SperandeoHere's what I recall of "bare-bones" engine servicing on a Louisiana sugar-cane railroad. The engine being serviced was a narrow gauge 0-6-2T built by the H.K. Porter works in New Jersey.• Coal – hand-shoveled onto the engine from an elevated stage about the same height as the cab deck. The fireman or hostler doing the servicing set the larger lumps on top of the water tank that surrounded the coal bunker so he could break them up with a ball-peen hammer. I don't remember where the coal came from, but the sugar mill shipped its product on the Missouri Pacific, so a standard gauge railroad wasn't far away.• Water – came from a sort of a standpipe, but not one of the big 10-inch columns you'd expect to see on a mainline railroad. This was a 2-inch pipe at most, and it was strapped to a wooden post for stability. There wasn't a water tank especially for the railroad, but the nearby sugar mill had a big elevated tank.• Sand – carried onto the engine in about a five-gallon pail, probably not completely full. The fireman/hostler leaned a ladder against the boiler so he could climb to the sandbox more easily. The sand was stored in bags in a wooden shack.• Ashes (yes, you have to get rid of them) – dumped between the rails, not into a pit but onto sheets of iron that protected the ties from charring or worse. I don't remember how they disposed of the ashes, but there were shovels and wheelbarrows in the vicinity.So long,Andy
Here's what I recall of "bare-bones" engine servicing on a Louisiana sugar-cane railroad. The engine being serviced was a narrow gauge 0-6-2T built by the H.K. Porter works in New Jersey.
• Coal – hand-shoveled onto the engine from an elevated stage about the same height as the cab deck. The fireman or hostler doing the servicing set the larger lumps on top of the water tank that surrounded the coal bunker so he could break them up with a ball-peen hammer. I don't remember where the coal came from, but the sugar mill shipped its product on the Missouri Pacific, so a standard gauge railroad wasn't far away.
• Water – came from a sort of a standpipe, but not one of the big 10-inch columns you'd expect to see on a mainline railroad. This was a 2-inch pipe at most, and it was strapped to a wooden post for stability. There wasn't a water tank especially for the railroad, but the nearby sugar mill had a big elevated tank.
• Sand – carried onto the engine in about a five-gallon pail, probably not completely full. The fireman/hostler leaned a ladder against the boiler so he could climb to the sandbox more easily. The sand was stored in bags in a wooden shack.
• Ashes (yes, you have to get rid of them) – dumped between the rails, not into a pit but onto sheets of iron that protected the ties from charring or worse. I don't remember how they disposed of the ashes, but there were shovels and wheelbarrows in the vicinity.So long,
Andy
This water tank represented the entire engine service facility on SP's 30-mile-long San Ramon Branch. Oh, and once the branchline was dieselized, the tank was taken down. That can be an advantage in modeling a branchline: engine service facilities aren't necessarily required to be prototypical. Can't get much more bare bones than that, no?
Branchline locomotives were serviced and originated in Oakland and Port Costa.
(Besides the tank, the tracks, combination depot, and the wood-framed, metal-sheathed feed-mill/building-material structure in the background are long gone. In the 1960s I bought a sack of plaster for my layout's scenery from that background building. The location is now an "auto row." That surely increased the town's sales tax revenue.)
markpierceWell, not quite bare bones, my engine service semi-diorama includes fuel oil from raised tank for steam locomotives, gasoline or diesel fuel from a half-buried tank, a primitive sanding facility, a small warehouse, and out-of-the-picture to the right, a small rectangular water tower. Mark
Well, not quite bare bones, my engine service semi-diorama includes fuel oil from raised tank for steam locomotives, gasoline or diesel fuel from a half-buried tank, a primitive sanding facility, a small warehouse, and out-of-the-picture to the right, a small rectangular water tower.
Mark
Very, very nice engine service scene. You probably took this into account, but many others may not realize that the primary fuel oil used in steam engines was the thick-as-molasses Bunker 6 stuff left over from producing gasoline and lighter stuff at the refineries. In all but the warmest climates, heat would be needed to get the stuff to flow at a reasonable rate.
just my thoughts
Fred W
fwright nice engine service scene. You probably took this into account, but many others may not realize that the primary fuel oil used in steam engines was the thick-as-molasses Bunker 6 stuff left over from producing gasoline and lighter stuff at the refineries. In all but the warmest climates, heat would be needed to get the stuff to flow at a reasonable rate.
nice engine service scene. You probably took this into account, but many others may not realize that the primary fuel oil used in steam engines was the thick-as-molasses Bunker 6 stuff left over from producing gasoline and lighter stuff at the refineries. In all but the warmest climates, heat would be needed to get the stuff to flow at a reasonable rate.
You're right, Fred. To correct this, I'd place a boiler facility in one of the two garage stalls located behind the warehouse, add a smoke stack there, and piping to the tank site to carry steam heat to the storage tank and to any tank car delivering the heavy fuel. Or simpler yet, assume there is a small boiler in the sand house and run piping from there.
By the way, the one time (2002) I was present when an oil-fired locomotive was refueled, recycled engine oil was the fuel being loaded.