CBS news story about Grand Canyon Railroad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=souAHFjzjdE
Sand added to fire box to make smoke .....
Steve
Well, CBS has at last caught on to the Grand Canyon Railway's operation of a steam engine that burns used cooking oil. Incidentally, there is more than just this train that runs between Williams and Grand Canyon; the others have diesel engines..
Throwing sand into the firebox does not make smoke; smoke is made all the time that the oil is burning. However, the combustion is almost complete, so there is little, if any, color to the smoke--until sand is thrown into the firebox to scour the flues so that the soot that does collect in the flues is removed, and then the black soot comes out in the smoke. Any oil-burning steam engine had soot deposited in the flues, and a supply of sand was kept in the cab so that the flues could be kept from being choked up with the soot.
The Santa Fe ETT with this line in it had the direction telling the crews that the train will turn and back into Grand Canyon. Many years ago, a reader of Trains noted this and declared that he would not ride this train, apparently thinking that the direction was to back into the Grand Canyon.
Johnny
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