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Leo et al...One good anecdote deserves another...Deserved or not...here one comes. When the passenger yard around what now is known as "Lincoln Station"...previously the Burlington Passenger Depot was put up for sale for development the Burlington was required to "disinfect" the land and environs. During this process it was discovered that there was a huge "plume" of diesel fuel under the ground as well as other assorted contaminents one would expect to find around a railroad terminal facility.
To correct this conditiont required hundreds of thousands of tons of soil to be hauled away and "cleaned" I think by some steam process and then returned. When this started there were lots of newspaper articles and opinions expressed about the "contamination" and how it could have occurred.
Many of us who "have been young a long time" had some good laughs remembering how thin;gs were when diesel fuel cost 5 cents or so a gallon and fuel costs were not a consideration for anybody. Leo's comment regarding an "overflow tank" pale in regard with what I used to see at the fuel racks at each end of the depot platforms.
For example: Train No. 19 would arrive westbound around 11:30pm. Usually two units would be the power. The units would stop at the west end of the platform at the fuel rack. The roundhouse laborer would put the fuel hose on the tank...turn on the pump and then go about his other chores ie turning the water hose on the windshield, checking the boiler water and whatever else he had to do.
Meanwhile the fuel tank would fill up and diesel fuel would spill and gush out Niagra Falls like around the filler hose and any other opening it could seek out...forming "puddles" ....actually more like lakes between the tracks and the tracks and platforms. Eventually the laborer would stroll back to the hose and shut the flow off. Probably, by that time 50 or more gallons would have accumulated and be in the process of soaking into the ground.
Multiply the above procedure by 15-20 times each day....It takes little imagination to see why there was a "plume" of underground diesel fuel ...to say nothing of lube oil..detergent used for cleaning accumulated over 50-60 years.
Conclusion of the matter is that over this entire area now is built an "entertainment district" known as THE RAILYARD comprised of "nightclubs"..one of which is named...get ready for it...."RULE G", hotels, restaurants, and even a huge "arena" used for concerts,basketball games and other enterprises you would expect in this situation. Other than the "Canopy" which covered the platform area between tracks 1 and 2 and the station itself on the east side, you would never suspect that there was ever a railroad presence there.
Only those of us who remember how it was "back in the day" know what's underneath it all.
Just think...all of this "conversation" sparked by comments regarding diesel engine heaters.
It was Mark Twain who once said. "I continue to be amazed at how much information can be obtained which such a small investment of fact.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: qutlx1@aol.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thu, Jul 2, 2015 8:24 am Subject: Re: [CBQ] CB&Q Overnight Heaters
As explained on the hot start site these systems save idling and its fuel costs. In my experience back on the Q and early BN,fuel costs were not as critical. The site glasses for fuel level became very difficult to read as the units aged. One gentlemen I knew used a simply method to make sure a unit was full. When the diesel fuel began running out the overflow the tank was full and it was time to shut off the pump.
The main fear was dead batteries and the related inability to restart the unit.
Leo On Jul 1, 2015, at 8:16 PM, ' sartherdj@aol.com' sartherdj@aol.com [CBQ] < CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
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