Jonathan --
A quick perusal of the 1952 list of assignments in Corbin & Kerka (Steam
Locomotives of the Burlington Route) shows mostly coal-fired engines in
both the Denver and Kansas City areas; there were oil burners, but those
were the exceptions.
Engine fuel is a significant cost to RRs and must - for the most part - be
hauled to engine-servicing locations in yards or at strategic points along
the main line. Coal is cheaper to mine and clean than oil is to drill and
refine, but it's also a much less efficient fuel, thus it costs much more
to haul per ton-mile of work it can produce than oil. So it's especially
important to have a good many mines along your railroad, ideally at many
different points. Fortunately, the CB&Q had access to lots of good coal,
especially in southern Illinois, but in many other locations as well.
Colorado, in particular, was a major coal-producing state. So both the
Burlington and the C&S had a plenty of engine fuel there. The area around
Kansas City also had vast deposits of bituminous coal. Central Texas had
significant coal too, but its proven oil reserves were so great that they
rendered coal practically irrelevant. Not surprisingly, the FW&D had
converted all their engines to oil by about the late 20s to early '30s.
Where the CB&Q or C&S converted their engines to oil, it was either because
there was an abundant supply (or a poor supply of coal), or because they
were compelled to do so. In the first category, we may include the Q's
Casper Division in Wyoming, where there was a major oil development around
the 1920s, and all engines assigned to that division were coverted to oil
by the early 1930s. When the O-4 mikados, for instance, were sent west in
the late 1920s to work in Wyoming, the entire class was converted to oil.
So if you are modeling the area around Denver, and you want to run one of
Broadway Ltd.'s new USRA heavy mikes (and they did serve there), you'll
have to make it an oil burner.
In the second category, we have the case of the Black Hills in South
Dakota, where the US Forest Service forced the Burlington to stop burning
coal in order to cut down on the sparking that was causing far too many
forest fires there. All the Q's 2-6-6-2s, as well as their ten-wheelers,
consolidations, and anything else which worked those lines, were converted
to oil by about the end of World War I. When the first generation 2-6-6-2s
(the T-1s) were sent back to Galesburg for hump yard service during the
1920s, they were converted back to coal.
Regarding C&S-FW&D operations, it is true that the FW&D engines did not
commonly run through to Denver. I'm not sure that Texline was always the
changeover point, though. At least I've seen plenty of photos of FW&D
engines as far north as Trinidad, in southern Colorado. And Otto Perry also
has some photos showing FW&D engines in Denver during the 1920s (this
before they were converted to oil burners). It is interesting that the
C&S's premier passenger engines (their clones of the Q's S-3 Pacifics),
were converted to oil relatively early, so that they could run through from
Denver to Casper. I suspect they also wanted them to run through to Texas
sometimes, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of the FW&D's comparable
engines hauled passenger trains all the way to Denver -- but I have no
proof.
What we do know is that the C&S sent several of its 2-10-2s to Texas to
work on the FW&D during the mid-1950s and converted them to burn oil for
that purpose. When they were returned to the C&S, they remained oil burners
for the rest of their service. Challenger's forthcoming models portray C&S
902 and 903 after this conversion, so strictly speaking they are really
only correct for about 1957-59. I model the Lines West myself, but that's a
little too late for me, so I decided to opt for one of Challenger's CB&Q
coal burning 2-10-2s instead of a C&S one. The production sample photos
look like they all will be absolutely beautiful models, though.
Good luck,
Jonathan
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs from home.
Over 14,500 titles. Free Shipping
& No Late Fees. Try Netflix for FREE!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/I3w.vC/hP.FAA/3jkFAA/8ZCslB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|