In my experience, the oil burner occasionally needs to be cleaned as described by Ted. In SVRy # 19 the carbon buildup is on the firewall, which is the brick structure against the inside of the door sheet. This build up is a hard material of carbon and other compounds, which has the shape of a cone, and can be 3" to 6" thick. It is refered to as "bone". It can only be removed when the fire is out, and the firebox is cool enough to go inside with a chisel and hammer. One has to be careful to clean only the deposited material and not disturb or damage the bricks. Also periodically a lighter whitesh deposit is cleaned off the side sheets and crown sheet closest to the door sheet. This can be easily scrapped off with the chisel and/or a wire brush.
Unwanted materials and sand deposits are swept out through the forward damper opening, or scooped into a bucket and brought out through the door. SVRy # 19 has an oil drip pan mounted below the damper opening, so removing the materials with a bucket is the prefered method.
While the Hostler is in the firebox, he will also look for leaks around the flues and staybolts. He will also check for cracked or loose bricks and report his finding to the CMO.
J.B. has more experience than I on the wood burner. Pine leaves little ash and fir leaves hardly any, but we seldom get fir to burn. The pans are so seldom cleaned, I have never had the priviledge of doing it. The stack on # 3 Heisler has two ports near the bottom that need to be cleaned out before firing up each day, and the smokebox needs to be opened up and unburned carbon cinders and ash needs to also be cleaned out.
Hope this helps Kevin.
dan
