Re: C&S 70 Oil burner & Boiler Explosion

C&S 70 was an oil burner from 1931 until the end of operations on the C&S narrow gauge out of Denver. In 1942 it went to the US Army for use on the White Pass & Yukno, and apparently burned coal there, as did all the WP&Y locomotives at that time.
According to Burlington Bulletin No. 41 the C&S leased CB&Q 537 in 1930 when the CB&Q abandoned its narrow gauge in the Black Hills of SD. No. 537 had been converted from coal to oil firing between 1914 and 1918. The locomotive was re-converted to burn coal before it went into service on the C&S. In 1931 the C&S decided to experiment with oil firing on the Clear Creek line, and converted No. 70. The conversion of an oil tender for 70 was done under AFE No. 8880, converting CB&Q 537's tender back to oil (replaceing the bunker, which had been stored at the CB&Q Havelock shops), and using it behind No. 70. Then a different tender was placed behind CB&Q 537, which burned coal until retired and cut up.
So the boiler explosion in 1936 was after the 70 was converted to oil firing.
Charlie Mutschler
-30-