Differences Between Coal-Burning Steamers and Oil-Burning Steamers

1. Coal can be stored outdoors for a long period of time, can still be used later, and produces lots of energy. Whereas, oil must be stored in a safe-holding container and not exposed to extremely low temperatures or other combustable hazards.
2. Coal-firing is planning ahead, building up a big fire for climbing a grade, and then maintaining it. You don't need to make any split-second decisions. With oil-firing, on the other hand, whenever the engineer makes a change, the fireman must make a change too.
3. Oil burners have a burner that sprays out oil and an atomizer to control the spray while coal burners do not require their fuel source to be prepared in any way before being added to the fire.
4. If your mechanical coal stoker breaks down, you can hand-fire the locomotive and limp it to a safe location. You cannot hand-fire oil this way if problems occur in the fuel delivery system.
5. You can get more heat energy out of burning coal than you do with oil.
6. Unlike coal, when burned, oil does not produce a huge amount of cinders and sparks from the exhaust, which is safer if you are using cars made out of wood or transporting cattle.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2022 09:22AM by Andrewl1995.