Bill: Sorry it took me so long to get around to your questions. First, the earliest Q conversion to oil were in 1912, under the federal mandate that locomotives operating in U.S. Forest Reserves (later National Forests) burn oil or be equipped with spark arrestors that could be proved to stop ALL sparks from escaping up the stack. Then in the 1906-17 period, a number of Casper Division locomotives were converted to utilize oil from the Salt Creek field north of Casper. The C&S also converted a substantial number of locomotives to burn Wyoming oil during 1916-17, but converted them back to coal after the war when coal shortages ended. The C&S, however, had first converted at least two narrow gauge 2-6-0s (engines 6 and 7) to oil-burners in spring 1902 under a plan that would have seen all the narrow gauge passenger power switched over to oil during the tourist season then changed back to coal during fall and winter. A contract was signed for delivery of oil from the Spindletop field at Beaumont, Tex., and a dozen tank cars were purchased to transport the oil. But overproduction of the Spindletop field and its subsequent failure put an end to the plan by the start of 1903. The Q converted a number of locomotives to oil in the 1920s and made the Casper Division 100% oil-burning, followed in the 1930s by the Sterling Division. More conversions were done in the mid-1930s, the mid-1940s and the early 1950s. But no new locomotive were ever purchased by the Q as oil-burners. The FW&D, however, did purchase 2-8-2s as oil-burners. And somewhat surprising is how many C&S locomotives were converted from coal to oil, back to coal and then back to oil over a period of about 20 years. The conversion process was easy, and it was done as the price of coal and oil fluctuated and made one a better value than the other for a time. There was never a shortage of good steam coal out west, including the lignite or sub-bituminous that the Q learned to burn so efficiently. On the C&S the Southern Colorado fields were nowhere near depleted when the switch to diesels was undertaken. Hol
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 16:52:28 -0600 Subject: [CBQ] Re: Oil Burning Steam Locomotives on the Q
Hol,
This discussion about leased power and, in directly, about oil burning locomotives brings up several questions that I have had for some time. First, when did the Q start converting locomotives to oil fuel? I know that the USRA O-4 mikes were converted some time in the 1920's. Second question: did the Q ever purchase a new steam locomotive originally equipped for burning oil? Third, did the C&S and the FW&D use oil for fuel before the Q or did all three make the decision about the same time. I would assume that the oil conversion decision would have been made in Chicago. Finally, was the decision to convert to oil on the west end of the RR due to a lack of good coal in that region of the RR or a lack of supply?
Bill Barber Gravois Mills, MO Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:18 am (PST) . Posted by:I'm finally getting back to this topic, and I'll start off with the four R-4-A and R-5-A Prairies that were leased to the Texas subsidiaries in the late 1920s and 1930s. First was R-4-A 2015, leased to the FW&D along with S-2-A Pacific 2900 in 1929, then replaced by the 2005 in 1930 or '31. By the end of 1931 the 2005 was back on the Q, and that ended the brief use of 2-6-2s by the Denver. Then in 1933 the Burlington-Rock Island, which had been created from the bankrupt Trinity & Brazos Valley in 1930, leased R-5-A 2189 but soon returned it and replaced it with the Four Deuces -- R-5-A 2222. The 2222 would remain in south Texas until the summer of 1938 and would be joined there by the returning 2189 in early 1935, that engine staying in Texas through the end of 1939.
I have no idea where the FW&D used its two Prairies, but the B-RI used its pair primarily on local freights between Teague and Houston and between Houston and Galveston over the Santa Fe trackage rights it utilized, servicing the locomotives at the Southern Pacific (T&NO) roundhouse on Galveston island. (The Houston Belt & Terminal roundhouse was used in Houston and the former T&BV roundhouse at Teague.)
All four of these Prairies were oil-burners, converted by the Q for service on the Casper and Sterling divisions, which were 100% oil-burning by 1930.
I've found no shots of the two R-4-As leased to the Denver, but there are a good many shots of the 2189 and 2222 on the B-RI.
Hol
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Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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