Where did wood-fired locomotives go to get fuel?

[Model Railroad Fan 22]

I've long been wondering how fueling up wood-fired locomotives worked.  Where did they go?  And what did these places look like?  Any photos would be appreciated.

[NorthWest]

Usually the locomotives simply pulled up next to a big stack of wood and laborers hand loaded it. Labor was cheap in the era of wood burners and speed was not as much of a concern.

[rcdrye]

A lot of railroads built "wooding" platforms that were sort of like short high-level platforms with wood bins so that heaving wood into the wood bunker was less work than loading it from ground level.  Still, "wooding" involved lots of sweat.

[Firelock76]

And back in the wood burning days wood was plentiful and inexpensive.  Farmers clearing land found the new railroads a ready market for all the timber they had to get rid of.

[gregc]

Firelock76

And back in the wood burning days wood was plentiful and inexpensive.  Farmers clearing land found the new railroads a ready market for all the timber they had to get rid of.

in those days, didn't everyone need wood to heat their homes in winter and for cooking?    and wasn't lumber needed for building contruction?

I had the impression that the railroads had some problems finding a steady source of wood.

My uncle told me that wood from old buildings being torn down was brought to engine terminals becauses it was always be needed to refire locomotives that burned coal and was in big demand after a strike when all locomotives might go cold.

[K4sPRR]

Demand for wood during the mid to later 1800's required railroads to contract individuals to supply wood.  For example, in the area of Portage Pennsylvania, an area on the west slope of The Mountain, there were 23 operating saw mills just to keep with up with the demand for wood due to growing housing demand, heat/cooking and a growing coal mining industry.  The PRR contracted John Martin to supply wood for them from his lumber mill so they would not have supply issues. 

[Firelock76]

In the early railroad years wood for fuel certainly wasn't a problem, but as the 19th Century wore on and the demand for wood for building, home heating, manufacturing, and export grew it certainly did become a problem.  It was just about that time (around or just after the Civil War) that bituminous coal was discovered in quantity and found to be an excellent locomotive fuel.   Anthracite coal had been tried earlier in the railroad era and found wanting. It's turn would come later.

A personal observation:  Exploring the Civil War battlefields around the Richmond VA area, I was amazed by the amount of surviving earthworks found in the woods. "Gee," I said to myself, "It must have been rough digging those trenches with all those trees in the way!"  And then it hit me, when those earthworks were dug those trees weren't there!  The whole area had been deforested for farm clearing, fuel, and building material.  What I was seeing was the second and third growth trees that had grown up in the ensuing years.

 

[ndbprr]

I take issue with two statements
First, railroads were at the forefront of technology during wood burning years as far as speed and comfort. The other choices were horseback or stagecoach so they didn't travel at a relaced pace. Secondly the answers assume a readily available local source of wood to restock the train. Wood would have been a luxury west of Omaha to the rockies
In all probability the UP dispatched wood and possibly water trains to replenish wood piles and water at refueling locations.

[rcdrye]

Anyone who burns wood knows that you don't just cut it down and throw it in the stove.  Railroads either bought wood from suppliers who seasoned it at least a year before delivery or bought it and seasoned it themselves.  Wood was counted as a monetary asset, with the value reported to stockholders and railroad commissions.  There are photos and records of woodlots with thousands of cords.  As ndbprr pointed out, the wood was often transported to "wooding" stations by the trainload.  Water was locally sourced, if at all possible.  The classic storage tank allowed collection of water from a small-output stream or spring so that a locomotive tank could be quickly filled.  Windmills served to pump wells.

[SD70M-2Dude]

rcdrye

Anyone who burns wood knows that you don't just cut it down and throw it in the stove.

Some pioneer railroads did just that, or tried to.  The result on at least one line that tried using fresh, locally-plentiful green poplar was that the locomotive would literally run out of steam enroute because the stuff wouldn't burn hot enough for the boiler to keep up.

Also if a train were to run out of wood enroute (not a rare situation in those early years) the crew might "borrow" some from whatever farm happened to be closest.

[wjstix]

The engine would pull up to a "wood rick", basically like a wood loading platform, sometimes with a roof over it. Wood would be stacked there, and then an engine could pull up and the tender would be hand-loaded. Remember these were small engines and tenders, and they could only go a short distance before needing to stop for lubrication so loading enough wood to get to the next wood rick wasn't that time consuming.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/464-27801

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/464-27800

 

[Firelock76]

I see Walther's played it safe and called it the "War Between The States."

No point in offending anyone above or below the Mason-Dixon line.

[wjstix]

Firelock76

I see Walther's played it safe and called it the "War Between The States."

No point in offending anyone above or below the Mason-Dixon line.

 

That's what the manufacturer (B.T.S.) calls the series, not Walthers. They also have a "Best of the West" series.

[NDG]

There is lots of land out there with nary a tree upon it.

 

Thank You.

[NDG]

FYI,

Account severe fire hazard on Kootenay Central, Spark Arrester stacks were applied to coal-fired engines during hot months c. 1930.

http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/uploads/r/null/1/4/1420008/5b0c2515-3f90-48cc-89f8-a555cfd5745b-A02071.jpg

Thank You.

[NDG]

 

There is another photo in a book of a distant shot of a CP locomotive w/Spark Arrester Stack, too far away to see number, and yet another view of a TRUE CP 0-6-0 derailed in another mill, D-Valves rather than Piston, this one with plain stack.

All For Now.

Thank You.

[Firelock76]

I mentioned anthracite coal in a earlier post.  I recently read a book about the Paterson and Hudson River Railroad, founded in  1831 and absorbed into the Erie later on.  The P&HR ran some "Grasshopper" locomotives in the 1830's that burned anthracite, and burned it quite well, the "Grasshopper" type having a vertical boiler (think "Tom Thumb") with a wide firebox at the bottom.

However, the "Grasshoppers" were very unpopular with the men that had to run them, and at any rate were a dead-end as far as locomotive evolution was concerned, so they didn't last very long.  The P&HR's conventional locomotives were wood burners.