the guy leading the restoration was much more familiar with oil.
Was it a good decision? Well, there are different opinions about that. Some people are rather disappointed that the 19 was restored with very little effort to make her look "correct" as an historic SVRy engine (Pix below). Today she looks very different then she did on the old SVRy.
However, the 19 WAS restored and operates today. And she is much easier to handle as an oil burner since the SVRR volunteers continue to age and the SVRR can continue operations when its a hot dry summer in the Sumpter Valley. I personally may be disappointed that she looks like every other 1940s locomotive around and not like the "unique" SVRy locomotives of the past, but she is running and maybe someday she will look like she should (not likely). However if she was cut up, then there would never be that chance.